“Dolly Parton to my..well, ;et's just say that the greatly endowed wagon had passed me by.”

“It's just that,well,I'm gonna pull a Brad on you.""You're going to start totally ignoring me?”

“He kicked me out,okay?""How can a guy who only has one good leg to stand on kick you out?""He doesn't want me around.""I find that hard to believe, Katie.""Yeah,well,he threw snow at me and told me to leave."She looked astounded.As well she should be."Where did he get snow?" she asked.Okay,I'd obviously misread the reason for her astonishment.It wasn't that he'd thrown snow at me,but that he'd had snow to throw.”

“You're my favorite sister." I snorted. "Gosh,I'd hate to be your unfavorite sister. I might not survive.""Hey,Kate,you know I'm just teasing when I give you a hard time.""Yeah,right,and the teasing just keeps me laughing.”

“Do you need anything?""I would say just you but that sounds way too corny.”

“He finally cleared his throat. "Well, huh." "Yeah," I said. "What now?" "Well"—he cleared his throat again—"I guess you and I go. I mean, unless you really don't want to." Why put it on me to bail out? "Do you want to?" I asked. "Yeah. I really do. I had to talk Dad into giving me the afternoon off. And since I don't usually go to a lot of trouble to fix lunch, it seems a shame to waste the effort. Besides, there's the thing I want you to see." He said all of this while staring at the door like he was talking to it. I almost expected it to respond.”

“Tell me there's more to it than just adding water," he said.I gave him a pointed look. "Nope. that's all there is to it."he looked over his shoulder at the doorway that led to the living room, then back at me. "Matchmaking?"I grimaced and nodded."You don't look thrilled.""It's my love life, and everyone treats it like it's a community project.”