The doorbell rang, and a clatter of happy female voices echoed from the front hall. Tommy, Carol's cat, shot past her and into hiding under an upholstered chair.

Kate understood exactly how the cat felt. She hadn't planned on being at the

house when the Thread Heads showed up, but she was on a roll with her work.

At least, she thought she was. Talking to Peter had given her an idea about how

she might pursue the Nitrovex project. Scientists weren't all lab-coat-wearing dweebs.

She pushed her laptop into its case and quickly gathered her things while Tommy eyed her and the invading Thread Heads suspiciously from under the chair.

She intended to hop over to the city library and work from there. It was probably the best place in town to hide out and find good Wi-Fi. Then she had a

conference call with her bosses this afternoon. And Monday, back to Chicago with her spectacular, scintillating and hopefully impressive proposal for rebranding Nitrovex.

Almost as if on cue, her phone rang. It was Danni's ringtone. It wasn't unusual for her boss to call on the weekend. She punched the answer icon on the

phone, covering her left ear to block out the increasing chatter from the living room as more ladies arrived.

“Hi, Danni.”

“Hello, Kate. How's everything?”

“Going great. Just working on the proposal now.” She brushed some

crumpled doodles of dancing test tubes into a nearby wastebasket.

“Good, the board will be glad to hear it.” A pause. Pauses were never good.

“So, I just wanted to give you a heads-up. Frank Madsen will be sitting in on your meeting this week.”

Kate's pulse quickened. “Mr. Madsen will be there?”

“Yes,” Danni said. “I'm sure it's just one of his routine visits to keep tabs on

us.”

Routine? There was nothing routine about the highly invested owner of the

company checking up on a project. On her project. She sat down in a chair.

“Kate?” Danni was saying. “You there?”

“Sure—yes. I'm fine. We'll be fine.”

Danni must have heard the worry in her voice. “So, how's the proposal

going?”

Kate stared at the blank sheets of paper among the scattered Nitrovex

materials on the table. “Great, great. I'm actually in Golden Grove working through some ideas.” She rubbed her face with her palm.

“Okay, good. Looking forward to the presentation this week.” Danni said.

“Don't let me down.”

The line went dead, and she set her phone down, staring at the table. Don't

worry, don't worry, don't worry buzzed through her brain.

She sat up. Don't worry. Remember, you're good. You know what you're doing, right? There were still days to create a good, tight concept to present.

A sketch of a grinning ear of corn in a hazmat suit peeked out from under her laptop. She crumpled it and tossed it into the wastebasket with the rest.

“Katie? Could you come here a moment?”

Kate's head popped up. It was Carol leaning in at the door of the dining room. “Hmm?”

“All the ladies want to say hi.”

Now? Kate stood, then finished piling her papers together. “Okay, I can for a

minute. Then I really need to get back to work.”

“Is everything okay?” Carol was looking at her the way her mom used to look at her when she thought she'd forgotten to study for a test.

Kate waved her fingers. “Absolutely.” She brought her things and followed

Carol into the living room where groups of two or three older ladies were chatting happily.

“Is that little Katie?” a large woman said as she came at her with arms outstretched. She just had time to set her laptop and folders on an end table before enduring a crushing hug from the large woman who smelled

overwhelmingly of lilacs.

“It's me,” she returned weakly.

The woman was holding her at arms' length as if waiting for Kate to say her

name. “Oh, come now. Don't say you don't remember your old second-grade teacher?”

Kate's mind scrambled. Second grade, second grade, old room, smelled like

crayons and Comet cleanser, and…lilacs. “Mrs. Rooney?”

That got another crushing hug. “You do remember.”

“Sure, of course,” Kate said with what little breath she had left.