“Well, let’s get this over with before it rains or something. I’ve got a dump-truck load of sugar down there waiting.” Richard looked truly beleaguered. “I’ll be just as glad when that last commercial is in the can as you will, you know!” he barked.

“Nobody could possibly be that glad, Richard,” Shay replied tartly. “Now get out of my office, will you please? I need some time to prepare for my big scene.”

Richard muttered a single word as he left. It might have been “witch,” but Shay wasn’t betting on it.

The moment she was alone, she punched the button on her intercom. “Ivy? Would you get Todd on the phone, please?”

Instead of giving her answer over the wire, Ivy dashed into the office to demand in person, “Why? Shay, what are you planning to do?”

Shay sank into her desk chair with a sigh. Because she didn’t have the strength to spar with Ivy, she answered readily. “I’ve decided that it’s time to step out on my own, Ivy. I’m going to open my catering business and I’ll need a place to work from.”

Ivy’s expression revealed two distinct and very different emotions: admiration and disappointment. “Wow,” she said.

“Make the call, Ivy,” Shay replied briskly, shuffling papers around on her desk in a pretense of being too busy to talk.

Five minutes later Todd was on the line. He listened to Shay’s comments on the sort of building she needed and, bless him, asked no personal questions whatsoever. He had two good prospects, in fact: a Victorian house on Hill Street and a small restaurant overlooking the ocean. Both were available for lease with options to buy, and both had been abandoned for a considerable length of time.

Shay smiled into the telephone receiver. “You’re telling me that they’re fixer-uppers, aren’t you, Todd?”

Todd laughed. “Yes, but the prices are right. Do you want to look at them?”

“Oh, yes, and as soon as possible.”

“How about tonight, after you get off work?”

Despite her weariness, Shay felt a thrill of excitement. After all, she was doing something she had only dreamed about before: she was starting her own business. “That will be great. Why don’t we make an evening of it? I’ll order a pizza and throw together a salad and you and Ivy can have dinner with me.”

“Sounds terrific,” Todd agreed warmly. “See you at five.”

“Five-thirty would be better. I’ve got a commercial to do this morning, and that always makes me fall behind on everything else.”

“Five-thirty, then,” Todd confirmed.

To save Ivy the trouble of an inquisition, Shay went out to her desk and relayed the plan. Ivy, who loved any sort of get-together no matter how casual or how highbrow, was delighted.

Chuckling, Shay started toward the stairs, ready for the third commercial. On the top step, she paused and turned to look back at her friend. “Don’t you dare call your brother, either!”

Ivy beamed, sitting up very straight behind her computer terminal. “Too late!” she sang back.