“They loved the Butterscotch Sugar Cookies,” Michelle said as soon as the door had closed behind Ross, Mike, Norman, Lonnie, and P.K.
“I know. Did you have one?”
“One?” Michelle gave a rueful laugh. “I had four, and my jeans are going to know it when I try to zip them up tomorrow morning.”
“Stretch out on your back on the bed to do it,” Hannah advised.
“Does that work?”
“Like a charm. I’ve been using that trick for years when I put on extra weight.” Hannah switched gears. “Let’s take a second to talk about the competition tomorrow night. We’re serving the cookies, that’s a given, but I thought the flavor of the White Chocolate Mocha was a little sweet with the butterscotch. What did you think?”
“I think you’re right, but I have a solution. We can serve the same champagne cocktail that Sally served at Mother and Doc’s wedding reception. That wasn’t as sweet as the White Chocolate Mocha. But if we do that, we’ll lose the benefit of coffee in the drink.”
Hannah thought about that for a moment. “That’s true, but we can serve the coffee after the champagne cocktail.”
“Great idea!” Michelle said, smiling at Hannah.
“Thanks.” Hannah yawned and rubbed her eyes. “I don’t know about you, but I’m really tired. It’s almost midnight and we have to be at the Lake Eden Inn at six-thirty to practice.”
“That’s more sleep than I usually get, but it’s probably a good thing. Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day with the practice so early in the morning and the competition at night. I’m almost sorry the producers gave us an extra practice session to make up for the one we didn’t get to finish.”
“Me too. I’m so tired, I can’t keep my eyes open any longer.” Hannah got to her feet. “I’ll see you in the morning, Michelle. I’m too tired to talk about the footage tonight, but let’s compare notes tomorrow. Ross isn’t stopping by on his way to work in the morning, so all we have to do is make a pot of coffee and drink it on our way out to the lake. We can eat breakfast at the Corner Tavern on our way back from the practice session, and we’ll talk about the footage then.”
“That sounds good to me.” Michelle looked around the living room as they headed for the hallway and the bedrooms beyond. “Where’s Moishe? He didn’t get out, did he?”
“No. He’s on his pillow sleeping. He conked out about halfway through the footage.”
“You mean when the last piece of pizza was gone?”
“That’s exactly when. And I don’t think that was a coincidence.”
The two sisters parted ways near the end of the hallway. Michelle turned right to go into the guest room, and Hannah went straight into the master bedroom. Just as she’d told her sister, Moishe was stretched out on a feather pillow, but it wasn’t his feather pillow.
“Not again,” Hannah sighed, but she was smiling. She had bought a second expensive feather pillow, the exact duplicate of her pillow, to keep Moishe from stealing hers in the middle of the night. The two pillows were interchangeable, but he always stole her pillow anyway.
“Fine. I’ll get yours later,” she said, heading off to the master bath to take her shower before she went to bed, so she wouldn’t have to shower in the morning.
Ten minutes later, Hannah had toweled dry and she was dressed in her oldest pair of flannel pajamas. They had been marked down to five dollars at CostMart and after one glance, Hannah had immediately known why. The pajamas sported the most hideous tartan design in bright yellow, screaming pink, and neon green that Hannah had ever seen.
“Note to self,” she said after one glance in the mirror. “Do not take tartan pajamas on your honeymoon.”
When Hannah reentered her bedroom, Moishe was still in the same, cat-run-over-by-a-snowplow position on her pillow. He was snoring softly, making little beeping noises that she found endearing. She watched him for a moment until her eyelids started to feel very heavy and then she carefully removed his pillow from his side of the bed, pulled hers, complete with snoring, sleeping cat on top, over to his side of the bed. She plunked his pillow down on her side, and crawled in under the covers. She was happy, she was in love, and she knew what she was baking for the competition tomorrow. Life was good in Lake Eden, Minnesota . . . if you didn’t count the latest murder.
WHITE CHOCOLATE MOCHA
5 and ? ounces white chocolate chips (Michelle used half of an eleven-ounce net weight bag of Ghirardelli Classic White)
? teaspoon vanilla extract
2 and ? cups whole milk
? teaspoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon instant coffee granules (Michelle used Taster’s Choice)
Sweetened whipped cream to garnish
Freshly grated nutmeg to sprinkle on top
Place the white chocolate chips, along with the vanilla extract, in a microwave-safe bowl on the counter.