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anything in their bakery worth buying.” Claire set the box down on the table. “And look what I got for half off.”
    The rest of the Good Buy Girls peered into the box. Itwas a quarter sheet cake with “Happy Birthday Ralph” written on it, circled by big blue roses.
    “Who is Ralph?” Joanne asked.
    “I don’t know, but he never picked up his cake,” Claire said. “So we get to have it.”
    “Why is there a piece missing?” Ginger asked. “Did you feel the need to taste test it for us?”
    Her brown eyes were teasing, and Claire gave an unsteady laugh. “Yeah, that’s it.” She glanced around her as if looking for something. “Oh, shoot, I forgot my cake knife!”
    “No worries,” Maggie said. “I have one.”
    She studied Claire’s flushed face. Her small, rectangular glasses were askew, and she must have fastened her jacket in a hurry, because the buttons and holes were misaligned, leaving one corner of the front of her jacket hanging lower than the other.
    She handed Claire some plates and forks with the knife and asked, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
    “I’m fine,” Claire said, not meeting her gaze. “It was just a very busy morning.”
    “I’ll go get some iced tea,” Maggie said. She watched as Claire held the cake knife with shaky fingers.
    Maggie frowned. She didn’t think for one second that Claire was fine. But she had to respect the other woman’s privacy. If Claire wanted to talk, she would.
    “Wait, stop!” Joanne ordered.
    Claire hovered over the cake and looked at her with wide eyes. “What?”
    “Shouldn’t we sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Ralph?” Joanne asked, and then her lips parted in a teasing grin.
    “Oh, you.” Ginger tossed a napkin at Joanne and they dissolved into giggles.
    Claire gave them a small smile and started to serve up the cake. It was a chocolate cake with a raspberry mousse filling and vanilla buttercream frosting.
    “Hmm-mm,” Ginger said. “Ralph has good taste.”
    Once they finished their cake, Maggie cleared the box away, and they straightened the table and settled down to business.
    “Now, who needs housewares?” Maggie asked. She held up a flier for the local appliance store.
    “I need a new range,” Joanne said. “But I’m waiting until Spencer’s has the one I want in an already opened box.”
    “Smart,” Ginger said. “Roger picked up a digital camera that was in an opened box, and they took off twenty-five percent.”
    “I do love the open-box policy. Too bad more people don’t return their stuff,” Maggie said. “Okay, moving on. Who is going clothes shopping over the Labor Day weekend?”
    All of the ladies nodded, but Ginger looked pained. “All four boys need back-to-school sneakers.”
    The group groaned in sympathy. Ginger’s boys were not small, and their shoe requirements would cost more than the entire group’s clothing bills put together.
    “Wait! I saw something in here,” Joanne said as she thumbed through her stack of fliers and pulled out one for a store in the Dumontville Shopping Mall. “Yes, here it is. Two-for-one Nikes at the sporting goods store.”
    Ginger took the flier and scanned the ad to make sure there were no loopholes. No, it was a straight up two-fer.
    She pumped her fist. “Excellent. Thanks, Joanne. Now I just need to get my hands on another one of these.”
    They all scanned their circulars until they found another coupon for the sporting goods store.
    On went their strategy session until they had matched everyone’s needs with the sales that were happening and figured out their schedules to hit all of the stores at optimum supply-and-demand times.
    When they finished Ralph’s cake with a second serving for all of them and washed it down with the last of the iced tea, they were ready to call it a day.
    Maggie walked them to the door, each clutching their burgeoning coupon books. They would meet at the same time next week to finalize their plans.
    Claire was the last to go, and