Page 239 of The Friends and Rivals Collection

BOOK CLUB LADIES GROUP CHAT

CarolAnn: Dying here! Give us the details. Is everything firmed up for the wedding?

Miriam: Can you hear me squealing across town? It absolutely is. I can just picture them together having a dance, maybe a bite of Sara’s coconut cake, toasting to the happy new couple. It’s all so picture-perfect.

Sara: My heart is fluttering! (Though I’m not baking a cake for a wedding! Puh-leeze. That’s only for my man.) But this outcome almost makes me want to try to set up CarolAnn’s handsome paramedic nephew with my niece. You know, the one who works at Arden’s bookstore. What do you say?

CarolAnn: Yes! Madeline would be perfect for Hunter. He’s a teddy bear, and she’s a smarty-pants.

Miriam: Being a retired teacher, that’s my favorite kind of gal to set up. The paramedic and the bookstore gal are next on our list! Once this first project is complete, of course, in a few more days.

Sara: These youngsters just need a little nudge sometimes. And when they are so right for each other, they don’t always see what’s in front of their noses.

Miriam: Truer words. And you two may have given me a hard time about how long it took, but it never would have happened if we hadn’t intervened. Am I right?

Sara: Right, yes. Smooth, no.

Miriam: Smoothness is overrated. All that matters is these two young lovers are coming together! We simply had to be involved.

CarolAnn: They do need go-getters like us to move them along. And we know how to wring the most out of our lives.

Sara: Nobody does life better than us.