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“It’s going well,” Mal admitted, sneaking Ana a quick thumbs-up. “But we’re not actually dating. He did ask me though, and I told him I’d think about it.”

“Why?” Ana heard herself ask. “Why not say yes?”

“He’s different online,” Mal confided. “More relaxed and easy with his feelings, the kind of man I’d love to date. But in person he’s just so clamped-down. And… well, I’m not sure which one is the real Harrison Law.”

“Hey, are those the famous jingle bell knots?” Valerie’s voice sang out from behind. “Hi, Ana.”

“Hi, Valerie,” Ana said, exchanging a relieved glance with Mal, and feeling happy that they hadn’t been caught breaking their resolution.

“Yes,” Mal said. “Have one.”

“Those things are like Cabbage Patch Kids in the eighties,” Valerie said, shaking her head. “I can’t just take one when the sale hasn’t started yet. It would be unsporting.”

“You’re family,” Mal told them, grabbing each of the women a jingle bell knot and holding them out. “You get special perks.”

Ana wasn’t going to say no to a treat she was so curious about. But she only pulled off one small section for herself, so she could bring the rest back to her mom and Theo.

Valerie took a bite and hummed around it appreciatively.

“Wow,” Valerie said when she was finished chewing. “I get it. Makes me think of having peppermint tea with a chocolate croissant at that café in New York.”

Ana took a bite too and closed her eyes. Something about the chewy pretzel with the sweet chocolate made her feel nostalgic.

“I love the pretzel,” she told Mal. “The combination of flavors reminds me of the salted chocolate bars my uncle used to bring me. I haven’t thought about those in forever. He always did spoil me.”

“I’m so glad you like them,” Mal said.

“The rest of your sales are spiking, right?” Valerie asked. “People come in for this and buy other stuff?”

“Definitely,” Mal said. “It’s everything I dreamed of.”

“So why don’t you look happy?” Valerie asked her suspiciously.

Oh no, Ana thought to herself. She’s unhappy because she’s not sure about Harrison.

“Supply and demand,” Mal said weakly, shrugging. “I can’t seem to make enough to keep up.”

“Raise your prices,” Valerie said briskly. “And have a limit per customer. It will only make them more popular.”

“Maybe,” Mal said.

Ana could tell Mal didn’t like the idea of raising her prices any more than Ana and her mom did. It was one thing with a piece of beautiful heirloom jewelry that you bought once in a lifetime. What Valerie sold wasn’t an everyday item. But for Mal and Ana, bringing people back again and again was important. And prices mattered a lot.

“If you want to buy the building, you need cash,” Valerie was telling Mal, as Ana listened. “You give away half of what you make already. Why not let people pay a little more so you can invest in your business?”

“If I owned the place, I could knock out a wall and put in another oven,” Mal said thoughtfully.

“There you go,” Valerie said, nodding briskly as the sound of happy voices began to fill the space. “Well, I’m off. I’m volunteering.”

“What for?” Ana asked.

“The dunk tank for the autism charity,” Valerie said with a smile.

“You volunteered to be dunked?” Mal asked, sounding thunderstruck.

Ana tried not to giggle at the idea of their very fashionable friend dropping into a tank of water. Valerie was wearing a full array of makeup and jewelry. Even her hair was glossy with products.

But she happened to have spotted Chad was over by the dunk tank earlier, along with his little daughter, who he seemed to be walking around town with a lot this weekend.