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the bartenders managed to push two empty small tables together despite the continuous, noisy crowd. We all sat around them chatting, mostly about the hike and what we’d seen— although the houses on the far side of the lake were like the elephants in the crowded bar, sitting heavily on our minds, or at least mine, but not mentioned.
    Neither was Ada, who was no longer here, but there’d been an undercurrent between her and Janelle that I hadn’t understood.
    My wine was excellent, and so was my immediate company. I had the sense that Reed knew what I was wondering about, and perhaps he was thinking about it, too, but he helped to keep the general conversation going. He cracked a couple of jokes about all the boats on the lake heading to bed at this hour, perhaps unlike their owners, and about how the dogs in the bar had to bark to go out soon, before the people with them got too sloshed to drive them home.
    When we were done drinking, Janelle and Delma said good night and left together. They apparently had a room in a hotel near the resort, but a lot less expensive. I got the impression that Janelle was paying for the room and that Delma had brought her dog and left him in his crate there. I wondered how long Janelle intended to stay in town.
    Reed and Hugo left by themselves, too, although Biscuit and I walked out to the parking lot with them. Reed and I stole a quick kiss beside his black sedan, which felt good. No commitment in it, but it nevertheless hinted at the possibility of good things to come, as did our kisses on past dates.
    Neal and I had come to the resort separately, so we each drove back to our home—which we shared and which I, primarily, paid for. Despite Neal having a job and leading local tours, his income was a lot lower than mine was as a veterinary technician, so we’d gotten into the habit of me supporting him.
    Our financial arrangement hadn’t changed when I’d opened my shops, since I’d put a lot of money into buying and opening the adjoining bakeries. I’d borrowed from Arvie, my boss at Knobcone Veterinary. I’d begun paying it back now, but not too quickly.
    Neal knew this, and he’d started paying me some rent— some being the operative word. But that was okay. I loved my brother, and since our divorced-and-remarried parents were much more into their second families than caring about us, we were all we had.
    Neal arrived back at the house before Biscuit and me. I pulled into the driveway and let Biscuit sniff around for a minute.
    I’d lived in my house for five years, having bought it shortly after moving to town. It was about twenty years old, in a nice, pleasant residential neighborhood that had streetlights on at this hour. It was a single-story home covered in attractive wood siding stained a cedar shade, with several small wings with sloped roofs. I had a fenced dog-run on the side for Biscuit, but I tended to walk her more often than just letting her out by herself.
    When we went inside, Neal was sitting on my fluffy old beige couch in the living room, watching the news on the TV mounted on the wall.
    He used the remote to mute the sound. “So what did you think of the hike?” he asked.
    I took a seat at the other end of the sofa. “Fun!” I exclaimed. “I enjoyed it. And, before you ask, I’d be glad to do it again sometime, or try one of your other tours—just not in the dead of winter.”
    â€œGreat. And … well, I’m curious what you thought about Janelle, too.”
    I’d need to be a little more careful how I answered that. “She seems nice,” I said. “Interesting that she apparently came with a friend and they knew that other visitor here, that Ada. I gathered she’s one of the Arnists who own one of those houses we saw. Did Janelle come here because they’re friends, too? I gathered that Ada had suggested a visit here.”
    â€œJanelle told me she’d