Free Wedding Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke

exactly what her sister meant. Michelle wanted to talk to her alone in the kitchen.
    They waited, leaning against the counter, until the conversation around the table began again. Then Michelle turned to Hannah. “Do you think that was a ruse to get Norman to leave when Ross did?”
    “Oh! I didn’t even think of that!” Hannah exclaimed, keeping her voice low so that no one around the table in the dining room could hear her. “Do you think that’s what Ross was doing?”
    “Could be. And if that’s so, Ross is pretty darn sneaky!”
    “Sneaky? I’m not sure I like that idea. I’d rather think that he just wanted a friend to go with him to the game, and he knows that Norman’s interested in all kinds of photography.” Hannah opened the cupboard and took out six bowls. “Come on, Michelle. I’ll dish up the stew while you take your corn muffins out of the pan and put them in a basket. We also need a bowl of sour cream for anyone who wants a dollop on top of the stew, some of that hot salsa I picked up at the Red Owl, and the bottle of Slap Ya Mama hot sauce for Mike. You can carry all those to the table while I fill the bowls. And when you come back, you can start carrying in the bowls of stew. We’ve got four hungry men out there who want to be fed.”
    While Hannah finished dishing up the stew and Michelle carried bowls to the table, Hannah thought about what her youngest sister had said. It was rather flattering to think that Ross might be a bit jealous of Norman. She wished she could tell him that he didn’t have any reason at all to be jealous, but if Ross wasn’t being devious, she’d look very silly saying something like that to him. It would be wiser for her to say nothing and ignore the whole thing.
    Once dinner was served, Hannah received wonderful compliments on her stew. Ross even said that it was a pity the Food Channel contest was limited to desserts. Michelle’s Cheesy Chili Corn Muffins were also a big hit.
    “Now for the dessert,” Hannah said when everyone had eaten at least two bowls of stew and Mike had finished his third. “Michelle and I need your honest opinion. We’re testing desserts to see which ones we ought to bake for the competition, and Michelle baked a pineapple crisp.”
    Lonnie grinned at Michelle. “If Shelly baked it, it’s bound to be great. I don’t even have to taste it to know that.”
    “Thanks, Lonnie.” Michelle took time to smile at him, and then she said, “But what we really need is your honest criticism and any suggestions you have to make it taste even better.”
    Hannah nodded. “Michelle’s right.”
    The two sisters cleared the table and carried in coffee. Then Michelle cut squares of her dessert while Hannah carried the bowl of Nutmeg and Cinnamon Faux Crème Fraiche to the table. “Just pass the bowl around and take as much as you want after we bring in your dessert. And please think about whether we should serve it to the judges with the topping already on it, or whether we should give the bowl to the judges and let them pass it to each other.”
    Less than five minutes later, everyone was munching happily and the consensus of opinion around the table was that Hannah should deliver the dessert plates to the judges and Michelle should follow in her wake with the bowl of topping so that the judges could taste the dessert without the topping, if they wished, and then take some of the topping and judge it separately.
    “That’ll give you two chances to come out on top,” Norman pointed out. “One chance if they like it better without the topping and another chance if they prefer it with the topping.”
    “Good idea, Norman!” Ross said, patting him on the back.
    “He’s right,” Mike agreed. “That’ll cover all the bases.”
    Michelle turned to Hannah. “I think we should talk to Lisa and Aunt Nancy about running a series of taste tests at The Cookie Jar. We could tell whoever’s there, and The Lake Eden Gossip Hotline would take