Welcome to Icicle Falls Read Online Free PDF Page B

And give your father grace. He loves you dearly and doesn’t want to see you hurt.”
    Muriel kept her eyes lowered and nodded. She couldn’t look her mother in the face after lying to her. She couldn’t let her father off the hook, either. He should have understood but he refused to.
    When she got there, Center Street was alive and throbbing with holiday revelers consuming corn dogs and cotton candy. The Pink Poodle Skirts, a fifties and sixties cover group, were setting up over at the gazebo in the park and testing their equipment, and the sounds of electric guitar drifted on the air. She ran into Olivia right away, which made her feel better about the lie she’d told her parents.
    And now, here came Stephen wearing jeans and a T-shirt, his hair pulled back in a ponytail.
    Olivia sighed loudly. “He is so gorgeous.”
    â€œYes, he is,” Muriel agreed.
    â€œYou two are the perfect couple.”
    â€œTell that to my father,” Muriel said grumpily.
    â€œHe’ll come around.”
    She’d said that about Pat, too. She’d been wrong. Pat wouldn’t come back, not unless Muriel gave up Stephen. And she wasn’t giving him up, not for her father and certainly not for Pat. This bad attitude of Pat’s just showed how selfish she was. A true friend would have been happy to see her best friend since grade school find the man of her dreams.
    â€œHey there, you two,” he greeted them. “You both look great tonight.”
    Olivia’s cheeks turned pink. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
    â€œHow about a corn dog?” he offered.
    â€œSure,” Olivia said, falling into step with them.
    At the corn dog stand they found Nils and Lenny, and Hildy and Sue Lind, and in a matter of moments Stephen had managed to separate Muriel and himself from the others, leaving Olivia in their care.
    That was fine with Muriel. She wanted him all to herself. They wandered the street, hand in hand, and then later, as the light began to fade, made their way to the bandstand. The band had just started, their girl singer belting out “He’s a Rebel.” Stephen draped an arm around Muriel’s shoulders as they stood there in the growing crowd, listening.
    She smiled at him. “Are you a good dancer?”
    â€œThe best.”
    He proved it when the band played “Proud Mary” and everyone started dancing. Stephen had the moves. The band shifted down to a slower tempo, playing “Never My Love,” and he took her in his arms and they swayed.
    â€œWho knew I’d find treasure here in the mountains,” he murmured in her ear and drew her closer.
    Slow dancing with him was like dancing in a dream. She looked up at him and thought,
My life is perfect.
And later, as they walked by the river, she said as much.
    â€œI think it’s time I got to know your parents,” he said after a very long and luscious kiss.
    She bit her lip and stared out at the river, which was now a dark ribbon. She could hear the current rushing past.
    â€œYou do want me to meet your parents, don’t you?”
    â€œYou’ve already met Daddy,” she hedged.
    â€œThat wasn’t much of a meeting.”
    How was she going to make this happen? She felt Stephen’s assessing gaze on her and pulled her sweater tighter.
    Next to her, he let out a frustrated sigh. “Your dad doesn’t approve of me, does he?”
    â€œI wouldn’t say that exactly.” Another lie.
    â€œMuriel, I’m not dumb. Don’t you think I’ve figured out why you always insist on meeting me places?”
    â€œI just thought—”
    â€œThat I wouldn’t notice how he looked at me that day in the candy shop?”
    Muriel felt her cheeks heating. “My father will come around.”
    â€œWill he?”
    â€œI know he will,” she said firmly.
    â€œAnd what if he doesn’t?”
    â€œI guess we’ll cross that