romantically involved with him." She peered at Maggie curi-
ously. "You're not are you? I mean, he's awfully nice, and
rather good-looking too."
She rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous, Mom. Why is
it that everyone assumes if I spend any time with a man that
I must be romantically involved with him?"
"Well, you just never know." Then taking on a teasing
tone, Audrey continued, "And you must admit, you've been
seen with a number of attractive men lately. I'm sure it's just
a matter of time until you'll have all of Pine Mountain
atwitter."
Maggie laughed. "And what would be new about that?"
Leah came home late. She'd been helping Jed to Organize
some things for his trade show next week. "Michael's going
to drive up to Seattle with him," said Leah as she ate from
the plate of leftovers they'd saved for her.
Maggie turned the heat up beneath the teakettle. "How's
old Jed doing?" she asked, hoping to sound nonchalant,
though just speaking his name seemed to make her heart
pound a little faster.
172Melody Carison
"Okay, I guess. Probably working too hard to get every-
thing just perfect for this crazy show. He's renting a big truck
to take everything in. It's sure good that he has Michael to
help him with all the loading and unloading. I just hope this
show is worth all his effort."
"I'm sure it will be. Once people see the quality of his fur-
niture, he can't help but line up lots of work."
Leah brightened. "Yeah, I'm sure he'll be a huge success.
I wish I could go too, but I need to stay home and keep the
shop open. Hey, did you hear we got some new snow up at
the higher elevations last weekend? Jed says just one more
good dump and the resort should be open. Then we'd be
really busy in the shop."
Maggie explained to Leah about their new houseguest,
then made herself a pot of chamomile tea and said goodnight.
In her room she looked longingly at her laptop computer.
Was it possible that Jed had answered her email? Did she
want to chance looking and be disappointed? And yet, how
could she not? It felt as though years had gone by since they'd
last spoken. She quickly plugged in her modem and waited
for the computer to connect. What if this brief span in their
relationship had actually weakened things? Could it undo
something important? Yet if their feelings for each other were
real, wouldn't they be able to withstand a small break? At last
the line connected, and with trepidation she opened her
email. First was a message from Rebecca, which she skipped
because the next return address was whitewaterworks.com!
Quickly she opened it, almost afraid to read.
*Dear Maggie: