All of Me - Leeanna Morgan (the snowy day read aloud .TXT) 📗
- Author: Leeanna Morgan
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Book online «All of Me - Leeanna Morgan (the snowy day read aloud .TXT) 📗». Author Leeanna Morgan
He waited, staying until everyone was ready to leave. It wasn’t that he was scared to face his worst fears. He was terrified.
As he walked down Pastor Steven’s driveway, Dylan stopped him. “Call me. I’m only in Los Angeles for a couple of days.”
Logan looked at the trucks lining the street, the houses with pretty front yards and the kids riding their bikes. He couldn’t have gotten any further from Afghanistan if he’d tried. And he had. He’d tried so hard that he’d almost forgotten what it felt like to be back there again. The scorching heat, the sand that worked its way into everything. The constant threat of an enemy you didn’t see until it was too late.
He looked at Dylan and frowned. “Is everything okay with you?”
“Same old demons coming out to play. I’ll tell you about it when I get back from Los Angeles.”
Logan waited for Dylan to drive away before getting in his truck. He pulled the envelope out of his pocket. Pastor Steven could have handed him the answer to his nightmares, or a psychological bomb waiting to explode. He left the envelope on the passenger seat and drove toward home.
He didn’t know what was in the envelope and he wasn’t in a hurry to find out.
Annie passed Molly a cup of coffee. “How many stationery stores do we have in town?”
Sally ran her finger down the listings in the phone directory. “Six. That doesn’t include places like Walmart.”
Molly reached for a cookie. “How many are open today?”
“Only three listed their store hours and two are open today. So I guess that’s as good a place as any to start.”
Tess opened her notebook and read from the notes she’d made. “All we need to do is look for someone called Connie Thompson who’s engaged to a mechanic called Dave Brown. It can’t be that hard to find her.”
“If she doesn’t work at either of the two stores that are open, we’ll need to work out when we’re going to visit the others.” Sally looked down at her heels. “Can I use a couple of your Band-Aids, Annie?”
“Sure.” Annie walked across to her bag and rummaged around inside. “What do you think their neighbor meant by ‘gone home’?” She passed Sally a couple of Band-Aids and looked at her feet. “Ouch. You did that this morning?”
“Mostly last night.” Sally winced as she covered her blisters. “Gone home could mean they’re living with their parents. They could have moved out of the area.”
Tess shook her head. “I don’t think they would have moved to another town. They’ve both got jobs in Bozeman. It wouldn’t make sense to leave, especially two weeks before their wedding.”
Sally sat back in her chair. “So we’ve looked in the phone directory and there’s no listing for either the bride or groom-to-be. What about their parents or other family? I could stay here with someone and call all of the Thompsons and Browns in the phone book. Whoever doesn’t want to help me could visit the stationery stores.”
“Sounds good to me,” Annie said. “I’ll stay with Sally. My head’s still a bit fuzzy from last night.”
“Moonshine will do that to a girl,” Molly said with a smile. “So that leaves Tess and I at the stationery stores. Do you want anything while we’re out?”
“A new head,” Sally said half-jokingly.
Tess opened a cupboard in the kitchen and left a small container beside Sally. “It’s not a new head, but Tylenol might do the trick. We’ll be back soon.”
“Good luck.” Sally pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “I’ve got a feeling you’ll be back before we’ve finished.”
Tess picked up her car keys. “You could be right. Are you ready to go, Molly?”
“Ready and waiting. I’ve never been so excited about visiting a stationery store before.”
Tess smiled. Neither had she.
An hour later, Tess and Molly flopped down on the sofa in Tess’ apartment.
“We didn’t find her,” Tess said. “Did you find anyone in the phone book that knows them?”
Sally leaned her elbows on the table. “Not yet, but I’ve still got another couple of numbers to try. I can’t believe none of the Thompsons or Browns we called know Connie and Dave. It’s like they’ve vanished.”
Annie ended the call she was on. “What about the hospital. If Connie’s mom is still a patient, we might be able to find her daughter through her.”
Molly shook her head. “Hospitals are the worst places to find information about people. Unless you’re immediate family, they won’t let any details out.”
Tess looked at her friends. “Does anyone know someone who works at the hospital?”
Molly and Annie shook their heads.
“Amy, my sister-in-law, is a doctor at the hospital,” Sally said. “I’ll ask if she can help, but it probably breaks their rules about patient confidentiality.”
Tess opened her notebook and looked at the first page. “We’ll put a question mark beside the hospital option. I’ll stop by the other stationery stores tomorrow afternoon.”
“I’ve made a list of the auto repair businesses in Bozeman,” Sally said. “If you do the stationery stores, Molly, Annie and I could split the list of auto repair places between us.”
“Okay. It’s a deal.” Tess walked to the kitchen and poured herself a coffee. “Is it too early to start talking about the dresses and how we’re going to do this?” She opened a cookie jar and left it on the table in front of the sofa.
“It’s probably a good idea to get everything worked out now,” Sally said. “By the time we find the bride and groom we might not have much time before the wedding.”
Tess bit into a cookie and sighed. “These are good. Help yourself.” She brushed oatmeal crumbs off her shirt and thought about what they’d need to make this work. “I’ve got lots of space in my spare bedroom. We could use the closet in there for the dresses.”
“We could drop them off after dinner tomorrow,” Sally said. “I’ll call Emily and see if she wants to keep her bridesmaids’ dresses. If anyone finds our mystery couple, make sure you text everyone else. We can have another meeting tomorrow night when we bring the dresses in.”
“Do you think we’ll find them?” Annie asked.
“I don’t know,” Tess said. “But we’ll try our best to find them before their wedding.”
“Imagine someone stealing everything you own. It must have been heartbreaking.” Sally frowned at the list in front of Tess. “I don’t know why anyone would want four bridesmaids’ dresses. It’s such a nasty thing to do.”
“There are some horrible people out there.” Annie sat quietly in her chair, looking as glum as Tess felt.
“Come on everyone. Cheer up.” Molly pulled Tess’ list toward her. “We’re doing something special for Connie and Dave. There will always be idiots in the world, but we don’t have to let them drag us down. What we need is something to remind us that we’re on a mission for happiness.”
“Like a name for what we’re doing?” Annie said.
Sally frowned. “What do you mean?”
Annie sat on the edge of her seat. “We could call ourselves something. Like a club or a project name.”
Tess took another bite of her cookie. “But this is a one-off thing. Once we’ve helped Connie and Dave the name won’t matter.”
“It will matter to us,” Molly said. “It’s the feel good factor that will make this a wonderful thing to do.”
“How about the Wedding Angels?” Annie suggested. “Bridesmaids are part of a wedding and we were in Angel Wings Café when we read the newspaper article.”
Sally shook her head. “It’s good, but too much like a business. What about Bridesmaids to the Rescue?”
“Sounds like an emergency response team.” Annie grinned at Sally. “We’d have every single guy in town lining up to be rescued.”
“What about The Bridesmaids Club?” Molly looked at everyone’s faces. “It’s warm and friendly. No guy will ever think we’re a dating agency with that name.”
Sally wrote it down on a piece of paper. “I like it.”
“Sounds good to me,” Annie said. “What are we going to do if another bride wants our help?”
“There can’t be that many people needing bridesmaids’ dresses.” Tess watched everyone’s faces. “Most people have their dresses made well in advance of the wedding.”
Sally picked up Tess’ notebook. “At last count we had seventeen dresses and that’s before we ask anyone for
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