“Why would I mind?” Norman answered her question with a question, something that Hannah’s mother frequently accused her of doing. “It gives me more time with you.”

The smile Norman gave her looked perfectly genuine in the dim light coming from his dashboard. Hannah smiled back and they were off, heading to Lake Eden on a wintry night that suddenly seemed much warmer to Hannah. “Would you like to hear about the night visitor I had this morning?” she asked.

“A night visitor in the morning?” Norman turned on the windshield wipers to handle the light sprinkling of snow that was falling. “Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?”

“No. Do you want to hear about it?”

“Yes, I want to hear about it.”

“All right then. The lights in the window were on when I drove past the front of the shop this morning. And then, when I unlocked the back door, I noticed that there was ice on the knob, as if a warm hand had gripped it just moments before.”

“You thought someone might be inside your shop and you went in anyway?” Norman glanced at her sharply.

“Of course I did. This is Lake Eden. We don’t have any crime to speak of.”

Norman didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. He just ran his finger across his throat in a slashing motion.

“Okay, okay. I get your point. Maybe we do have a little crime. But it was only one double-homicide, and I don’t think we’ve ever had one before. Lake Eden’s a really safe place to live in the winter, at least as far as break-ins go.”

“It’s too cold for crime?” Norman guessed.

“That’s part of it. Everybody’s so busy concentrating on keeping warm, they don’t have time to commit petty theft. I never double-lock the back door to The Cookie Jar in the winter. What if some homeless person is freezing outside and needs to get in out of the cold?”

Norman turned to give her a smile. “You’re a kind woman, Hannah. Foolish, but kind.”

“Well, I’ve never had any trouble, and I didn’t have any trouble this morning. As a matter of fact, whoever slept at The Cookie Jar last night got up early, did all the dishes, and mopped the floor.”

“As a thank-you for the warm place to sleep?”

“I think so. She also made us a batch of really great candy and left us the recipe. That’s what gave us the idea to offer candy over the holidays. Homemade candy is so much better than anything you can buy in the stores. And a lot of people don’t have time to make their own.”

“Good idea. If you can make English Toffee, I’ll get some for my mother for Christmas. It’s her favorite, and she’s always complaining that the kind you buy isn’t as good as the kind her mother used to make.”

“Ibby used to make English Toffee. It was really good, and she gave me a copy of her recipe.”