Nobody volunteered.

“I’m telling you, they’re not hard to do and they’ll be a big seller,” said Willie.

“Okay,” said Lucy. “I’ll do the dog biscuits.”

“Great.” Chris closed her notebook. “I think this was a very successful meeting.”

“She would,” hissed Sue, following Lucy into the kitchen, where she had gone to get a fresh pot of coffee. “Little Miss Bossy. She’s taken over the whole thing.”

“Well, that’s what we wanted, wasn’t it?” said Lucy, grabbing the pot and heading back to the living room.

“I don’t like it one bit,” said Sue.

“You mean you don’t like Chris,” said Lucy, pausing at the kitchen door.

“No, I don’t.” Sue furrowed her perfectly shaped brows and stuck out her Bobbi Brown lips in a pout. “And I’m going to show her. I’m going to come up with a killer recipe that everybody loves, just you wait and see.”

Chapter 4

As soon as the dinner dishes were done on Tuesday night, Lucy decided to dig out the food processor so she could experiment with the dog treat recipe. She’d wasted no time in getting the recipe from Willie; with the next meeting scheduled in less than a week she had no time to lose. She knew it was ridiculous to feel pressured about making dog biscuits for a bake sale but somehow she did. Chris had that effect. Maybe it was her corporate attitude, so different from the relaxed approach of Lucy’s friends. Until now she’d thought Sue was high-powered, but she was a slacker compared to Chris.

Lucy also had a nagging feeling that Sue was angry with her. She’d tried calling several times but all she’d gotten was Sue’s answering machine. Sue was usually very good about returning calls but she hadn’t called back yet. Maybe she was out of town or something, but Lucy didn’t think so. She certainly hadn’t mentioned any plans for a trip. She was pretty sure Sue was giving her the cold shoulder as punishment for supporting Chris’s ideas in the meeting and she couldn’t help feeling that was unfair. She thought a strong friendship like theirs that had endured for twenty years or more ought to have room for differences of opinion, but apparently Sue felt differently. Too bad, thought Lucy, experiencing a touch of anger herself. Sue wasn’t her boss and she was entitled to her own thoughts and feelings. She only hoped this rift wasn’t going to continue for too much longer; she missed her phone chats with Sue. In fact, looking over the recipe for “gourmet” dog biscuits, she could just imagine what Sue would say.

“Raw liver? Yuck.”