“Welcome, everyone.” MJ stepped in to be the greeter. “Glad you could come. There is coffee and tea on the corner table.”

“And I brought cookies,” Maureen’s daughter Josie announced. “Can’t have a meeting without cookies.”

“Hey, I didn’t know that was a law.” Roxie smiled at her. “And knowing you, they are homemade.”

“How embarrassing to bring store-bought.” Josie pulled the lid off her plastic container, releasing cinnamon oatmeal fragrance.

“Are they even cooled yet?”

“Oh, yes, took the last batch out of the oven at eight, so please, everyone, help yourself.”

Roxie set out a Sharpie and a deck of HELLO–MY NAME IS labels. “So, here are name tags, just in case we have people we don’t know.” She saw Maxine, a recently widowed retired schoolteacher. “Maxine, what are you working on and the magic question—when did you start it?”

The unashamedly gray-haired woman held up a variegated rust cable-knit sweater back. “Let’s just say that the grandson I started this for is now a football player at the high school.”

“And that is size…?”

“Oh, six or so. I’ll find someone to give it to. Thought of unraveling it but the back is finished; this is the front, and the sleeves will go quickly, no cable there.”

“I love that I’m not the only one,” Roxie sighed.

They had one crocheter, halfway through a baby afghan, and a painter who was setting up her easel. “I want to give this to my daughter for a wedding gift in a month so I really need to get on it.”

“Any of you find that our first organizational meeting spurred you to working on your number one after the meeting?”

They all nodded. Roxie turned when she heard the door open. “Ginny.” She leaped to her feet. “Oh, I’m so glad to see you.”

Ginny smiled weakly. “You can blame Amalia. She said I had to get out.”

Right behind her, Amalia looked up toward her hat brim. Her hat today was the straw boater.

“If you are trying to look angelic, it isn’t working.” MJ’s smile nearly burst open her face.

“Oh, well, we are here and we have things to work on so…Is that oatmeal cookies I smell?”Amalia sniffed the air.

“Josie is going to get wealthy bottling that perfume.” Maxine commented. “Ginny, I am so sorry.”

Ginny blinked. “Thank you.” She held up a table runner she had quilted. “Down to the handwork and it’s been waiting since last winter.”

“You going to make napkins to go with that?”

“Years ago, I made napkins for my house for every season. Hand-hemmed them all.” Several groans. “But I took them everywhere—to meetings to work on and avoid talking and volunteering for anything.”

“Did it work?”