Part 2 (2/2)
”These cookies are winners, Hannah.” Andrea took one more bite, then leaned forward. ”So? What do you think about Norman's plans?”
”They're great. I can hardly wait to see our dream house.”
”Then you said yes?”
Hannah bit back a grin, knowing full well what her sister was asking. ”Yes to what?”
”To marrying Norman, of course!”
”No.”
”Then you said no?”
Hannah shook her head. ”I didn't say anything. Norman didn't ask me.”
”He didn 't? I thought for sure he would.” Andrea began to look anxious. ”He's not dating anyone else, is he?”
”Not that I know of.”
”Well... that's good. Maybe you should give him a little nudge in the right direction. You're not getting any younger, and if you want to have kids ...” Andrea stopped in mid-sentence and sighed. ”Sorry, Hannah. I'm beginning to sound like Mother.”
”Yes, you are.”
”But at least I stopped before I got to your biological clock ticking down.”
”No, you didn't. You just said it.”
30.
Andrea looked nonplussed for a moment, but she recovered quickly. ”I said I was sorry. Look, Hannah ... I know it's a touchy subject with you. I apologize for bringing it up.”
Hannah's mouth dropped open. Andrea didn't apologize often. She had to squelch the urge to rush down to Lake Eden Neighborhood Drugs to buy a box of gold stars like the ones Miss Gladke had used to mark special days on the cla.s.sroom calendar. She was about to say she accepted Andrea's apology when Lisa came back to the table.
”It's good news and bad news,” Lisa informed them. ”Which one do you want to hear first?”
Hannah made an instant decision. ”The bad news. We'll save the good for last.”
”That was the caterer. Pamela's parents canceled the wedding. She had a big fight with Toby and she eloped with the boy she used to date in high school.”
Hannah groaned. ”I think you'd better tell us the good news now.”
”I told the caterer we'd baked all the cookies and she promised to pay us for them. She said she'd send a check and we could keep them.”
”That's nice. But what are we going to do with them? We can't sell cookies with the bride and groom's initials on them, unless...” Hannah reached out for a paper napkin and flipped it over so she had a perfectly blank square. ”Do you have a pen?”
”I always have a pen.” Andrea reached in her briefcase and pulled out her gold Cross pen.
Hannah drew a large circle and wrote Pam's and Toby's initials inside. She stared at it for a moment and then she turned to Lisa. ”Will you get one of the wedding cookies for me? I've got an idea.”
A moment later, a sample cookie was resting on a napkin in the center of the table. Hannah studied it for a moment, then looked up at Lisa with a grin. ”Is there room to squeeze an 'H' and an 'A' in front of Pam's initials?”
LEMON MERINGUE PIE MURDER 31.
'There's plenty of s.p.a.ce. I had to leave room for the purple heart.”
Andrea looked surprised. ”Was the groom a war hero?”
”No, but he deserves to be for putting up with Pamela.” Hannah turned to Lisa again. ”How about a ' Y' at the end of Pain's initials?”
”That's easy. What are we doing to Toby's initials?”
”Not much. All we have to do is put a big number four in front.”
”I get it!” Andrea said, sounding excited. ”Then they'll say, 'HAPPY 4TH.' The cookies are white. If you do all the letters in blue and the number in red, they'll be Independence Day cookies.”
Lisa pushed back her chair. ”It's perfect, Hannah. FH'get started on them right now. I need to match that blue frosting before it dries.”
”Won't the cookies get old before the Fourth?” Andrea asked. ”It's five days away.”
”Not if we decorate mem and pop them in the freezer. We'll thaw them the night before and give them out at the parade.”
”Tracey can do that for you,” Andrea offered. ”She's almost five and that's old enough to be in the parade. She could ride on The Cookie Jar float and pa.s.s out the cookies.”
Hannah shook her head. ”That's a nice idea, but we don't have a float.”
”No float?” Andrea looked shocked.
”We wanted to build one, but we didn't have time, not to mention the money it would have cost us.”
”But you've got to have a float! Everybody's having a float. I'll build it for you, Hannah. It'll be a run project for me.”
Hannah opened her mouth to say that ”fun” was a noun, not an adjective, but she didn't have the heart to correct Andrea. Her sister was obviously serious about wanting to build the float. With Tracey in preschool and Bill at work,
32.
<script>