This Matter Of Marriage. Debbie Macomber

mile.” That was as much as she wanted to tackle her first time out. If it went well, she might consider longer distances later.

      “Can I come, too?”

      “If it’s all right with your dad.” Hallie shook her arms, then placed her hands on her hips while she rotated her head.

      Meagan quickly ditched her bike on Hallie’s lawn and raced toward her brother and father.

      Hallie felt almost smug. Watching “Wild World of Sports” with Gregg had taught her something, after all. Or was that “Wide World of Sports”? She heard Meagan hurriedly ask permission and felt Steve’s scrutiny before he agreed.

      “Dad said I can,” Meagan shouted, racing back.

      In deference to Meagan, Hallie set a slow rhythmic pace as she started down the road. Meagan picked up the tempo as they rounded the first corner. Within minutes, Hallie became winded. That was understandable, she told herself, since they were running uphill. By the end of the third block, she felt the strain.

      “It isn’t a race,” Hallie gasped when she found the oxygen to speak.

      “Oh, am I going too fast for you? Sorry.” Meagan immediately slowed down.

      An eternity passed before the brick-walled entrance came into view. “I…think I’m…wearing the wrong…kind…of shoes,” Hallie panted. She stopped, braced her hands on her knees and greedily sucked in as much air as her aching lungs would allow.

      There wasn’t a damn thing wrong with her shoes, and Hallie knew it.

      “You okay?” Meagan looked worried.

      “Fine…I feel great.”

      “Can you make it back? Do you want me to run and get my dad?”

      Hallie wasn’t about to let Steve Marris see her like this. She straightened and, with effort, managed to smile and act as if nothing was amiss. The burning sensation in her lungs made it nearly impossible to breathe normally. The good news was that the trek back was downhill. The bad news was that she was half a mile from home with an eleven-year-old kid who could run circles around her.

      “I’m sure my dad wouldn’t mind. He’s real understanding.”

      Hallie lied through her teeth. “I’ll be fine, no problem.”

      “You’re sure?”

      “Positive.” Leave it to a kid to humiliate her. As for not sweating, that was a lost cause. Perspiration poured out of her, soaking her hair, beading her upper lip and forehead.

      She made a respectable showing on the way back, jogging past her neighbor and his son toward her front porch. She collapsed on the top step and tried to look as if she’d been enjoying herself, which was something of a trick considering she felt like a candidate for CPR.

      “Aren’t you going to cooldown?” Meagan asked.

      “I thought I’d take a shower.”

      “Dad says you’re supposed to walk after a run and give your body a chance to catch up with itself.” Meagan strolled about, and Hallie joined her, soon discovering that, yes, this part of her workout she could handle. A cool breeze refreshed her, and after a couple of minutes her heart settled back into place.

      After thanking Meagan for the company, Hallie turned to enter the house and saw a familiar car round the corner. Donnalee. Pleased to see her, Hallie waved. Both women led busy lives, and although they talked on the phone practically every day, they weren’t able to get together nearly as often as they would have liked.

      Donnalee was tall and svelte, a striking woman with thick shoulder-length auburn hair. She unfolded her long legs from the car and stood, wearing her elegance naturally, as much a part of her as her soft Southern drawl. They’d met through a mutual friend five years earlier and quickly become friends themselves. Their friendship had grown close; Hallie had much more in common with Donnalee—especially when it came to attitudes and values—than with her college friends. Most of them had married, and some were already on second husbands—while Hallie had yet to find a first. And she wanted her husband to be her first and last. She wanted a marriage like her parents’.

      As professional businesswomen, Donnalee and Hallie shared a great many similar experiences. Over the past couple of years they’d become a support system for each other. If Hallie was having trouble with an employee or a customer or just about anything else, it was Donnalee she talked to. If Donnalee had a problem, it was Hallie she phoned. That they should both feel a need, at the same time, to change the focus of their lives didn’t surprise Hallie. Their thoughts often followed the same paths. They read the same books, enjoyed the same movies, had many of the same tastes. In fact, two years earlier they’d gone shopping separately and purchased the same pair of shoes. The only difference was the color.

      Hallie was a personable sort, and she’d had a lot of friends from the time she was in kindergarten, but she laughed more with Donnalee than she ever had with anyone. Laughed and cried. Donnalee was that kind of soul friend. That kind of real friend.

      “Did you call them?” Donnalee asked.

      “You know I did.” Hallie opened her front door and led the way into the kitchen. She might have lacked culinary skills—she was the first to admit it—but she compensated for that with her artistic flair. The room was bright and cheery, decorated in yellow and white with ivy stenciled along the top of the walls. Hallie removed a plastic bottle of springwater from the refrigerator and poured herself a glass. Her throat felt parched.

      Donnalee pulled out a stool at the kitchen counter and declined Hallie’s offer of water with a quick shake of her head. “What’d you think?”

      “About the brochure?” Hallie decided to break the news quickly, before Donnalee could talk her into signing up. “I’m not going with Dateline.”

      Donnalee didn’t bother to hide her disappointment. “You haven’t talked to them, have you? Because if you had, you’d realize that this is the only practical way to break into the marriage market these days. It isn’t like when we were in college, with eligible men in every direction.”

      “I know that, but I want to try it by myself first.” Two thousand bucks wasn’t anything to sneeze at, and Hallie figured the least she could do was try to meet someone on her own before resorting to spending big bucks. Besides, Donnalee made more money than she did; she could afford Dateline. Hallie’s plan was to give it her best shot and wait to see what happened before maxing out her American Express card.

      “I called Rita,” Hallie confessed. Rita was the mutual friend who’d introduced Hallie to Donnalee. She had a reputation for being both unpredictable and romantic, and she wasn’t above arranging dates for her friends.

      Looking mildly worried, Donnalee leaned forward. “You didn’t tell her I went to Dateline, did you?”

      “No, don’t worry. That’s our little secret. All I said was that I had sort of an awakening this Christmas and decided it’s time I committed myself to a long-term relationship.” She smiled at the memory of their colleague’s reaction. “Rita has this theory about my sudden desire to meet a man. She thinks it has to do with losing my dad, so she says I might end up in a situation I’ll regret.” Hallie shrugged comically. “After all these years of her pushing me to date one man or another, I would’ve figured she’d be pleased to know I was serious about getting married.” Hallie paused, remembering the conversation. “When I told her I was ready for a family, she suggested I find myself a guy with good genes, get myself pregnant and dump him.”

      “Rita said that?”

      Hallie nodded. “Awful, huh?” She liked Rita, made an effort to keep in touch, but they were basically very different kinds of people. For instance, Rita prided herself on saying the most outrageous things.

      “I guess that’s an idea if all you want is to have a child,” Donnalee said hesitantly.

      “Which