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recharge your batteries,” Adèle said thoughtfully.
    Given where Kelli’s thoughts had just been, she laughed in spite of her mood. Her sour mood had actually worsened since Cole’s attempt to make up. The owner of Take the Cake was incapable of making anything that wasn’t excellent, but knowing that tonight the tropical cupcake would taste like dust, she’d handed it off to one of the high school kids.
    “You know, no one in the family’s using the cabin,” Cole’s grandmother mused. “The freezer and pantry are well stocked, and there’s a generator and woodstove in case the power goes off. And mountain snow’s in the forecast, so you might even have that white Christmas you’ve always talked about wanting.”
    “That sounds very appealing,” she admitted.
    As if sensing an opening, Adèle pressed a little more. “By the time the program’s over tonight, it’d probably be too late to drive all the way up into the mountains.”
    “It’d definitely be dangerous, on those twisting roads in the dark, with all the black ice,” Zelda agreed.
    Not nearly as dangerous as spending the holiday here in Shelter Bay. Although she’d survived heartache and, to her mind, had come out a stronger, more independent woman, she had come to accept the fact that there was no way she and Cole could return to the easy, comfortable relationship they’d once shared.
    Because the truth, as hard as it was to admit, was that she simply couldn’t be around Cole and not want him. Unfortunately, he’d just demonstrated that her romantic feelings were, as they’d always been, one-sided.
    “You could leave late morning or early afternoon and still be up there before supper,” Adèle said, breaking into her thoughts. “I remember you enjoying the cabin.”
    What she’d mostly enjoyed was being there with Cole.
    She pressed her fingers against her temple, where a headache was threatening. “I’d love that,” she said. “Thank you so much.” She hugged the woman she’d always loved as much as her own grandmother.
    “Believe me,” Cole’s grandmother said as she hugged Kelli back. “It’s my pleasure.”
    As she took her paint jars backstage to put them back into her prop supply kit, Kelli missed seeing Adèle and Zelda bumping fists.

6
    After searching behind the stage and in the cafeteria’s kitchen, Adèle found her husband on the floor in the auditorium setting up an extra row of metal folding chairs. Ticket sales had picked up after the boat parade, resulting in a sellout.
    “Bernard, you have to run to the Sea Mist. Right now.”
    “Now?”
    She nodded her gray head. “Now. We need wine.”
    He arched a wooly brow. “Don’t tell me those kids have driven you to drink?”
    “Ha-ha.
I’m
not going to drink it, but we need to get it before the restaurant shuts down for the night.”
    “Why not the market?”
    “Because the Sea Mist serves a higher quality.” It might not be up to the standards of what her son and daughter-in-law had carried at Bon Temps when they’d run the family restaurant, but it was definitely above what the small local market offered. “I’ll call ahead and tell them you’re coming. And get some champagne. The best they carry.”
    “Okay.” Fifty-plus years of marriage had taught Bernard that going along with her was often the best way to get along. “Am I allowed to ask why?”
    “I just offered Kelli the cabin for the holidays.”
    He tilted his head while rubbing the back of his neck. “You do know that Lucien and I already suggested Cole go there? And that he took us up on the idea after the boat parade?”
    “Of course I do.” She put her hands on the hips of her green and red plaid wool skirt. “Surely you don’t think I’d send the girl out into the woods all alone? With a major snowstorm in the forecast?”
    “Aha.” He flashed a quick grin, catching on to her plan. “That’s downright sneaky.”
    “I’m merely helping out two people who are very dear to