“Is Stephanie coming?” Hannah asked, resisting the urge to cross her fingers for luck.
“Yes. She told me she really needed to get out of the house and she’d love to have tea with me. And she was very interested in the new bar cookies you’d baked. Would you cut them for me before you leave, Hannah? I never know how large to make the pieces.”
“I’ll do it,” Michelle offered, getting up to go inside to the gourmet kitchen in her mother’s condo.
“You’ll find a silver serving platter in the cupboard,” Delores called after her. “It has filigree handles and Grandma Knudson gave it to me when I married Doc. She said it had been in her family for almost a hundred years. I think the cookie bars would look lovely on that.”
“I think anything would look lovely on that!” Hannah said, smiling at her mother. “I remember that platter and it’s gorgeous.”
“Shall I leave it to you when I die?” Delores asked.
“Mother! Don’t talk like that!” Hannah gave an involuntary shiver. “I don’t like to think of things like that.”
“But why? Everyone dies eventually. Life is lethal, Hannah.”
“I know that, but I don’t like to talk about it. The only purpose that serves is to make living life less enjoyable. We should savor every moment and live life to the fullest . . . shouldn’t we?”
Delores blinked several times and then she nodded. “Yes, I think we should. And you have a valid point, Hannah. Dwelling on the inevitable does nothing except keep us from enjoying what we have now.”
Michelle came back to the garden just in time to hear her mother’s comment. “That sounds like a deep discussion for such a nice afternoon. It’s a good thing I brought you something to lighten the mood.”
“Oh, good!” Delores said, accepting the small plate that Michelle handed to her. “I’ve wanted to taste these ever since you told me what they were.”
“Me, too,” Hannah admitted, reaching for one of the bar cookies. “Dig in, Michelle. Let’s see if these are good enough to serve to Stephanie with her first glass of champagne, or whether Mother should wait until she has poured the second or third glass.”
Delores laughed and took a bite. And then a beatific expression spread over her face. “These are wonderful, dears!”
“I thought so,” Michelle said. “I made one just a little too large, so I had to cut off the excess. I certainly didn’t want to throw it away, so I took one for the team and ate it.”
“Nice!” Hannah agreed, taking a second bite. “I think the coconut was a great idea, Michelle.”
Hannah was about to reach for her second bar cookie when her cell phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket, glanced at the display, and smiled. “It’s Ross. Do you mind if I take this?”
“Go ahead,” Delores said. “He probably wants to tell you what time he’s going to be home from work.”
“Hi, honey,” Hannah answered the call. She listened for a moment and then she said, “You’re where?”
As the conversation went on, both Delores and Michelle noticed that Hannah’s eager expression faded away to be replaced by a resigned look.
“Of course,” she said. “I understand completely. I’ll see you when you get home, honey.” Hannah ended the call and looked up to see her sister and her mother looking concerned.
“Is something wrong?” Delores asked her.
“No, not really. I’m just disappointed, that’s all. Ross and P.K. are at the airport in Minneapolis and they’re flying out to New York tonight. KCOW wants Ross to do a bio on Tori and he needs to interview some of the people she worked with on Broadway.”
“Of course you’re disappointed, dear,” Delores did her best to console Hannah. “You’re a new bride and your husband is going away.”
“I just wish he’d told me earlier. He could have called me on the way to the airport, or even when he was at home, packing. But he didn’t.”
“He was probably in a rush,” Michelle made an effort to explain Ross’s actions.
“They’re staying at the Weston in the theater district!” Hannah swallowed with some difficulty. She had no idea why she was holding back tears, but she was. “That’s where we stayed when we went to New York for the dessert contest. And he didn’t even think to . . . to . . . invite me to go with him!”
“I’m sure Ross knew that you couldn’t have gone anyway,” Delores said hurriedly. “He knows that you have to work. And he also knows that you’re investigating Tori’s murder.”
“That’s . . . true,” Hannah spoke past the lump in her throat. “I’m just being silly, I know. I would have told him that I couldn’t go, but . . . I really wish he’d asked me anyway!”
Michelle gave her a sympathetic look. “Of course you do, but look on the bright side.”
“There’s a bright side?” Hannah managed to get part of her equilibrium back.
“You bet there is! Now you don’t have to rush straight home after work to fix dinner for Ross.”
“You’re right.” Hannah managed a smile. “And I didn’t have any idea what I was going to make.”
“Now you two girls can join Andrea and the kids for dinner with me!” Delores said. “Doc has a consultation at the hospital and he thinks it might run late. Bill’s working tonight so I invited Andrea and the children to join me at the Lake Eden Inn for dinner. You haven’t seen Tracey and Bethie since you got back from your honeymoon, have you, Hannah?”
“No, I haven’t,” Hannah said, realizing that her mother was right. She hadn’t seen her nieces since the night of her wedding reception, and that had taken place over a week and a half ago. It was a diversion and she welcomed it. If she went straight home from work, she’d probably just dwell on the fact that Ross was gone. “I’ll have to run home to feed Moishe, but I’d love to join you, Mother.”
“Good.” Delores turned to Michelle. “And you’ll come too, won’t you, dear?”