Maggie felt a lump grow in her throat as she slowly
pulled her hand from his. "Okay..." she said weakly. "I
guess that makes sense."
"I figured if we set our relationship aside for a short
while, Leah will begin to feel more secure and, hopefully,
she'll understand how committed I am to her as her father."
"Right." She tried to swallow the tight lump and nodded
her head. "I understand, Jed, really I do."
He squeezed her arm with a slight frown. "Believe me,
Maggie, this isn't easy for me to do-" Just then the front
door opened behind her; and the porch was flooded with
light from the house. Jed looked beyond her and smiled.
"Hey, there," called Leah. "The cocoa's almost ready.
Want me to bring it out to the porch?"
"No, we'll come inside," said Maggie, quickly turning to
enter her house. "It's getting pretty cold out here."
Audrey and Spencer joined them in the kitchen. Everyone
talked of the snow and the upcoming ski season with excite-
ment. Even Spencer seemed better now, boasting to Leah
that, even with his foot in a cast, he could probably snow-
board better than she, as she'd never skied or skateboarded
or anything.
"Don't be so sure of yourself," teased Leah, "Sierra
promised to give me lessons on opening day, and she thinks
I'll be really good. By the time you get up there I'll probably
be way ahead of you."
His face grew sober. "Yeah, I'll probably never get to
snowboard. I'll probably be permanently crippled when they
finally take off this stupid old cast." He thumped his foot
loudly on the floor and then grimaced.
Leah placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "No you
won't, Spence. I was just kidding. I'm such a big chicken, I'm
sure you're going to be way better at snowboarding than me.
I'll probably end up having some big old wipe out on my very
first run and end up in a complete bodycast, or at the very
least, crutches for the rest of the season."
90Melody Carlson
Spencer laughed, holding his crutches out. "Hey, I'll let
you use these if you want!"
"Let's hope no one suffers any more broken bones," said
Maggie with a serious tone.
"Here, here," agreed Audrey, holding her cocoa mug up
as if in a toast. "And here's to a whole lot of snow and a
great winter season for Pine Mountain."
They all held up their mugs. "To a good season," said
Jed. "And thanks be to God for sending us snow."
Maggie smiled at him, telling herself that this little delay
in their relationship was really for the best and that anything
worth having was worth waiting for. Of course, her heart
wasn't a hundred percent convinced by her mental pep talk,
but at least she could try to be a good sport about the whole