Which earned me an acerbic glance from my mother. “Just don’t let anything else be friendly with her.”

Kash snickered. The rest of the table seemed to relax. They knew I’d never be friendly with Wendy, not when I had Tess.

“Is she staying with her parents?” Mom asked, her voice tinged with worry.

Because here was the saddest of all truths: despite all that had happened, even my mother wanted Wendy to be happy and safe. We all wanted to save her because there were so few people left who would.

But we couldn’t save someone who didn’t want to be saved, no matter how badly we wanted to.

“Her mom. Her dad’s gone again.”

Mom made a scornful noise. “Blowing his paycheck in Atlantic City, no doubt. Is her mom all right?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Really, I just wanted her out of the shop and gone.”

Marcus was frowning mightily. “She knows we’re revamping the shop then.”

I nodded, exchanging a meaningful look with him.

Wendy had been dumped. The flower shop—and thus my inheritance—was back in play. It was a matter of survival. Where else could she go? It was true that I hadn’t held down a job for more than six months, but that was by choice. Wendy had been fired from every job she’d ever had. She couldn’t take care of herself. So she used her charm to make connections with people who could take care of her.

It was all of that, true. But it was more than that too. Because I was her safe place. Had I been able to provide for her the way she thought she needed, she wouldn’t have cheated. And if she hadn’t cheated, I’d probably still be married to her.

I stifled a shudder that crawled up my spine. Now that I had Tess, now that I saw what could be, the comparison was stark and terrifying. What Wendy and I’d had wasn’t true love. Dependency, guilt, fear, desire. But looking at my parents, looking at what I had with Tess, I realized love was more than that.

It was equality. Respect. Trust. And I had none of those things with Wendy.

“Well,” Mom said, carving her chicken daintily, “I hope she’s all right. And I hope she leaves you alone, for all our sakes.”

Dad caught my eyes as he chewed a mouthful, swallowed with deliberation, and said, “We’re planting a raised row of marigolds.”

That was all it took to divert them all, just as he’d planned. Mom lit up and asked what colors and breeds. Kash started on about the new planting system they were in the process of installing, which would double our grow space vertically. Laney brought us up to speed on the website and social, and Marcus got us through the rest of the meal, informing us of the new computer system, which would be in place this week.

I sat among my family, and for once, I said nothing.