"Right. I really ought to get rid of it anyway. It"s so sixties."

"Maybe, but it"s retro." Mich.e.l.le turned to look at the fake green leather sack crumpled in a heap on the rug. "Are you going to fix it?"

"I have to. If I don"t put it back together, Moishe might destroy something else the next time we get a winter storm."

"Point taken. Do you want me to get a broom and start sweeping up the beads?"

"Just use the vacuum. I put in a new bag the last time I used it. I"ll get out the sewing kit."

Mich.e.l.le gestured toward the window where the snow was blowing so hard against the pane, it sounded like a roll on a snare drum. "Are you sure we shouldn"t wait for a while? It"s still really bad out there."

"It"ll be fine. Moishe only does it when he"s alone and it starts getting nasty outside. It probably has to do with what he had to go through before he ended up here."

"Lucky cat," Mich.e.l.le said, pausing to give Moishe a scratch under the chin as she went down the hall to get out the vacuum. "You"d really be in trouble if your mommy didn"t love you so much."

"So why did we bake when we already have two sets of twelve dozen cookies?" Mich.e.l.le asked, pulling a pan of Candy Bar Bar Cookies out of the upper oven and stepping aside so that Hannah could remove her Strawberry Custard Squares.

"Because we needed to," Hannah answered, crossing to the coffee pot to pour herself another cup.

"Okay. I"ll buy that. What"s next?"

"You mean baking?"

"Or cooking. Whatever. You know we always have a kitchenfest every time I come home from college and stay with you."

"And that"s one of the reasons I love it." Hannah smiled at her youngest sister. "We could make candy, or cookies, or cakes, or. . ."

Both sisters turned toward the door as the doorbell rang.

"Or night lunch," Hannah said, guessing who was there. "It"s either Mike or Norman. And whichever one"s there, he"s bound to be hungry."

"I"ll put on the coffee. You get the door," Mich.e.l.le said, heading for the nearly depleted coffee maker on the counter. "And then, if it"s okay, I"m going straight to bed."

"It"s fine," Hannah said, walking toward the door. When she opened it, two ambulatory snowmen were standing on the landing.

"Good heavens!" Hannah exclaimed.

"It"s brutal out there!" Mike commented, brushing the snow off his parka before he stepped in.

"We walked here from the gate," Norman told her, also brushing off the snow before he entered her living room. "Everything"s shut down. We won"t be able to get out until morning."

Until morning. The words echoed in Hannah"s ears as she took their parkas and hung them in the laundry room to dry off. Why had they driven all the way out here anyway? Delores wasn"t worried. Mich.e.l.le had called her the second they pulled into the garage.

"We were worried about you," Mike said, answering Hannah"s unspoken question. "I couldn"t get through to your mother at the hospital to see if you"d called her. The lines were down. So Norman hitched a ride with me and we drove out here."

"Thanks for checking up on us," Mich.e.l.le said, coming out of the kitchen, "but we already called Mother and told her we were okay."

Norman looked slightly apologetic. "Oh. We"ll. . . we weren"t sure, so we. . ."

"As you can see, everything"s fine," Hannah said, gesturing her sister off to bed.

"Sorry about this," Norman said, "but we"re going to have to stay with you."

"Of course," Hannah responded immediately, her answer practically dictated by proper Minnesota winter etiquette.

Mike gave her one of his devilish grins. "But you"ve got only one bedroom left. You don"t expect both of us to stay up all night, do you?"

Hannah took a deep breath. No way was she falling for that hackneyed line! "Sure I do! I"ll stay up with you, and I"ll even make a night lunch. We"ve got cookies, and bars, and some chicken salad left over from the luncheon that I"ll make into sandwiches. We can play cards until the sun comes up. That should be fun."

Both men exchanged glances, and Hannah noticed that they didn"t look happy.

"Are we playing for money?" Norman asked her.

"No. We"re playing for points."

"But that"s no fun," Mike objected. "We should play for something worthwhile, something great, something both of us . . . I mean, all three of us want."

"What did you have in mind?" Hannah asked him.

"Oh, I don"t know. What do you think, Norman?"

Norman looked embarra.s.sed, and Hannah guessed that he"d been coached by Mike.

"Norman?" Mike prodded.

"Oh. Well. It"s been a long day. Maybe we should play for a comfortable place to sleep."

"Great idea, Norman!" Mike turned back to Hannah. "How about it, Hannah?"

"Sounds good to me. I agree."

"You agree?" Mike asked, looking stunned.

"You do?" The same stunned expression was mirrored on Norman"s face.

Hannah gave a little shrug. "It"s fine with me. I"ll bunk in with Mich.e.l.le and the winner gets my bed. It"s nice and comfortable and you get to cuddle with Moishe. And the loser gets my softest sleeping bag on the couch."

"Told you," Norman said under his breath, nudging Mike.

"Yeah," Mike responded.

"How about night lunch?" Hannah asked them. "Are you hungry?"

"I am," Mike said.

"Me, too," Norman answered her. "Mike can get out the card table and get everything all set up. I"ll throw catnip mice for the Big Guy to keep him out of the way."

"Good idea," Hannah said, turning at the kitchen doorway with a smile. Norman had just moved over to pet Moishe and she could hear him purring all the way across the room. "Don"t let him near the cards. He likes to chew on them."

There was a thump as the catnip mouse sailed down the hallway with Moishe in hot pursuit. As she went off to the kitchen to make their night lunch, Hannah wondered how simple life would be for someone who didn"t have two men who both wanted to play cards for her bed.

BAKING CONVERSION CHART.

These conversions are approximate, but they"ll work just fine for Hannah Swensen"s recipes.

VOLUME:.

U.S. Metric teaspoon 2 milliliters 1 teaspoon 5 milliliters 1 Tablespoon 15 milliliters cup 50 milliliters cup 75 milliliters cup 125 milliliters cup 175 milliliters 1 cup liter WEIGHT:.

U.S. Metric 1 ounce 28 grams 1 pound 454 grams OVEN TEMPERATURE:.

Degrees Fahrenheit (Regulo) Gas Mark Degrees Centigrade British 325 degrees F. 165 degrees C. 3 350 degrees F. 175 degrees C. 4 375 degrees F. 190 degrees C. 5 Note: Hannah"s rectangular sheet cake pan, 9-inches by 13-inches, is approximately 23 centimeters by 32.5 centimeters.

KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by

Kensington Publishing Corp.

119 West 40th Street

New York, NY 10018

Copyright 2011 by H. L. Swensen, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011931656 ISBN: 978-0-7582-7400-7.

Notes.

1.

h.e.l.lmann"s Mayonnaise is also known as Best Foods Mayonnaise in some parts of the country.

2.

I"ve also used pistachios.

3.

Since this recipe is not cooked, you can use sugar-free vanilla pudding mix if you wish.

4.