Man, what I'd give to have a place like that for Chloe and
me."
She didn't know what to say. "Well, let me talk to my
mom about the wedding idea, Scott. I would really need her
cooperation to do something like this."
"Really?" His dark eyes grew wide. "You mean you'd
consider doing this?"
Looking for You All My Life195
"Of course I would." She couldn't help smiling at him.
Maybe a wedding would brighten up some of the gloom that
seemed to be descending upon her. "My mom's going all out
to make things really special for the Christmas holidays-
and by New Year's Eve, well, our guests will all be gone
anyway, so we might as well make the most of all her
cleaning and sprucing up, right? That is, if she's not totally
exhausted by then."
"Mom and Sierra and Chloe will take care of all the food
and decorations. Audrey won't have to lift a finger, I
promise. And you know how Mom is such an organizer and
all. And we'll only invite a small group of friends and family;
Chloe and I want a very casual and intimate wedding. We're
not even sure if her folks are coming yet-they're so put off
about the whole thing. Chloe says they think if they don't
cooperate with us on the wedding that they can keep us from
getting married, but when they see how serious we are,
they'll probably come."
"For Chloe's sake, I hope she's right. Okay, I'll talk with
my mom tonight and get back to you as soon as I know
something for sure."
"Thanks, Maggie. It means a lot that you're even con-
sidering this. We've thought about going to Reno-you
know, one of those cheesy little chapels where you get mar-
ried by an Elvis look-alike or something."
"Don't do that yet! And honestly, I feel honored that you
asked, Scott. It sounds like it would be a whole lot of fun,
but I'd like to get my mom fully on board first."
The phone rang, and Abigail nodded to Maggie as she
spoke into the receiver. "Oh, hello again, Mr. Byers. I'm not
sure if she's in yet. Hold on and I'll check."
"I'll take it in my office," Maggie answered firmly. "Just
give me a few seconds to brace myself."
"Don't let him get to you," encouraged Scott. "All you
did was print the truth. If he can't handle it, that's his
problem."
196 ~ Melody Carlson
She sat down, took a deep breath, and then picked up the
receiver. "This is Maggie."
"So this is the way you repay me for all my cooperation?"
"I told you from the beginning, Cohn, I wanted to report
truthfully. And that's exactly what I did-"
"What I want to know is, where did you get all your so-