“It’s not the breaker.” Luke slumped down in the recliner. “Three thirty. We’ve still got hours before it’s time to get up.” He yawned. “I’m going to curl up in my makeshift sleeping bag again. Y’all going to sleep right here or going back to your rooms?”

Tootsie eased up out of the recliner. “I’m going back to bed, but I’ll leave the door open to get some of the heat from the fireplace.”

“I’ll just pile on another blanket and go back to bed.” Diana picked up her flashlight and headed toward the stairs. “See y’all when daylight comes. Maybe the power will be back on when we all wake up again. Good night.”

“Good night,” Tootsie and Luke said at the same time.

Tootsie turned her eyes back toward Luke. “We’ll make you a softer bed for tomorrow night if we’re still without power. Smokey bought one of those air mattresses when his old army buddies came to visit one fall, but we didn’t need it, so it’s still in the box somewhere. And we’ll have to get out the generator and hook it up. It’s only big enough to run the refrigerator and freezer, not the heating unit, but at least we won’t lose all our food.”

“I’ll be fine, Aunt Tootsie, and I’ll keep the fires burning to keep the chill off. Last weather report I saw on my phone said the rain was supposed to continue through Friday, but the temperatures are well above freezing.” He yawned again. “If I had a fireplace in the motor home, I’d stay out there.”

“And miss all the fun of having a tall redhead fall for you,” Tootsie teased.

“Not for me, on me.” He grinned.

“Potato. Pa-taw-toe. Ain’t much difference,” she threw over her shoulder as she started back to her room.

She snuggled down into the covers, laid her hand on the extra pillow, and whispered, “You’re never going to believe what happened, Smokey.” She went on to tell him all about Diana’s fall. “And they were both embarrassed, so it proves that there’s something going on there. What would you tell me to do about that? Ignore it and hope it goes away? Or encourage it?”

Smokey didn’t have any words of wisdom for her.

“No electricity. Cold house and cold rain. You could at least whisper something in my ear.” She waited and then sighed. “Okay, then, good night, darlin’.”

The sound of rain falling all night gave Carmen the first good night’s sleep she’d had since the divorce papers had been served. She checked the time on her cell phone and found that it was seven o’clock, so she pulled the chain on the antique lamp on her bedside table, and nothing happened.

“Bulb must be burned out,” she muttered as she slung her feet over the side of the bed and pulled a sweatshirt over her head. With clouds still covering the sky, very little light came through the window. It seemed like a sign to her as she struggled to find two matching socks. Her marriage had grown dimmer by the day, but the storm wasn’t really over yet.

Diana met her in the hallway. “Electricity is off.”

“How are we going to make breakfast?” Carmen asked as she followed her downstairs.

Diana shrugged and dodged the crystal ball just in time. “The fireplace?”

“Good mornin’,” Joanie said cheerfully from the kitchen. “I guess we’re going to pretend that we’re camping out today.”

In the living room, Luke was bending over a big cast-iron skillet set up on an apparatus above the blaze in the fireplace, and the smell of bacon filled the whole room. “Soon as this is cooked, I’ll make us a skillet of camp breakfast.”

“And that is?” Diana asked.

“Potatoes, peppers, and onions cooked together, and then when that’s done, I scramble eggs in with it,” he answered.

“I lit lamps so we can see,” Tootsie said.

Carmen looked around the living room at several oil lamps burning brightly. “I thought those were for decoration.”

“Honey, when this house was first built, it had no electricity or water. Lamps were necessary, and they come in real handy when we lose power. My parents had the place wired and plumbed when they moved in. The only thing Smokey and I wished they’d have done different was put in a propane cookstove for times like this. We talked about having a gas stove in the motor home, but Smokey liked electric ones better. I may change it out to propane when I get home, just in case we ever get in a bind like this again,” Tootsie explained.

“Wish I’d known that all I had to do was light one of them last night,” Diana grumbled.

“And miss all the fun of falling on top of me?” Luke joked.

Carmen whipped around. “What happened?”

“I only had a little flashlight, and it didn’t throw nearly enough light. I thought he was one of the ottomans.” Diana blushed.

“I might have been sleeping on the floor, but I don’t like to think that I look like a footstool.” Luke grinned.

“I stumbled over him and fell. It was an accident,” Diana stammered.

“And I found them all tangled up together like a bunch of baby kittens,” Tootsie giggled.

“Now we want the real story,” Joanie teased.

“That’s their story, and they’re stickin’ to it,” Tootsie chuckled.

“It’s the truth, and the bacon is ready,” Luke said. “Joanie, do you have the potatoes all cut up?”

“All ready when you are,” Joanie said. “And thanks so much for taking my day. I’ve never cooked over a fire like that.”

“I’ll take care of the fire and food as long as we’re without power,” Luke said.

Diana groaned.

“What? You don’t like that idea?” Luke asked.

“No, it’s my job that I’m worried about. I need to send things to the company on Wednesdays and Fridays at the latest. Then they send me work on Mondays and Wednesdays. No internet or—”

“I can help there, too. I have a device on my laptop that lets me access internet anywhere, anytime. But we’ll be running on battery and not electricity, so you’ll have to be careful how much power you use,” he warned. “I keep extra batteries for my business, so if you use up all yours, you can use my computer to send your work.”