“You’re not feeding people,” Pearl said. “You’re just giving them a little treat. You can’t have a sleepover without a midnight snack.”

“And/or a midnight tipple,” Maya said. “I have twelve bottles of wine being delivered a little later.”

“You guys, I only have one functioning bathroom at the moment. We need to be dehydrating people.”

“Wine and lemon pie?” Pearl asked, brazenly ignoring Eve.

“It’s some kind of late-harvest Riesling,” Maya said. “Benjamin ordered it for me from his wholesaler. He said it pairs well with lemon.” She rolled her eyes. “Who knows. He’s probably pranking me, and it will be terrible.”

“He’s going to be in the auction, you know,” Pearl said.

“Well, good for him,” Maya said. “Since you’re in the market, why don’t you bid on him?” Pearl started to argue, but Maya turned to Eve and said, loudly, “Let’s go check things out.”

The festival was in full swing out back. There was a stage set up, and a local band was playing. There was a face-painting booth, a “cake” walk featuring more of Pearl’s pies, and various carnival-style games.

It was a gorgeous day. The sugar maples that would be fire-engine red by the end of the month were starting to pinken. There was a not-unpleasant chill in the air—Law’s employee Amber was running a stand out back of the bar that was selling hot cider and mulled wine, and it looked like it was doing a brisk business.

They rounded the corner of the stage, and there, of course, was Sawyer. He was speaking to Eiko.

“I can’t,” Sawyer was saying to her. “I’m on duty. I’m in uniform.”

“Oh, pish. No one cares about that. Your uniform will probably up your price.”

“Well, I care about it. I’m working, Eiko.”

“Poor Sawyer,” Maya whispered. “Eiko’s all over the place trying to pre-matchmake the auction.”

Eve wondered who Eiko had in mind to bid on Sawyer. Sadie of the cute diner and tasty food, perhaps? “And here I thought she wasn’t as bad as the rest of them.”

“Oh, she is. If it seems like she’s not, it’s because she’s not retired yet like her coconspirators. She owns the newspaper and basically writes and produces it by herself. But that also means she has her nose in everybody’s business, like, professionally. Then she reports back to Pearl and Karl and Art, who execute the meddling.”

As if on cue, Eiko turned her head. You could practically see the gears turning as her eyes slid from Eve to Maya.

“Gotta run!” Maya chirped. “Love ya!” And she was off.

Eiko furrowed her brow as her gaze followed Maya.

Eve seized on the break in Eiko’s attention to try to extract Sawyer from her clutches. “Sawyer! Come quick!”