He frowned. "You know that's not what I meant. Besides,

I'm sure you're wrong. She and Buckie seem to be getting

along quite happily."

"You're right. I'm sorry, my insecurity must've gotten the

best of me for a minute there."

He looked deeply into her eyes. "Tell me what you could

possibly have to be insecure about, Maggie Carpenter."

She returned his gaze. "Absolutely nothing at the

moment."

"Hey, you two," teased Rosa. "You look like a couple of

moonstruck puppies. I came over to try to entice you to have

some dessert."

"I'll go for some of that cobbler," said Jed, "seeing how

you need the business and all."

Rosa rolled her eyes. "Thanks, I needed that reminder a

lot right now. But don't forget, it's usually slow like this right

before Thanksgiving. But afterward is a different story, at

least when there's snow, that is..."

She returned with Jed's cobbler along with an extra

spoon for Maggie. Then she refilled their coffee cups. "We're

all looking forward to coming out on Thursday, Maggie. Is

Audrey still sure she's up for all this? It'sounds like it'll be

quite a crowd."

"Believe me, Mom's in her element right now. You should

see her lists and things. She even made cute little pine cone

turkeys for each place setting." She smiled at Jed. "I'll tell

her to make one more for your friend."

"We'll see you then," said Rosa. "And in the meantime,

you two can be praying we get some snow-and soon."

Jed laughed. "Or maybe we should pray for patience.

Sometimes we just need to learn to wait.

7/ t's too bad your brother couldn't make it for Thanks-

giving," said Audrey as she checked the turkey once

again.

"Well, at least we got him to commit to Christmas,"

Maggie said as she turned off the mixer. "Hey, that reminds

me-Rebecca is coming then too. Maybe we should do some

matchmaking..."

"But Rebecca's older than Barry."

"Oh, Mother!" Maggie rolled her eyes. "By only two

years. And Rebecca's dated men who were ten years her

junior."

"Now that you mention it, I do remember Barry dating a

woman quite a bit older than him to~although I don't

think it was a very good relationship."

"Well, you just never know. Anyway, it'll be so fun to

have more family here for Christmas, I can hardly wait!"

Audrey stopped peeling potatoes for a moment and

turned to face her daughter. "I'll bet just a year ago you'd

never have guessed you'd be hosting twenty people for

Thanksgiving dinner right now."