Audrey laughed. "I've lived long enough to know that
matchmaking rarely if ever pays off. In fact, I'll bet that the
odds of winning the lottery are a lot better than making a
successful match for someone."
"You're probably right. I'm just so excited to see them
both. Did you tell Barry that Rebecca flies in on Friday, the
twenty-third?"
"Yes, that's what made me think of it, since he was plan-
ning on driving down on the very same day."
"Perfect!"
It wasn't until after dinner that Maggie suddenly remem-
bered her earlier resolve to check up on Leah. She finished
loading the dishwasher, then, bracing herself to hear Leah's
irritatingly confident voice scolding her for being overly con-
cerned, she dialed Jed's number. It rang numerous times and
finally a recorded message came 6n, playing Jed's voice in her
ear as he announced they were unable to answer the phone
right now. Just hearing his voice like that made her long to
speak to him, to tell him how foolish she'd been... but sud-
denly the machine beeped and she was forced to leave a
"brief message." "Hi, Leah. This is Maggie. Just wanted to
make sure you're doing okay. So, give me a call, or I'll prob-
ably call you back again. You know me, the worrying type.
Catch you later."
When Daniel's grandpa came to pick him up, Spencer
talked her into letting him go over and spend the night. It
seemed Daniel had been given a video-game system as an
early Christmas present and the two couldn't wait to try it
out. As it was Christmas vacation, Maggie agreed. Audrey
seemed tired, so Maggie encouraged her to turn in early while
she finished decorating the Christmas cookies. Then she
turned on some Christmas CDs, lit a cinnamon candle, and
Looking for You All My Life257
proceeded to decorate (more traditionally than the boys) the
rest of the cookies. Finally she finished the last one, then
froze them just the way her mother had recommended, one
layer at a time. She separated them with wax paper in boxes
and returned them to the freezer. This way they would still
be fresh for next week. Naturally, she saved a couple for her
reward when she was done to be enjoyed with a cup of tea.
All this time, Lizzie had been staying close to her heels in the
kitchen. She had tossed the old dog a couple of broken
cookie tidbits, but for some reason Lizzie seemed unusually
restless. Maggie wondered if she could be missing Bart, who
had taken to sleeping in the guest house with Audrey (after
she had been delighted to discover that the smart dog could
climb the ladder up to the loft where he still liked to sleep
sometimes).
"What's wrong, old girl?" asked Maggie as she ran her
hand over the smooth black head. "Are you missing Bart?