remember that your independence might send a wrong mes-
sage. He could be assuming that you aren't as interested as 192Melody Carlson
he is. And then add to that how there seem to be a lot of
other men around you, and the whole thing might make him
feel like he can't trust you. And that might be why he comes
across the way he does."
"I.. .1 hadn't really looked at it like that."
"Well, try to put yourself in his shoes. How would you
feel if he'd flown off for a weekend with an attractive female
client? And then taken in another attractive female boarder?"
Maggie's eyes opened wide. "Wow, I see what you
mean!"
"So, you just might want to cut the poor man a little
slack."
"I suppose so. But what about this whole thing about
putting our relationship on hold?"
"You must know that Jed only did that out of concern for
Leah, not because he loved you any less."
"But how can you be so sure, Mom?"
don't know. Just a gut feeling, I guess."
"I.
"Well, you've certainly given me some things to think
about." Maggie smiled hopefully.
For the remainder of lunch, they made lists and plans for
Christmas and ways to entertain their guests. Thankfully,
Audrey was more than happy to carry much of the load of
the preparations. "You know I love this sort of thing,
Maggie."
"Well, I don't know what I'd do without you, Mom."
"Until I get that library off the ground, it's nice to have
things to keep me busy. Oh, by the way, do you want me to
take Spencer in to get his cast off tomorrow?"
"Is it time for that already? Yes, I'd appreciate that. Poor
Spence has been complaining about his foot itching like
crazy lately. I'll bet he's already waxing his snowboard. Now,
if only we could get another good dump of snow! I've
promised both Barry and Rebecca that we'll spend a day or
two on the slopes."
"And I'd love to see a white Christmas."
Looking for You All My Life193
"Well, there's still plenty of time." She glanced at her
watch. "Speaking of which, I had better get back to the old
grind stone."
"But aren't you glad you decided to take some time off
and come shopping with me?" asked Audrey as they finished
their desserts of creme caramel custard.
"Yes, it was really fun. We should do this more often,
Mom."
"Now you can go back to face the inevitable."
Maggie rolled her eyes. "Oh, boy, I can hardly wait."