“So, Chelle’s coming out to help decorate Gable House?” Dixon asked.

“Yeah,” Nash said, trying to figure out what his cousins were planning. When Dixon had brought Fiona to Gable House for the first time, Nash and Griff had made sure they were stuck on the island in the middle of the lake overnight. Payback had to be in the works. “She’s bringing her friend Karmel, whose show just wrapped for the season, and she’s leaving right after to spend the holidays in Paris.”

“You don’t mean Karmel Kane AKA Violet Davis from the Murder, She Wrote remake?” Bristol’s eyes had gone round, and she let out a fangirl giggle. “Oh. My. God. I love that show. I mean, I wouldn’t want to end up vacationing in that little beach town and end up either dead or a murder suspect, but that is my Thursday night happy place.”

Macon side-eyed her. “Murder is your happy place?”

“Don’t judge me,” Bristol said, pointing her fork—which still had a bite of waffle covered in dripping syrup on it—at her brother. “You are obsessed with picking locks—please don’t tell me why, I like to have plausible deniability for whatever it is you’re up to. Griff collects LEGOs. Morgan has that dumb planner thing. Dixon goes to bar trivia nights just to feed his need to win at everything. And Nash would explain how lightbulbs work to Edison. We’re all weird.”

Morgan flipped off her cousin. “Planners are not dumb.”

“Yes, they are,” everyone else at the table said at the same time.

Morgan rolled her eyes and snagged a piece of Dixon’s cinnamon roll, popping it in her mouth before he could voice his objection.

“So is it that Karmel?” Bristol asked, already looking like she was planning all the selfies she was going to take with the actress in the background.

“That’s the one.” He shot his sister a warning glare. “Don’t overwhelm her.”

Bristol gasped dramatically and pressed her palm to her chest. “I never overwhelm anyone.”

Everyone at the table—even the usually silent Griff—laughed at that.

“Fine,” she harrumphed. “I’ll be calm and boring.” She turned her attention to Nash. “But enough distraction. What we really want to know is that if Chelle is coming to Gable House to decorate for Christmas, does that mean you’ve already lost the bet?”

Before he could even form an answer in his head, Dixon let out a triumphant yell that got them stink-eyed by their waitress.

“If he has already lost, how are we going to figure out who gets Grandma’s present?” Dixon said, no doubt already planning how he could be back in the running to win it.

“Rock, paper, scissors?” Macon asked.