She did not want her sister involved. “It’s fine. I was speeding, but I swear he’s in league with that gator. Are there a lot of them?”

“Gators? Yeah, but they really don’t cause trouble,” Lisa explained. “You leave them alone and they’ll leave you alone. You know you can change your mind. You can still come and stay with me until we get everything up to your standards.”

“I have standards?”

Lisa sent her an incredulous look. “Yeah, sis. It’s kind of your thing. I remember not being allowed out of the house until I looked picture perfect, and I was all of ten years old.”

“You had to look perfect so no one would suspect we were on our own.” The first time their mother had gone to jail, their aunt had stayed with them for the whole six months. The second she’d had other things to do. She’d played her part for CPS, but they’d been on their own. It had gone that way for the rest of their childhood. Often Lila had preferred the times when her mother was locked up. It meant one less person to take care of. “We had to be ready in case someone showed up. The place had to be immaculate at all times, and we all had to be perfect in school or questions would be asked.”

She’d never gotten out of the habit. It was funny that it hadn’t really struck her until that moment. She couldn’t tolerate a mess. Not because it bothered her. It made her nervous. It made her worry someone would judge her.

How had she never let that go? How was she still in that place she’d been in when she was a kid?

“You don’t have to be perfect here. It’s actually way better that you aren’t. These people respect authenticity,” Lisa assured her. “I’m going to help you fix this place up. It’ll be fun. And who knows—maybe there’s, like, treasure in there. Probably not. He was on a fixed income. From what I’ve heard, he didn’t get out much after his wife passed. His kids were scattered all over the country. When he got sick, he went into a nursing home up in Thibodaux. The kids didn’t want to spend much time here. That’s why you got it for such a steal. Remy says the house itself is solid, but it needs some upgrading. He’s worried about the water heater. And the air conditioner.”

“Yeah, I kind of got that feeling from the sheriff.”