She had barely stepped into the reception area when the
onslaught began. "Greg Snider's been by twice already,"
reported Abigail with exasperation, "and he's acting like he
owns the world too!"
"Randy Ebbert stopped in as well," added Scott as he
held up a flyer. "He delivered an official notice announcing
the birth of his new newspaper, the Conservative Code.
Don't know what the code stands for. Maybe it's a secret
handshake for members only or a special swastika ring."
"And Cohn Byers asked that you return his call as soon
as you step in," said Abigail with a deep sigh. "He's called
several times already, and for the gentleman that you
described, he sounded slightly rude-if you ask me."
Maggie ran a hand through her hair. "I'll bet he's already
read the Pine Cone from our website. Oh man, I can hardly
wait for that conversation. My guess is he'll bring in one of
his high-powered attorneys to scare us a little."
"Oh, I almost forgot," called Scott just as she was trying
to slip into her office.
"Now what?"
"Actually, this has nothing to do with business," he
began somewhat apologetically. "And it's probably the very 194Melody Carison
worst timing on my part, but I promised. You see, Chloe
wants to know if we can get married in your house.
Maggie stared at him speechiessly.
He laughed self-consciously. "I told her I thought you had
your hands full right now, but she was so upset last night
that I promised her I'd ask you the moment I saw you today.
Feel free to say no, Maggie. I know it's a lot to ask anyone.
I mean it's crazy, really."
"But why? I thought you were going to get the hotel or
the church. And it's such late notice-don't you have your
invitations printed already?"
"We thought we could get the hotel, but we hadn't nailed
it. Then we found out last night that Brian and Cindy had
Ialready invited a bunch of their Seattle friends for a big New
Year's Eve bash. It's their way to drum up some business, I
guess, especially since this year's ski season is looking so
gloomy right now. And then, of course, Jed's shutting down
the church-"
"Shutting down the church?" She was incredulous. "I
hadn't heard that."
"Yeah, it kind of surprised me too. But that's what he told
my dad yesterday. It's always been pretty inconvenient for
folks to get up there, especially during the winter months,
and as a result they end up missing a lot of Sundays because
of the snow and ice and bad weather. Anyway, he told Dad
he thinks it's time to turn the building back into a house like
he'd always planned to. I guess now that his daughter's living
there he needs more room. Can't say that I blame him either.