Part 143 (1/2)

ance about your relations.h.i.+p.”

222Melody Carlson

”He needs rea.s.surance? Good grief, what about me? I'm

not even sure we still even have a relations.h.i.+p. And now he's

going to be gone for the better part of a week.” Maggie

groaned. ”And by the time he gets back, it'll be almost

Christmas-and Barry and Rebecca will be here by then.

Then we have the wedding to prepare for. Why, I'll be lucky

if I can have a conversation with him sometime next year.”

Audrey laughed. ”You may be a little overdramatic about

the whole thing. And by the way, don't you think we should

invite Jed and Leah to join us for Christmas too? Who else

do they have? And, of course, Michael is staying here...”

She brightened. ”Yes. Of course, you're right, Mom. The

voice of reason wins out again.

”And don't you think we should be getting a Christmas

--tree up soon?”

”Right. Now that Spence is out of his cast, maybe we can

cut one down ourselves. I've heard that you can get a permit

to cut them right out of the woods. Can you imagine? We'll

be just like a real wilderness family.” Suddenly Maggie rec-

ognized that the excitement of preparing for the holidays

was returning to her-something she hadn't felt since Phil's

death. ”I just hope I can find where we put all our Christmas

decorations. They may be buried beneath a pile of other

boxes out in the barn, but we can dig them out.”