The administration building suddenly appeared out of the fog. When we reached the door, I pulled it open quickly and looked around inside. To my relief, all was peaceful. Commander was hovering over the long table, pointing out bags of s’mores ingredients to the knitting couple. Miss Lavender Pants seemed to be having a hard time choosing and was easing her way around to Commander’s side of the table.

I almost laughed when I caught sight of Dinah’s expression. It was amazing how someone else wanting Commander had changed her opinion. With a swirl of her long, rust-colored scarf, she crossed the space to the table. Commander Blaine’s eyes lit up when he saw her. At the same time Miss Lavender Pants’s lips twisted in annoyance.

“Hey, Sunshine.” I recognized Mason’s voice. I hadn’t noticed him playing a solo game of pool. I was still surprised by the white outfit and the soft shoes. He put down his pool cue and joined me. “You look tense. But then you had quite an afternoon. I bet you didn’t know that on top of everything else, you’d end up having to be a bouncer,” he said with a chuckle before giving my shoulders a quick therapeutic massage. “What you need is to sit around the campfire and have some s’mores.”

We walked up to the table and I let Mason take over the s’mores selection. Commander made a point of telling me he thought the s’mores were a crowd pleaser and asked that I mention it to Mrs. Shedd. “She tried to talk me out of doing them, but I fought to keep them in.”

Mason took my arm and we walked out on the deck side of the administration building and headed down the walkway to the fire circle. Commander might have been raving about the popularity of his treat event, but for now we had the area to ourselves. Mason picked a bench and I reached for one of the bags.

“Molly, I have it covered.” He gestured for me to sit down, and when I seemed surprised, he chuckled. “I guess you don’t know that I’ve done my share of camping and know my way around making a s’more.”

“You’re right, I didn’t know. You’re full of surprises. First the tai chi, and now you turn out to be a whiz at campfire treats.” I sighed, and he looked up from skewering the sweet white puffs on two of the long forks.

“You’re still upset about the fracas in your crochet workshop. You did the best you could under the circumstances.” He got ready to put the marshmallows over the fire.

“Do you think Izabelle Landers stole your fellow Hooker’s work?” He tried not to, but he laughed over the word Hooker.

“It’s hard to say if Izabelle was so insulted by the accusation that she wouldn’t take off the choker and let Adele look at it, or if she was hiding something. I know Adele did misplace her work, and it was the day Izabelle stopped by our group meeting. But Izabelle Landers is a well-known crochet designer, and Adele is starved for attention and always trying to get herself into the spotlight.” I put my chin in my hands and slumped. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“The best advice I can offer is to keep them apart.”

I let out a mirthless laugh. “Like that’s going to work. We eat together. Their rooms are probably down the hall from each other. And that’s not even considering the workshop sessions.”

Mason kept turning the marshmallows until they were a perfect golden brown while he pondered my problem. The patience was typical of him.

“Give yourself a few minutes off,” he said. “And taste this.” He had put all the pieces together, and as he held out the sweet treat, my mouth watered. Who knew he’d turn out to be a killer s’more maker on top of everything else? I took a bite. The marshmallows were perfectly toasted on the outside and molten on the inside. Everyone else I knew was always in a hurry and ended up with black, blistered marshmallows that tasted like ashes. Mason’s creation worked together. The heat melted the chocolate and the graham crackers held it all together.

Mason had made a s’more for himself as well. When he tried to eat it, it broke and he ended up with marshmallow on his nose. He looked funny, and I started to laugh. He pretended to be upset and then stuck a blob of marshmallow on my nose. Now it was his turn to laugh. All the tension flooded out. Something about the way Mason never seemed to take anything too seriously made him fun to be with. The treat and the fire began to work their magic, and I sighed as relaxation kicked in. That is, until my cell phone went off.

“Just checking in, babe,” Barry’s voice said. “I wanted to make sure you were all right with the fog emergency.”

“So far, so good,” I said with a crack in my voice. There was no reason for me to feel guilty. All I was doing was sharing a s’more with a friend.

“Is that Barry?” Mason said. “Tell him I’m looking out for you.” I threw him a dark look and he responded with an innocent shrug. As if I believed he didn’t know what he was doing. Of course it worked. Barry started interrogating me on where I was and what I was doing and where was everybody else.

“Every time I talk to you, you seem to be with Mason. And campfires and making s’mores sound like fun to me. I can roast marshmallows, too.” He sounded hurt, so I got up and walked away for some privacy while I explained I wasn’t really having fun. I told him about Adele and the blowup.

“Babe, I’m sure you’ll figure out something. I hate to add to your concerns, but remember the boxes I put in the garage yesterday? When I came by today, they’d been moved to your front hall.” I told him to leave them where they were, and after we clicked off, I called my sons. Peter was at work and didn’t know anything about the boxes. I got Samuel’s voice mail and left a message. When I clicked off, Mason was holding out another perfectly executed s’more. I felt another wave of guilt, but took the oozing graham crackers anyway. I saw Commander’s point; the s’mores were absolutely delicious.

Some more of our group showed up with bags of supplies, and suddenly I was back to being the holder of the rhinestone clipboard. Mason and I traded looks. He got it-fun time was over. We left the fire circle and he announced he was going back to his room to practice his tai chi routine. “You’re welcome to come. I’ll throw in a private lesson.” His tone was genuine, no smarmy innuendo. I gave him a nice thank you, but no thank you. Besides, I needed to figure out what I was going to do about Adele and Izabella.

Mason disappeared in the fog and I went to the gift shop, hoping to snag a red-eye. The coffee wagon person was a no-show along with the rest of the staff, but the desk clerk let me make my own. While I was sipping the strong brew, I went to check out the social hall. Dinah grabbed me. “Stay here,” she commanded.

Dinah was my best friend and she had always come through for me, so if she needed me to stay somewhere, I did it without question. A lot of the bags were gone from the table. I noticed Commander Blaine wasn’t there, nor was Miss Lavender Pants. Just as I was going to ask what had happened to them, Commander Blaine came through the door in a burst of enthusiasm.

“I got my jacket, so now we can go,” he said, stopping next to Dinah.

“Good,” Dinah said with a pasted-on smile. “Won’t it be nice to take a walk and look for driftwood to use for Commander’s workshop?” she added, grabbing my arm.

It was clear that Commander Blaine didn’t share Dinah’s enthusiasm at my joining them, but he quickly picked up that Dinah wasn’t going to go without me and said something about it being good that there would be another set of arms to carry driftwood. No one brought up the folly of looking for anything in all that fog.

The three of us started along the boardwalk that led through the dunes on the edge of the grounds. The area on either side was strictly off-limits, as it was in the process of being replanted with fragile native plants. Not that we could see it anyway. Nor could we see much ahead or behind us, but the sound of the waves was clear.