“I doubt that she’s thinking at all right now. She’s miserable and grasping at straws,” Amelia said. “In a million years I never dreamed she’d take me up on my invitation. It was so off-the-cuff, so casual.”

“Hannah know about any of this?”

“No. I hoped we could tell her together. Hannah’s in such a bad place lately. She’ll have my head. Will you be there when I tell her, please? May called. She asked when she could bring her things over.”

“She can’t come unless Hannah agrees, you know that?”

Amelia turned from Grace and stared out of the kitchen window at a forsythia branch decked with yellow flowers. The branches of the shrub grew taller and wider each year and more strikingly lovely when it bloomed, even as they obscured the view from the window. Hannah will trim it soon, Amelia thought. Or she will move it farther from the house, for if she cuts it, it’ll be boxy, and square, and lose its willowy quality. She started then, for she could hear footsteps on the stairs, and moments later, Hannah joined them in the kitchen.

When Amelia explained what had happened to May, and her invitation that May be their houseguest, Hannah’s jaw dropped. This she did not need, a scatterbrained woman in crisis parked in their guest room, sitting at their table, hogging their living room, talking about her problems. Hannah had enough problems of her own. How like Amelia to be so inconsiderate! At that moment, if she could have, she would have ignited a rocket under Amelia and sent her flying into space.

Hannah felt Grace’s hand on her arm. The tightness in her shoulders and jaw slackened, and she took a deep breath. It was amazing, Grace’s ability to calm her. Foolish Amelia had invited the woman. It was done, and Hannah would be the ogre if she objected. “Well, this is a pickle, isn’t it? It’s not what I would have chosen, but what the heck, I guess we’re going to have a houseguest.”

Amelia stared at Hannah. She had anticipated Hannah yelling, demanding to know how she had dared do this without consulting Grace and herself. Amelia was speechless.

Hannah folded her arms across her chest. “I depend on you to occupy May and keep her from under my feet. I’m in no mood to babysit or listen to anyone’s problems. I have my own problems.”

One week later, May arrived, her old Chevy spewing puffs of white smoke from its exhaust. May parked as close to the steps of the porch as possible, then looking left, right, and across the road, and seeing no one, carried several boxes and suitcases up onto the porch. Amelia helped May bring in two more suitcases, and May followed Amelia to the downstairs guest bedroom.