Part 29 (1/2)
”That's a good idea.” Hannah pulled out a bag, filled it with a dozen cookies, and handed it to Jed. ”Take these to Freddy and tell him they're from both of us.”
”Thanks, Hannah. You're really a great person, you know?”
Once the door had closed behind Jed, Hannah gave another long sigh. She hoped that Freddy had learned his lesson and that Jed would keep a better eye on him.
The next few minutes were slow, so Hannah took advantage of her downtime by refilling the sugar dispensers and stocking the tables with packets of artificial sweetener. She'd never figured out why people who'd scarf down cookies would put artificial sweetener in their coffee, but they did. She'd just finished when Mich.e.l.le walked in through the swinging door from the kitchen.
”Hi, Hannah.” Mich.e.l.le hugged herself and s.h.i.+vered slightly. ”Lisa's cupcakes look fantastic, but I'm not supposed to say 258 any more than that. It's really cold in your kitchen with that air conditioner running full blast.”
Hannah stared at her sister's outfit. Mich.e.l.le was wearing a pair of white shorts that were so tight she probably had to stretch out on the bed to zip them up. Her pink spandex top barely covered what it had to legally cover and while the outfit looked good on her, it wasn't the sort of thing the Lake Eden girls wore to town. Hannah knew she shouldn't say anything, Mich.e.l.le was old enough to choose her own clothing, but she couldn't resist. ”Maybe if you had more clothes on, you wouldn't think my kitchen was so cold.”
”Not you too!” Mich.e.l.le gave an exasperated sigh. ”You're getting more like Mother every day!”
”That's not necessarily a bad thing,” Hannah countered. ”Mother has her good points.”
”Name one!”
”Well... she's always ... um ...” Hannah paused and then she began to laugh. ”All right. I can't think of any right off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are plenty. How did your lunch with the girls go?”
”Fantastic. I made your spinach quiche and the girls really raved about it. They all wanted the recipe, but I said I'd have to ask you first. It's not a secret or anything, is it?”
Hannah laughed. ”No, you can give it to them.”
”Good. I just came from Granny's Attic and we're all getting together out at the cottage tonight. You'll drive out, won't you?”
”Well...”
”Come on, Hannah. I don't come home that often and it's fun if we all get together. We're having Chinese. Since you're on a diet, Mother called in a whole order of vegetables for you. Lonnie's picking up the food on his way out to the lake.”
”You're seeing Lonnie two nights in a row?”
”Yes,” Mich.e.l.le said, and her cheeks turned pink. ”Our date got cut short last night with Freddy and all, and we've still got a lot of catching up to do.”
LEMON MERINGUE PIE MURDER 259.
Hannah decided not to say anything. As Delores might describe it when she was in her Regency-speak mode, Mich.e.l.le had a telling blush.
”It's not serious, so don't start worrying. It's just that Raj and I are so different.”
”Oh?”
”He grew up in New York City and he doesn't know anything about small-town life. When I called him last night, I told him about the potluck picnic and barbecue, and how everyone brings their best dish.”
”And?” Hannah waited for the punch line.
”He said he'd never been to a potluck picnic, but it sounded like a lot of work to him. And then he asked me why they didn't just call someone in to cater the whole thing.”
”Different cultures?”
”And different incomes,” Mich.e.l.le said with a sigh. ”He told me his mother's never set foot in their kitchen. They have a full-time cook.”
”Imagine that,” Hannah commented, biding her time.
”Raj thinks everything I tell him about Lake Eden is amusing. It's almost like he thinks we're all country b.u.mpkins.”
Hannah had the feeling that Raj wouldn't be in the picture for much longer. ”I guess we might seem that way to someone who was raised in a cosmopolitan city.”
”I know, but his att.i.tude burns me sometimes. He thinks he knows everything and I don't know anything.” Mich.e.l.le glanced down at her watch. ”I'd better hit the road. I'm running out to CostMart. Do you need anything?”
Hannah was about to say no when she remembered the down pillow. ”Will you see if their goose-down pillows came in? Andrea tried to buy one for me, but they were sold out. She brought me a rain check for the sale price.”
”Sure.” Mich.e.l.le waited until Hannah had produced her rain check and handed it over. ”I'm going to buy a new bathing suit. And before you ask, I'm getting a one-piece.”
”A one-piece that doesn't have strategic holes? And isn't 260 cut up to here?” Hannah pointed to a spot on the outside of her thigh that was almost as high as her waist.
”Don't worry. It'll be modest enough to please even Mother. What time do you think you'll be out at the cabin?”
Hannah thought about her time schedule. There was no cookie dough to mix for tomorrow. They were closed for the Fourth and she was taking Sat.u.r.day off to give them a three-day weekend. ”Right after we close, I'll run home to feed Moishe and then I'll drive out. I should be there by six-thirty or seven.”
”Okay. I'll bring your pillow if they have them.” ”Do you want me to give you some money?” ”Mother gave me her credit card. I'll use it and you can settle up with her later.”
Mich.e.l.le went out the front door and Hannah watched as a pa.s.sing car slowed down so the driver could stare. The outfit her baby sister was wearing was what the older generation of women in Lake Eden would refer to as a husband-catcher. Hannah knew that Mich.e.l.le wasn't thinking of marriage at this point in her life, but the weatherman on KCOW radio was predicting cooler temperatures and rain for this evening. If Mich.e.l.le wore her husband-catcher outfit tonight, what she'd catch would be a nasty summer cold.
-It was five-thirty, The Cookie Jar was closed, and Hannah *
was adding up the day's receipts when Lisa came into the coffee shop. ”I'm done, Hannah.”
”Already?” Hannah was surprised. Lisa had made fast work of baking the cupcakes. , ”The only thing left is to store them in the cooler. Go take a look and tell me what you think.”
Hannah headed for the kitchen feeling slightly guilty. Their dessert for the town picnic and barbecue was all finished and all she'd done was dash to the Red Owl for a few items.
”Oh, my!” Hannah gasped, as she stepped through the swinging door and caught sight of the trays of cupcakes that 261.
Lisa had made. Some were frosted with bright blue icing, others with bright red, and the rest with white. The cupcakes were standing on six of Hannah's largest rectangular serving trays and each tray was arranged to resemble the American flag with alternating rows of red and white. The upper left-hand corner of each tray was a field of blue cupcakes and Lisa had even piped little white stars on the blue icing.
As she approached the trays, Hannah realized that the cupcakes were in edible containers. Lisa had used ice cream cones instead of cupcake papers.
”Well? What do you think?”
Hannah turned to see Lisa grinning at her from the doorway. ”They're really wonderful!”
”I didn't know for sure if the cones would work, but I couldn't see any reason why they wouldn't.”
”And you were right,” Hannah said, walking over to give her partner a hug. ”They're perfect for the Fourth, and every mother in town is going to thank you.”
”Why?”