Autumn Trail Read Online Free PDF

he said pleasantly. He didn’t seem too concerned that she might have overheard him, and Carole silently congratulated herself for the radio idea.
    She pretended to be surprised to see him, too. “Oh, hi, Max. I didn’t know you were in there.” She gave a little wave and then continued to sort through the leathers, swaying and nodding her head in time to the music.
    “Uh, yes, I was just making a phone call,” Max replied. He looked a little puzzled as he stared at the headphones. “Is that Red’s radio?”
    “What did you say? I can’t hear you with these headphones on,” Carole said loudly. Actually she could hear him perfectly well, even over the loud country-and-western music that was blaring out of the headphones. She figured it was better to be on the safe side, though, and make him think she couldn’t hear a thing. She was surethat Stevie, who was famous for her schemes, would be proud of her for adding this extra detail.
    Max stepped over to her and lifted the headphones off her head. The sound of a woman with a strong southern accent crooning something about standing by her man came out of them, sounding a bit tinny because of the small size of the headphones. Max was starting to look a bit suspicious. “Since when are you a fan of country music, Carole?” he asked, switching the radio off.
    She shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said nervously. “I guess I just have varied tastes.”
    Max said something that sounded like “hmmph,” but he seemed satisfied with her answer. “Well, don’t get so caught up in your tunes that you’re late for class.” With that he left the room, and Carole breathed a sigh of relief.
    Then she grinned. She couldn’t wait to tell Stevie and Lisa what she’d heard. Max had a girlfriend! This was really big news.
    Suddenly she remembered that she still had one other piece of news to tell them about: Project Veronica. Carole groaned. Teasing or no teasing, there was no point in keeping it from them any longer. Trying to be optimistic, she thought that Stevie might even be proud of her for taking on such a task.
    As if reading her thoughts, Stevie’s first words when she saw Carole were, “Hi, Carole. Have you come up with a Thanksgiving project yet?”
    Carole gulped. She’d planned on easing her friends into the news slowly. “Um, as a matter of fact, I have,” she said.
    “Really?” Stevie looked excited. “Lisa and I were just talking about ideas, but we haven’t come up with anything good. So what’s yours?”
    Carole decided that the best thing to do was just to blurt it out. So she did. “I invited Veronica to spend Thanksgiving weekend at my house,” she said all in one breath.
    Stevie and Lisa stared at her for a moment as if she’d lost her mind. Then they both started laughing. “Good one, Carole,” Stevie chortled. “I almost believed you for a minute!”
    It took some doing, but Carole finally convinced them that she was serious. She explained the situation with Veronica’s parents. “I just felt sorry for her, having to spend the holiday practically alone,” she said.
    “Well, you’re the one I feel sorry for,” Stevie declared.
    “Stevie’s right,” Lisa agreed. “I think you may be taking this selflessness thing too far. Spending that much time with Veronica has got to be the ultimate sacrifice!”
    “Yeah, the meaning of Thanksgiving is one thing. This could get you qualified for sainthood or something,” Stevie added, only half joking.
    Carole sighed. “I know, I know. But you should have seen Veronica yesterday. She was actually being—well—
nice.
”
    “I don’t believe it,” Stevie said flatly. “All I can say is, I’m glad it’s not me who has to deal with her. In fact, I’m glad I’ll be far away at my relatives’ house during the whole thing. I don’t even want to have to watch
you
deal with her.”
    Carole decided it was time to distract her friends from the subject of Veronica. Luckily, she had the