Looking For You All My Life Part 48

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 blus.h.i.+ng 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."