"Hi, Adam," I said, nonchalantly.

"Hi. What is it you two want to tell me about?"

Hannah looked at me and I looked at her.

"Harlie has an idea she wants to run past you," Hannah said.

"Okay."

"If we have a BBQ this weekend, I'd like to invite a friend," I said slowly, trying to

think out my words.

"Are we doing a BBQ this weekend?" Adam asked, looking at Hannah for

confirmation.

"We've been talking about it," Hannah reminded him.

"Yeah, okay." He looked at me. "Is this friend a boy?"

"No."

Adam looked puzzled. "Well, if it's not a boy I have to approve, why are you

asking me about it? Is this friend you're inviting some femme fatale that's going to

carry Guthrie off?"

"No, she won't bother Guthrie," I said. "It's a girl I met this weekend. She's real

nice, and I want to invite her here, that's all."

"Where's she live?" he asked.

"Modesto."

"That's a drive to come for a BBQ," he said. "Her folks gonna let her drive herself

here?"

"She can drive herself. She's older."

"Well, it's alright with me, if Hannah doesn't mind," Adam said, reaching for

an apple off the table.

Hannah gave me a clearly disapproving look. "There's a little more to it than that," she said.

"Harlie? Tell Adam the rest of it."

Adam bit into his apple and looked at me questioningly.

"Well, she's a friend of Daniel's, too. Her name is Clare."

"Hmm," he said, around his mouthful of apple.

"And I think she's the perfect girl for Brian," I finished smoothly, and Adam

coughed on his bite of apple.

"What?" he demanded.

"It's nothing to get worked up about," I said. "She comes, and they meet, and

if they hit it off together, then great."

Adam looked asconce at Hannah. "You're going along with this nonsense?'

"I told her we'd talk to you about it."

"Alright. You've talked to me. I say bad idea. Very bad."

"It's not a bad idea," I protested. "It's a great idea! She's fantastic! You can ask

Daniel. He'll tell you."

"Harlie-"

"She's smart, and she's funny, and she's great looking, too!"

"Even if she is all of those things, that's not the point. Brian's perfectly capable

of choosing who he wants to be with-"

"Exactly! He can meet Clare, and then he can decide if he wants to be with her."

"And Clare can decide the same," Hannah said helpfully, and I beamed at her.

"Yes! That's right!"

"Now just a minute," Adam protested. "This sounds like a fix-up, and Brian wants

no part of that. You know that," he said to Hannah, "and you know it, too," he told me,

pointing a finger at me.

"I just thought it would be nice to have Brian meet somebody terrific. Somebody

like Hannah."

I have to say my delivery on that line, combined with my sad eyes, was Emmy Award

worthy. Adam looked startled, then thoughtful, then resigned.

"Alright, fine. It's on you two," he said. "I'm out of it. Got it?"

"Yes, Adam," I said quietly.

"Yes, dear," Hannah said.

Adam stalked off towards the living room. I gave Hannah a high five and went out

to do my chores.

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I called Clare and told her about the BBQ. She agreed to come, though when she

asked what Brian had said, I hedged a little. Or for lack of a better word, I lied.

"He hasn't exactly said anything yet. I wanted to make sure you could come first."

"So you're sure it's alright with him that I come? And with Adam and Hannah?"

"Oh, Hannah's so excited to meet you!" I said. That part, at least, was true.

I felt a little bit guilty about fibbing to Clare, but I figured it would, as Hannah says,

all come out in the wash. Everything would turn out fine, and people would be glad

I'd done what I'd done.

Hannah started cleaning and planning a menu for the weekend right away, inviting

our two nearest neighbors, and some people from church. On Wednesday night, she

and I were in the basement, looking for our ice cream freezer, when she said,

"Have you talked to Daniel?"

"About what?"

"About having Clare here."

"Why would Daniel care? I told you, he thinks Clare is great."

"I mean, because she was dating Justin. And if Daniel has to work with him, well,

things could get strained between them when Justin finds out she came here to

meet Brian."

"I don't see why Justin should have anything to say about it. Clare's done with him, anyway."

"Yes, I know. But from what Daniel's said, Justin can be pretty volatile. I don't want to

cause Daniel any problems."

"Alright. I'll talk to him."

After the supper dishes were done, I went to find Daniel. He and Crane were

sitting on the front porch working on a song together. I sat and listened to

them for awhile, until Adam came to the door and asked Crane to come help

him work on the kitchen drain.

I took Crane's vacated place beside Daniel on the porch swing. Daniel played

a few chords and said, "What do you think?"

"I like it. It sounds good."

"I think so, too."

"I have a question for you."

"What?"

"Well, it's actually Hannah who has the question. I told her you'd be cool

with it."

"What is it I'm going to be cool with?"

"It's about the barbeque this weekend. I invited Clare."

"Oh, yeah? It's alright with me." He shrugged. "I knew you two got along real well."

"Well, Hannah thought that it might make things bad between you and Justin."

"Why would it?"

"Because Clare is coming here to meet Brian."

Daniel stopped strumming his guitar and gave me his full attention.

"Say what?" he asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Clare is coming to. meet. Brian.," I said slowly, exaggerating my words.

Daniel sighed. "Let me guess. One of your bright ideas."

"Well, yes, it is, as a matter of fact," I grinned at him. "What do you think?"

"About Clare coming here? That's great. About her coming here to be fixed up with Brian? I think it's crazy."

"Why is it crazy?"

"Well, considering that Justin will probably show up and drive a hole thru our barn, and that Brian will

go ballistic on you, I'd say that equals crazy."

"Would Justin really do that? Clare's already broken up with him."

"It's hard to say about Justin. He's a quirky type of guy."

"He seems to be an ass type of guy."

"He can be."

I looked at Daniel, disappointed.

"Clare is so perfect for Brian! Don't you see it, Daniel?"

"Clare's great. I just don't think Brian's going to appreciate having anything arranged for him."

I bit my lip, beginning to see the flaws in my plan.

Daniel nudged me. "Don't look so down, squirt. Clare's welcome here anytime, as far as I'm concerned."

I stood up. "Will it cause problems with you and Justin?"

"Clare's coming here, as a friend, for a get together. Let's leave it at that for right now. If something comes of the great romance, we'll go from there."

"Oh, something's going to come from it, alright," I said, with certainty.

"Such as?"

"Such as, a wedding, maybe right here in our yard, maybe even by the summer."

Daniel shook his head at me. "You're crazy," he said.

"I know. But you still love me," I said, and strummed his guitar strings as I went past.

7

Brian went to town later, and I waited on the front porch steps for him. I'd started to worry that he might not plan on being around on Saturday.

When he walked up the porch steps, he paused beside me. "Hadn't you ought to be in bed by now?" he asked.

"I was waiting for you. I want to talk to you."

"Sounds ominous."

"No, it's good. Sit down." I tugged on his hand.

"What's up?" he asked, sitting down beside me.

"We're having that BBQ on Saturday."

"That's what I hear."

"You plan on being here, right?"

"I don't know," he said carelessly. "Probably so. Why?"

"Because you need to be here."

"Why do I need to be here?"

"Because," I hesitated, "it's a surprise."

"Huh. You know I don't really like surprises, peach."

"You'll like this one. So do you promise to be here?"

He studied me frowning. "Why am I getting a weird feeling about this

surprise?"

"You're so suspicious," I said. I patted his face. "You should really work

on that, Bri."

Brian still looked skeptical, and I said confidently, "I'm so sure you're

going to like the surprise that I'll make you a bet."

"A bet, huh?"

"Yes. There's a certain pair of boots at the mall in Modesto. They're teal blue, with

fringe. I've had my eye on them for a long time. If you love the surprise, then you buy

me the boots. How about that? That's how sure I am."

"Interesting," Brian said, and tugged on my braid. "How about if I hate this surprise?

What then?"

"You won't."

"But let's say that I do. What are you willing to wager?"

"Whatever you say," I said carelessly.

"Alright. You have to do my dish duty for a month. AND, you have to drop from the rope."

The rope Brian's talking about is over the deepest part of our creek. You have to

climb the rungs that Adam and Brian nailed in a tree years ago, then swing out and

drop. I'm a pretty good swimmer, but I avoid the rope. All my brothers tease me

about it, but I still refuse to do it. I tried it once when I was about eight or nine,

and I hated the feeling it gave me.

I looked at Brian, not very happily. "The rope, huh?"

"The rope."

"That's kind of mean, Bri."

"You're betting with the big dogs. Put your money where your mouth is."

"Fine," I said and stood up. Brian got up, too, and I stuck out my hand.

"I'm not worried. I'm not going to lose," I said confidently.

Brian took my hand and we shook hands on it.

"Pretty sure of yourself, aren't you, peach?"

I smiled mysteriously, thinking about how it would be when Brian first set eyes on Clare.

"Yep."

Brian frowned. "That's kind of a funny looking smile. This surprise isn't

something that's going to make me mad, is it?"

I ignored his question, and did a little country line dance in front of him.

"Those boots sure are gonna look good on me," I giggled.

7

I talked to Clare a couple more times. She was bringing Nan with her when she came.

The only problem occurred when she asked me again what Brian had said about her

coming. I felt really bad about lying to her, so I was stumbling over my words, and

Clare was intuitive enough to ask, "Brian doesn't even know I'm coming, does he?"

"No," I admitted. "But I know he's going to be fine with it, once he meets you!"

To my somewhat surprise, Clare wasn't mad. She just laughed.

"Well, I guess we'll find that out on Saturday, won't we?"

7

By Friday night I was really excited. So far Brian didn't seem to have an inkling of what was going

on. After supper that night Guthrie and Evan and I were playing cards, and everybody else was just

reading or talking, except for Ford and Brian, who'd gone to town to get more bags of ice for the BBQ.

Guthrie made the comment that he thought I was wrong to try to get Brian together with anyone.

"I agree," Evan said. "Why don't you just leave Brian alone? He's having a great time as a single guy."

"You two don't understand anything," I told them. "Clare is terrific. She's smart and lots of

fun, and she's prettier than anybody else Brian's dated!'

I turned to Daniel for support. "She's beautiful, isn't she, Daniel?"

Daniel looked up from the lyrics he was working on.

"She's real pretty," he agreed.

"Bri's gonna be real mad at you for minding his business, I'll bet," Evan said, with a grin.

"Yeah," Guthrie agreed. "He might tar and feather you, Har."

"Thanks alot, Guthrie!" I yelled and stood up, tossing my hand of cards

down, and glaring at the boys.

"Simmer down," Adam said.

"Well, I don't know what's wrong with everybody! I'm not trying to hurt Brian! I'm

trying to help him!"

"It's alright, sweetie," Hannah said, in her calm way.

"Sit down and finish the game," Evan told me.

"No, I don't want to," I said crossly.

"Come on, Har, don't be like that," Guthrie coaxed me.

"The boys are entitled to their opinion," Adam told me. "I happen to have the same opinion as they do. You know that."

"Yes, I know," I sighed.

Guthrie tugged on my arm, trying to get me to sit down again, but I shrugged his hand off.

I felt attacked by everyone, except for Hannah and Daniel, and it wasn't like Daniel was trying to help

me. Hannah, on the other hand, spoke up. Her voice was quiet, but reassuring.

"Hopefully, things will work out the way that Harlie wants them to. But, no matter what, Clare is coming here as a guest, and she'll be welcome. And I've had a hand in this whole thing, so if Brian does get angry, I'll be there, right along with Harlie."

"It's my idea, and my plan," I said. "I'll take all the responsibility, Hannah."

"No, sweetie, not all of it. I was there when we lined up, and I've been there for the march up the hill, so I'll be there when the shooting starts, too."

Adam chuckled at Hannah's analogy, and pulled her to him, hugging her.

"I don't think it'll come down to shooting," he said. "Or to tar and feathers," he said, looking

at me, with a kind smile.

I smiled back, but I was starting to get nervous about Brian.

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