“I see she’s still wearing that pin,” Evanelle said affectionately.

“She never takes it off.”

Bay wanted to touch the pin, like she did when she got worried. But they were all watching.

“What brings you by, Evanelle?” Claire asked. Bay cracked an eye open. They had their backs to her now. “I thought you and Fred were having lunch with Steve today.”

“We are. I can’t wait. Steve is going to make something fancy again. I told Fred he was lucky he had a culinary instructor in love with him. He looked at me like I’d told him he had bees in his hair.”

“He still thinks he has to date Steve because of the mango splitter?”

“Oh, it gets better. I might as well be dating Steve these days. Just about everywhere they go now, Fred wants me to come along. He’s having a good time. He’s happy. He just doesn’t want to admit it yet. He’s going to figure it out sooner or later. I’m not going to tell him what to do. And Steve is letting Fred call the shots, which is what he needs to do. In the meantime, I get to eat fancy cookin’. I ate snails for the first time last week! How about that.” Evanelle gave a little cackle. “I like gay men. They’re a real hoot.”

“I’m glad you’re having fun, Evanelle,” Claire said.

“Fred’s waiting in the car, but I had to stop by to give you this.”

Bay couldn’t see what it was, just a flash of white paper as Evanelle took something out of her tote bag.

“Baby’s breath seeds?” Sydney said. “For which one of us?”

“Both of you. I had to give it to both of you. Fred took me to the garden shop by the farmers’ market to get it. Oh, and I saw Henry at the market. He was buying apples. He looks real good. He said his shoulder was coming along nicely, that he’ll be as good as new soon.”

“Yes, and he thinks it’s because of the apples.” Sydney smiled and shook her head. “Ever since that night, he can’t eat enough apples.”

“I wish Tyler felt that way,” Claire said. “He won’t go anywhere near the tree now. He still can’t get over it. He says it’s probably the only official police report in history that claims an apple tree ran the suspect off and no one found that unusual.”