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it. Moishe had refused to touch the shrimp and Hannah had ended up making shrimp gumbo for tonight’s dinner.
    â€œI can’t tell you how much I appreciate the way he got rid of that mouse!”
    â€œAnd I can’t tell you what fun he had,” Hannah countered. That was true, too. She couldn’t tell her mother about the fun that Moishe hadn’t had.
    After Hannah had said good-bye and hung up the phone, she turned to find Lisa staring at her curiously. “Sorry, but I couldn’t help but overhear your part of the conversation. Did your mother just give you a catering order?”
    â€œYes, for peach cobbler. She’s ordering one pan from us, and one from the Magnolia Blossom Bakery. The ladies in the Lake Eden Quilting Society are going to compare them.”
    â€œIt sounds like a Bake-Off where the contestants all have to make the same dish.”
    â€œWith one important difference,” Hannah said, looking slightly abashed. “I was so excited at the prospect of facing down Shawna Lee and Vanessa, I forgot that I’d never made a peach cobbler before in my life!”
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    â€œDefinitely better,” Andrea said, popping another spoonful of Hannah’s peach cobbler into her mouth. “You won, Hannah!”
    â€œWhat do you think, Tracey?” Hannah asked her five-year-old niece, who’d just gotten out of school.
    â€œIt’s yummy.” Tracey nodded so hard, her blond curls bounced. “Can you bake this for my birthday, Aunt Hannah?”
    â€œSure,” Hannah promised. Tracey’s birthday was in September and this was February. Tracey would probably change her mind several times in the interim.
    â€œBut I always make you a Jell-O Cake for your birthday,” Andrea reminded her, sounding a bit hurt.
    â€œI know, Mommy. And that’s what I want for my regular birthday cake. Your Jell-O Cake is my very favorite. But I was wondering if maybe, since it’s my birthday, I could have two desserts.”
    â€œWell…I think that might be arranged,” Andrea said.
    Hannah noticed that her sister was all smiles again. She’d long thought that her niece would make a great candidate for the diplomatic corps and now she was even more convinced.
    Every chair at the back of the coffee shop was filled for this important taste testing. Lisa had called in Hannah’s most ardent fans. Lisa’s husband-to-be was there, of course. And once Herb had learned the purpose of Lisa’s urgent summons, he’d stopped at the community center library to pick up his mother, Marge Beeseman, and Lisa’s father, Jack Herman.
    â€œHere comes Daddy!” Tracey called out as Bill Todd, the new Winnetka County Sheriff, came in the front door. Sheriff Todd was accompanied by his former partner and the man who made Hannah’s pulse approximate a ragged drumroll, detective Mike Kingston.
    â€œAre we too late?” Mike asked.
    â€œJust in time,” Lisa said, dishing up two more bowls. Correctly interpreting that Hannah had been rendered momentarily speechless by the warm smile of greeting Lake Eden’s most-wanted bachelor had given her, Lisa told both men to pull up chairs by Delores and Carrie, who’d dashed in from Granny’s Attic next door. Winthrop Harrington the Second, Hannah’s mother’s significant other, sat between Delores and Carrie, and Norman, who’d dropped in between dental appointments, completed the roster of taste testers.
    â€œYou’re here to compare our peach cobbler with the peach cobbler they serve at the Magnolia Blossom Bakery,” Lisa repeated the instructions Hannah had given the others. “We need to know if you think it’s better, the same, or not as good.”
    â€œLike anybody’s going to say it’s not as good with Aunt Hannah sitting right here,” Tracey said “Sorry, Mommy. I know we’re supposed to give our honest opinion, or it