He could imagine it was hard for her. The trauma department she’d worked in was legendary for the work it did. “Yes. My parents’ health declined to the point that they needed assistance. It just so happened that the man who’d held the office for twenty-seven years was retiring. I’d gotten divorced the year before. I didn’t want to be apart from Noelle, but I couldn’t leave my parents alone, either. Papillon is only a couple of hours away from New Orleans, so I moved back and took the job.”

“I can understand that. Not about the parents, though. I never met my father and my mom and I are just beginning to find our way. She wasn’t a good mom. She liked drugs more than she loved any of us. But I would do anything for my siblings. Anything.”

“I figured you picked this place because you wanted to be close to Lisa.” The sisters were awfully different from one another, but it was easy to see they were close.

She shrugged as her hand played with her coffee mug. “Will and Laurel have each other. They also have a big group of friends. I was on the outside of that. It’s my fault I am, but it’s still true. I thought maybe Lisa would need me. I was probably wrong about that. She’s well on her way to finding her own big group of friends and family. I don’t do that well.”

But she wanted to belong somewhere. It was there in the bittersweet tone of her voice, in the wistful way she looked at the families who walked in the door. “I think you’ll find it easier to fit in here than you think. It just takes a little time. Getting that contract from the oil company is a great start. We have a lot of oil rig families who live here. If you take care of the husbands, the wives and kids will follow.”

“Well, it’s not like the company has a lot of choices unless they want to bring in their own. It’s not a big deal. I’m only doing the checkups for their new hires out here, but they pay well.” There was the self-satisfied look of a business owner who knew she’d made the right choice. “That contract alone will help us stay afloat. So how are you going to handle the Mirandas of this town?”

They were back to that? “I can talk to her.”

It would be terribly uncomfortable, but he didn’t like the idea that Miranda had confronted Lila. He definitely didn’t like the idea that she could hurt Lila’s business.