Chapter Seven
“Good-bye, Aunt Hannah. See you later!” Tracey gave her a kiss that landed on her chin, and then she ran over to hug Lisa. Once that was done, she gave a little wave in Candy’s direction. “’Bye, Candy. It was nice meeting you.”
“Nice meeting you, too,” Candy said, giving Tracey a friendly smile. “Sorry about that fraction thing.”
“That’s okay. You didn’t know. And I didn’t know either!”
Both Candy and Tracey laughed at that, and Hannah watched her niece as she went out the back door with Janice Cox, her preschool teacher. Janice had come in to pick up some cookies she’d ordered, and she’d offered to give Tracey a ride to Kiddie Korner.
“Come on, Candy. You can help me set up the tables,” Lisa said, herding the young teenager, who claimed to be twenty, into the coffee shop. “Once that’s done, we’ll open and I’ll teach you how to go around with the coffee.”
Once they’d left, Hannah reached for the steno pad that contained the information she’d gathered about Candy, and took out her pen to make another entry. Only child? she wrote. It was clear that Candy hadn’t had much experience with preschoolers. When Tracey had offered to help Candy mix up the dough for the Chocolate Mint Softies they were serving for the Lake Eden Quilting Club’s Christmas party, Candy had handed her the recipe and asked her to measure the brown sugar.
If Hannah had heard the exchange, she would have told Tracey how much was called for in the recipe and given her the correct measuring cup. Her niece knew how to measure brown sugar. She’d helped Hannah and Lisa bake before. She could even identify the line that called for brown sugar in the list of ingredients because she could read the words brown and sugar. But the Chocolate Mint Softies called for two-thirds of a cup of brown sugar. And while Tracey knew her whole numbers up to twenty, she didn’t know her fractions yet. If Candy’d had a little sister or brother, or if she’d spent time with kids Tracey’s age, she would have known that most five-year-olds couldn’t even read yet, and it would be several more years before they understood fractions.
Once she’d stuffed the list of clues to Candy’s identity back in the bottom of her purse, Hannah began to fill the display jars. She’d just finished helping Lisa and Candy carry them out into the coffee shop when Andrea came in the back door.
“Well?” Andrea asked, breezing in without knocking. She shut the door, took several steps forward, and turned around smoothly like a model. “What do you think?”
“Gorgeous,” Hannah replied. Her comment referred to her sister’s hairstyle, an elaborate twist with feathered curls softly framing her face, and also to her outfit. Andrea was wearing a bright coral wool suit with fur around the collar. It was a color that Hannah would wear only if she wanted to help Jon Walker, the owner of the Lake Eden Neighborhood Pharmacy, sell his entire stock of sunglasses. Redheads couldn’t wear coral. It was a law. Or if it wasn’t a law, it should be.
“I think the butterscotch is good, don’t you?”
For a moment Hannah thought her sister was referring to the batch of cookies she’d taken to Bill and Mike at the sheriff’s station. Then she noticed that Andrea was holding out one foot to show off her high-heeled boots that were made from butterscotch-colored leather.
“Very nice,” Hannah said, wondering how Andrea could possibly walk in heels that high. “I hope you’re not showing a farm.”
“I’m not, but why?”
“Those heels are pretty high for the country, especially if you have to walk up banks of snow.”
“High heels are better than flat heels. I can dig in with these and I don’t slip.”
Hannah’s mind flashed back to a documentary she’d seen about mountain climbing and the pitons they used as footholds to scale steep slopes. She could visualize her sister in the Himalayas, digging in with her heels and walking right up to the top of the mountain, passing veteran climbers and their Sherpas alike.
“Why are you smiling like that?”
Hannah knew Andrea wouldn’t think her mental image was funny, so she made up something on the spot. “I couldn’t even walk in those things, much less climb snow banks.”
“I know you couldn’t. You never bothered to practice. Remember how I used to walk up and down on the living room rug in my heels?”
Hannah remembered, and the memory brought on another smile. Andrea had clocked miles on their lime-green living room carpet wearing heels and whatever old clothes she’d put on after school. Sometimes it was jeans and high heels. In the summer, it was shorts and high heels. Occasionally it was pajamas and high heels.
“If you’d practiced as much as I did, you’d be comfortable in high heels.”
“No, I wouldn’t. I have lousy balance and no inclination to break my neck.”
“Well, whatever.” Andrea patted her shoulder bag purse. “This purse wasn’t made by the same manufacturer, but I think it’s a good match with my boots.”
“Looks good to me,” Hannah said. She’d never bothered having shoes and purses that matched, but both her mother and Andrea insisted that mismatched accessories were a fashion no-no.
“Bill called me a couple of minutes ago and said he might drop by. You clued in Lisa, didn’t you?”
“Yes, if you’re talking about her fictional aunt. And she knows that Candy is a runaway who’s supposed to be my college roommate’s younger sister.”
“How about Candy? Does she know who she’s supposed to be?”
“Not yet. I thought I’d let you tell her. You’re the one who made up her cover story.”
“All right. Where is she?”
“In the front helping Lisa. I’ll go get her and introduce you. Be really careful. She’s still a little nervous, and she might run if you say the wrong…”
Hannah stopped speaking as the swinging door between the coffee shop and the kitchen barged open and Candy rushed in. She didn’t look to the right or the left. She just made a beeline for the back door, jerked it open, and rushed out.
“Uh-oh!” Hannah gasped. “I’d better go catch…”
For the second time in a row, she stopped speaking in midsentence, but this time it was from sheer relief. Norman was coming in the back door, and he had Candy by the arm.
“We’ve got to stop meeting this way,” he said, grinning down at her. “Why were you running like that? I thought you and Hannah worked things out.”
“She called the cops!” Candy gasped. “She promised me she wouldn’t but she…”
“No, I didn’t,” Hannah interrupted.
“Well, one just came in the door. And Lisa must have known what you were going to do, because she said ‘Hi’ to him!”
“Bill?” Hannah guessed, turning to Andrea.
“Bill,” Andrea concurred, getting up from her stool. “I’d better go out there before he comes back here.” She turned to Candy. “Nice to meet you, Candy. Bill’s my husband and he won’t bother you. I’m going to tell him that you’re Hannah’s college roommate’s sister.”
“What was that again?” Candy asked, looking perplexed.
“Hannah will explain everything. But I want you to know that you don’t have to worry about a thing. There’s no way we’re going to let you spend Christmas at the county children’s home.”
CHOCOLATE MINT SOFTIES
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position
2 one-ounce squares unsweetened baking chocolate
? cup (1 stick, ? pound) butter at room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup white (granulated) sugar
? teaspoon baking soda
? teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
? teaspoon chocolate extract (if you can’t find it, just use vanilla)
? cup sour cream
2 cups flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
? cup very coarsely chopped pecan pieces (you’ll want some big pieces)
Line your cookie sheets with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Leave little “ears” of foil sticking up on the side, large enough to grab later. (This is so you can slide the cookies and the foil right off the sheet when they’re baked.)
Unwrap the squares of chocolate and break them apart. Put them in a small microwave-safe bowl. (I use a 16-ounce measuring cup.) Melt them for 90 seconds on HIGH. Stir them until they’re smooth and set them aside to cool while you mix up your cookie dough.
Hannah’s 1st Note: Mixing this dough is a lot easier with an electric mixer. You can do it by hand, but it’ll take some muscle.
Combine the butter and sugars together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat them on medium speed until they’re smooth. This should take less than a minute.
Add the baking soda and salt, and resume beating on medium again for another minute, or until they’re incorporated.
Add the egg and beat on medium until the batter is smooth (an additional minute should do it.) Add the peppermint and chocolate extracts, and mix for about 30 seconds.
Shut off the mixer and scrape down the bowl. Then add the melted chocolate and mix again for another minute on medium speed.
Shut off the mixer and scrape down the bowl again. At low speed, mix in half of the flour. When that’s incorporated, mix in the sour cream.
Scrape down the bowl again and add the rest of the flour. Beat until it’s fully incorporated.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and give it a stir with a spoon. Mix in the pecan pieces by hand. (A firm rubber spatula works nicely.)
Use a teaspoon to spoon the dough onto the foil-lined cookie sheets, 12 cookies to a standard-sized sheet. (If the dough is too sticky for you to work with, chill it for a half-hour or so, and try again.) Bake the cookies at 350 degrees F., for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they rise and become firm.
Slide the foil from the cookie sheets and onto a wire rack. Let the cookies cool on the rack while the next sheet of cookies is baking. When the next sheet of cookies is ready, pull the cooled cookies onto the counter or table and slide the foil with the hot cookies onto the rack. Keep alternating until all the dough has been baked.
When all the cookies are cool, set them out on waxed paper for frosting.
Chocolate Butter Frosting:
2 one-ounce squares unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered (confectioners’) sugar
1 ? teaspoons vanilla extract
Approximately 2 Tablespoons cream (or milk)
Unwrap the squares of chocolate and break them apart. Put them in a small microwave-safe bowl. (I use a 16-ounce measuring cup.) Melt them for 90 seconds on HIGH. Stir them until they’re smooth and set them aside to cool.
When the chocolate is cool, mix in the butter. Then stir in the powdered sugar. (There’s no need to sift unless it has big lumps.)
Mix in the vanilla extract and the cream. Beat the frosting until it’s of spreading consistency.
Hannah’s 2nd Note: This frosting is the no-fail type. If it’s too thick, add a bit more cream. If it’s too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar.
Frost your cookies and leave them on the waxed paper until the frosting has hardened. (If you’re like me, you’ll sneak one while the frosting is still soft, just to test it, of course.)
When the frosting has hardened, arrange the cookies on a pretty platter and enjoy. They store well in a covered container if you separate the layers with wax paper.
Hannah’s 3rd Note: Lisa says that when she’s in a hurry and doesn’t have time to make a frosting, she just sprinkles the cookies with a little powdered sugar while they’re still warm. She does a second sprinkling when they’re cool and calls it a day.
Yield: Approximately 6 dozen cookies