Prepared to rebuff him, she set her jaw. She was not in the mood to be hit on. But when she met his eyes, something about his expression told her that wasn’t what this was about. Taking a long-stemmed white rose from inside his coat, he stepped forward to give it to her.

“Hang in there. It’ll get easier,” he said. Then he walked off before she could even ask for his name.

2

“Thought I heard the garage door,” Karoline said, coming into the kitchen.

Harper glanced over her shoulder at her older sister, who was wearing jeans, sheepskin-lined slippers and a maroon V-neck sweater with pearl earrings. Karoline was always well put together. Her house was immaculate. Her kids were well behaved. And her husband was a podiatrist who was not only intelligent and well-spoken but kind. Karoline managed life better than anyone Harper had ever met, which was intimidating, especially now that her life was in shambles. “Sorry about what happened earlier,” she mumbled.

Her sister sat on a bar stool at the island. “It’s okay. I’m sorry, too. After you left, Terrance told me I should’ve let it go.”

“He overheard us?” Harper’s brother-in-law had been watching TV in the other room and hadn’t participated in the argument. He didn’t care for large displays of emotion, so she could see why he’d stay out of it.

“Yeah. He thinks I’m right. I know I’m right. But he also thinks you’re not ready to hear it.”

“Then he’s right, too.”

Karoline propped her chin up with one fist. “Look, I understand that you’re going through hell, and I don’t mean to make it worse. I just don’t want to see Axel get the best of you. He has you on the ropes right now and yet you’re still trying to play nice. Since I don’t love him the way you do, I have a different perspective, and I was trying to use that perspective to put you in a better position.”

“I know. You’ve done a lot for me, and I’m grateful.” She reached into the cupboard above her sister’s double ovens, retrieving a small vase.

“Where did you get that?” Karoline asked when Harper filled the vase with water and put the rose she’d been given inside it.

“Some man gave it to me.”

“Some man…”

“Yes.”

“What man?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t tell me his name.”

Karoline scowled, obviously suspicious. “Where did you meet him?”

“I didn’t meet him. Not really. He came up to me in the parking lot as I was leaving the Eatery and handed me this.”

“Was he selling them? Or looking for some type of donation?”