in Pine Mountain was just a phase for her or something. Or Looking for You All My Life79
maybe he'd hoped Chloe's old boyfriend, Aaron Jackson,
was going to knock me Out of the running." He sighed. "The
- MN date was Chloe's idea. She has always dreamed of a New
Year's Eve wedding, but we didn't know if we wan?ed to
-~wait for a whole year." Was Scott blushing beneath that
smooth olive skin?
"And what does your family think about all this?" asked
Maggie.
"As you can imagine, they're totally thrilled. You know
how much they all love Chloe. Mom keeps bragging that
she's the one who discovered her for me in the first place."
He laughed.
I"So Chloe must be up to her eyebrows in wedding
plans," said Maggie. "I cannot imagine how you two are
going to pull this thing off so soon."
"Well, it helps that we have both decided we want a
small, intimate wedding-right here in Pine Mountain."
"Oh, won't that be nice," gushed Abigail. "If there's any-
thing I can do to hel~with flowers or decorations or any-
thing, you just tell Chloe to give me a call."
"Same here," offered Maggie. "And I know my mother
would be glad to help too. She's quite fond of you two."
"Thanks," said Scott, seemingly relieved. "Chloe said she
wants to keep everything simple. She's been involved in
plenty of high society weddings and she thinks they're
-nothing but a great big show of how much money the par-
ents have. She doesn't want anything like that for us."
- - "Good for her," said Clyde. "Sounds like that girl's got a
good head on her shoulders."
MN"Yes," agreed Maggie. "I'm sure you two will be very
happy together."
Maggie slipped into Dolly's Diner, quickly scanning the
MNmenu board to see "Hearty Vegetable Soup" listed there. She
tried to drop in the diner fairly regularly, if only to catch 80Melody Carlson
some of the latest local gossip and to visit with Dolly; and if
she was lucky, there'd be a good soup of the day.
"Here you go, honey," said Dolly as she plunked the
heavy pottery bowl down on the laminate-topped table.
Then she leaned into the other side of the booth and quickly
pushed back the cafe' curtains to peer out the window.
"Lordy, Lordy, if it isn't starting to snow out there!"
Several people in the diner, including Maggie, turned to
gape out the windows and after a few seconds Maggie
spotted a single flake fluttering down. "You're right, Dolly.
I just saw a flake too."
"Well, glory be!" exclaimed Dolly. "We might just make
it after all." She turned to Maggie. "Did you hear about that
funny little foreign man who came to town to pray for snow?
Someone said he thinks he's a prophet or something."