“I know that. We won’t even mention it.”

“Good. I’ll need you at the hospital later if you’re free. A couple of board members are coming in from Minneapolis and I always behave better if you’re there.”

Hannah was on her way to the tiny bathroom off the kitchen, but she turned in time to see her mother smile. It was a beautiful smile, an appreciative smile that came from the heart. Just seeing the expression on her mother’s face assured her that they’d have a loving marriage.

It didn’t take long for Hannah to shower and dress. She turned the bathroom over to Lisa, who didn’t take more than ten minutes, either, and then they sat down at the workstation with Delores to have a bracing cup of coffee.

“Michelle and I baked something for you while you were gone,” Delores told them.

“You baked?” Hannah felt her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Delores hadn’t baked when they were growing up and, as far as she knew, her mother hadn’t baked since.

“Well . . . I didn’t actually do the baking, but I measured the ingredients.”

“And I’ll bet you did a wonderful job,” Lisa said diplomatically.

“That’s what Michelle said. Of course she had to explain that a stick and a half of butter equaled three-quarters of a cup, but there’s no way I could have known that without softening it up and measuring it.”

“Absolutely right,” Hannah told her, feeling absurdly pleased that her mother had measured ingredients to help Michelle bake for them. “What did you bake?”

“Tio Tito’s Sublime Lime Bars.”

“Who’s Tio Tito?” Lisa asked her.

“He’s the man who makes the vodka that we put in the cookie bars. Tito is his nickname and tio means uncle in Spanish.”

“How did you come up with the name?” Lisa asked her.

“Michelle named them. She took a summer school class in Spanish and she thought it sounded cute.”

“We can’t sell those to minors, Mother,” Hannah reminded her, “not with alcohol in them.”

“Oh, they’re not for sale. They’re for you and Lisa. When Doc called, he told me to run across to the Municipal Liquor Store and buy a bottle of brandy to put in your coffee. But Hank had so many different kinds of brandy, I couldn’t decide. Then I noticed that one bottle had a copper top and it was different from all the rest so I bought that. I didn’t realize that it was vodka and not brandy until I got back here.”

“What made you decide to bake with it instead of pouring it in our coffee?” Lisa asked her.

“It was Michelle’s idea. She remembered the Double Whammy Lemon Cake you made for my last party and she decided to try it in lime cookie bars.”

Hannah smiled at her mother to show she was about to tease her. “They sound wonderful. Are we going to talk about them, or do we actually get to taste them?”