“Next time, Andrea.” Hannah gave her an encouraging smile. “You’re a good salesman.”

“Not good enough to convince Mr. Harris. I can usually spot a Looky-Lou a mile off, but I’m beginning to think that he was never serious about buying the old Peterson place.”

Hannah got up to hand her a Chocolate Chip Crunch that was still slightly warm from the oven. Andrea had always loved Chocolate Chip Crunches and Hannah made a mental note to remind Bill not to mention that Ron had been eating them right before he died. “Eat this, Andrea. You’ll feel better with a little chocolate in your system.”

“Maybe.” Andrea took a bite of the cookie and gave a small smile. “I just love these cookies, Hannah. Do you remember the first time you made them for me?”

“I remember,” Hannah answered with a smile. It had been a rainy day in September and Andrea had stayed after school for cheerleading tryouts. Since there’d never been a freshman cheerleader on the varsity squad, Hannah hadn’t held out much hope that Andrea would make it. So Hannah had rushed home from school to make chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for her sister, hoping to take the sting out of Andrea’s disappointment, but she hadn’t checked to make sure she had all the ingredients before she’d started to mix up the dough. The oatmeal canister had been empty and Hannah had crushed up some Corn Flakes as a substitute. The resulting cookies had been wonderful, Andrea had made the cheerleading squad, and she’d raved about Hannah’s Chocolate Chip Crunches ever since.

“I guess there was no real way of knowing that he was just window-shopping.” Andrea took another bite of her cookie and sighed. “He seemed like a real buyer. Even Al Percy thought so. I mean, we didn’t even have to solicit him. He came to us!”

Hannah realized that it might be good for Andrea to talk about her disappointment. “How long ago was that?”

“Three weeks ago on Tuesday. He said he really liked the house, that it had a sense of history about it. I took him inside and he was even more impressed.”

“But you couldn’t get him to make an offer?”

“No, he said he needed to work out some details first. I figured that it was just an excuse and I wrote him off. Sometimes people don’t like to say no and they give you some sort of lame excuse. I really didn’t think I’d hear from him again, but he called me last week and said he was still interested.”

Hannah decided that some sisterly comfort was in order. “Maybe he really wanted to buy, but he couldn’t afford it.”

“I don’t think so. He told me that money wasn’t the problem, that he’d just decided it wouldn’t suit him. And then he got into his rental car and drove away.”

“He was driving a rental?”

“Yes, he said he didn’t want to damage his Jaguar by driving it over gravel roads. For all I know, he doesn’t even have a Jaguar. If I ever see a man in a rug again, I’m not going to believe a single word he says! A man who lies about having hair will lie about anything.”