Maggie stepped into the golden warmth of the little house
and smiled at the familiar strains of an old Johnny Mathis
Christmas album that she remembered from childhood.
"Goodness, Mom, I haven't been out here for quite a while.
I'd almost forgotten how nice and cozy it is."
Audrey sighed happily as she removed a tray of cookies
from her small oven. "Yes, I do love it. And after everybody
left today, I was sort of lonely over in your big old house, so
I thought I'd better come back to own my little pad." She
looked around with satisfied pleasure. "It's not half bad, is
it?"
"Not at all." Maggie pulled up a pine stool and sat next
to the granite-topped kitchen counter. "Where's everyone
else?"
"Well, as you know, Spencer has his cast off now and I
think he was feeling pretty foxy. Daniel, poor guy, is still
limping around on crutches, but his grandpa took both of
them to the varsity basketball game tonight. You know, that
team's starting out with a pretty good winning streak.
Spence says they might even go to state in their league if they
can keep it up."
"So I heard. Scott's been covering them in the paper."
Audrey glanced at the clock on her kitchenette wall. "I
don't expect we'll see Spence for a couple of hours."
"And you probably already know that Gavin moved into
a place of his own today."
220Melody Carlson
Audrey nodded. "Yes, I must admit I was sorry to see him
go. He's awfully good help in the kitchen." She placed a
tempting plate of fresh-from4he-oven snickerdoodle cookies
on the counter in front of Maggie. "I just made a fresh pot
of decaf hazelnut coffee. Want a cup to go with these?"
"I really should pass on these cookies after all I ate for
-dinner..." But the smell was too much for Maggie. She
picked up a still-warm cookie. "These take me straight back
to my childhood, Mom."
"I was going to bake Christmas cookies tonight, but I had
-~a hankering for these instead. Don't you love the smell of
--cinnamon?" Audrey set a mug of coffee before her.
Maggie nodded and took a bite of her cookie. "Okay,
we've accounted for Spencer and Gavin, but what about
Michael?"
"Jed and Leah came by about an hour ago to pick him
up. Michael and Jed are heading out quite early tomorrow,
and he's going to help Jed load up the truck tonight so they'll
be all set to leave first thing in the morning."
"Oh..." Maggie sighed, realizing that her opportunity to
see Jed before he left had just evaporated. "I saw Jed and
Leah at the hotel tonight."
"Did you get a chance to talk to him at all?"
She knew what her mother meant. "No, not really. If any-