Hannah remained silent. She knew that there was no way Lisa was going to accept any excuses for Herb right now. She was far too angry. The best thing Hannah could do to defuse the situation was to distract Lisa and give her something else to think about.

“Come on,” she said, leading the way to her cookie truck. “Let’s take these Christmas gift bags back to The Cookie Jar and see how many pieces of candy they’ll hold. We need to figure out how much we need so that we can make out our work schedule. Christmas is a big busy season for us with all the family gatherings and parties.”

“You’re right,” Lisa said, nodding quickly. “We had a lot more dessert-catering jobs than we expected last Christmas.”

“That’s right. We worked late every night the week before Christmas to fill all those orders.”

“And we had to turn down a couple because we just didn’t have the time,” Lisa recalled. “I’m really sorry, Hannah.”

“Sorry for what?” Hannah stopped in the act of buckling her seat belt to ask.

“I’m sorry I volunteered us for even more work by telling your mother we’d make the candy. I should have asked you first.”

“Don’t be silly. We’re partners. I don’t ask you every time I accept an order, do I?”

“Well, no. But . . .”

“Then you don’t have to ask me,” Hannah said before Lisa could go on. “I was just thinking I’d like to try something really different this Christmas.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Something with butterscotch. We’ve never done anything with butterscotch. I wonder if we could make butterscotch fudge with pretzels in it. Chocolate-covered pretzels are great. Do you think pretzels and butterscotch would go together?”

“I think so. Butterscotch is something almost everyone likes, and you need something salty with the sweetness. If the pretzels don’t work, let’s see what else we can come up with.”

“Okay. We’ll experiment.”

“Good! I love it when we experiment.” Lisa looked excited. “You never know what we’re going to come up with, and sometimes it’s wonderful!”

“And sometimes it’s not,” Hannah reminded her.

“I know, but usually something good comes out of it.”

“Like, remind me never to try this again because it’s yucky?”

Lisa laughed and Hannah breathed a sigh of relief. She’d managed to distract Lisa from her problems.

“Do you have time to do a little experimentation tonight?” Hannah asked her.

“I’ve got nothing but time. The only thing I have to do tonight is give the dogs their dinner, let them run around the backyard for a while, try my chocolate caramels one more time, and go to bed.”

“How about Herb? Will he mind if you’re late getting home?”