must have known that he was already married when he’d proposed to her. And he hadn’t even mentioned it to her. He hadn’t said word one about it during the weeks leading up to their wedding when he’d told her things about his background and family. Were they all lies? Had Ross considered it perfectly all right to marry her when he was already married to someone else? Or was he hoping that he’d never get caught?
As she usually did when she needed to calm down, Hannah reached for the large loose-leaf recipe book at the work station. “I need to bake, guys,” she said to Mike and Norman. “I’m too nervous to just sit here and drink coffee, so I might as well be productive.”
The first thing Hannah did was turn to the new recipe section in the back of the book. When someone gave her a recipe or she came up with one of her own that she wanted to try, she encased them in plastic three-hole folders and put them in her recipe book.
“Which would you rather eat?” Hannah asked them, paging through the recipes she’d collected but hadn’t yet vetted. “I have one for Butterscotch and Chocolate Bar Cookies and another for Coconut Snow Cookies.”
“I’d like the coconut one,” Norman said.
And at the same time, Mike said, “I’d like to try the butterscotch and chocolate ones.”
“Flip a coin,” Hannah told them. “I can only bake one thing at a time.”
Hannah watched as Norman pulled a coin from his pocket. “Better check that,” she told Mike. “Norman’s a magician, you know. He could have a coin that’s the same on both sides.”
“Right,” Mike said, holding out his hand for the coin. He examined it, gave a little nod, and said, “You call it, I’ll flip it.”
“Tails,” Norman said as Mike flipped the coin in the air. It went almost up to the kitchen ceiling and came tumbling back down again to land with a clatter on the stainless steel surface.
“It’s heads,” Norman announced, looking at the coin and giving Mike a sour look. “Did you cheat?”
“How could I cheat? I’m not that good at flipping coins. Best two out of three?”
“Deal,” Norman agreed.
Mike picked up the coin and flipped it airborne again. “Call it, Norman!”
“Tails,” Norman said as the coin began its downward descent.
All three friends watched as the coin landed and then Norman began to grin. “It’s tails,” he announced.
“I know.” Mike picked it up and flipped it again.
“Tails,” Norman chose for the third time.
Hannah found that she was holding her breath as the coin began to fall. She didn’t really care which recipe she made, but she’d never had anyone flip a coin to choose a cookie before!
“Tails!” Mike said with a disgusted sigh. “Okay, Hannah. It’s the coconut one. And I was all set for chocolate.”
That gave Hannah an idea. “Then you both win. You can have Coconut Snow Cookies plain, or I can make sandwich cookies out of them with Nutella in the middle.”
“Sounds great!” Mike looked very pleased. “You’re right, Hannah. Looks like we both won.”
COCONUT SNOW COOKIES
DO NOT preheat oven—dough must chill before baking.
2 cups melted butter (4 sticks, 16 ounces, 1 pound)
2 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar (don’t sift unless it’s got big lumps and then you shouldn’t use it anyway)
1 cup flaked coconut (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
1 cup white (granulated) sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar (critical!)
1 teaspoon salt
4 and ¼ cups flour (don’t sift—pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
½ cup powdered (confectioners’) sugar (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
½ cup flaked coconut (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl or in a saucepan over LOW heat on the stovetop. Set it aside off the heat to cool while you complete the next few steps.
Place the powdered sugar in the bowl of a food processor. (If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a blender.)
Measure out the flaked coconut and add that on top of the powdered sugar in the food processor or blender.
Process the powdered sugar and coconut in on/off motion with the steel blade. Continue until the coconut has been ground down into very small pieces.
Add the cup of white granulated sugar
Crack open the eggs and place them in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Add the eggs and mix them together until everything