I gave her my most angelic smile. “What? That you work too hard? That you’re going to give yourself an ulcer? That you have no life?”

She stuck her tongue out at me. “Some friend you are.”

“Real friends speak the truth.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be fine. It’s only for another month or two.”

Caelyn reached over and squeezed Kenna’s knee. “Just let me know what I can do to help. I can do the grocery shopping for you and Harriet when I go for myself and the tiny terrors.”

Kenna’s expression gentled, and she shook her head. “You’ve got enough on your plate. I can handle this.”

Both my friends had more than their fair share on their respective plates because while they appeared as different as night and day—Kenna with her sleek brown hair and perfectly styled athleisure outfit, and Caelyn with her wrists full of mismatched bracelets and hair in a wild pile atop her head—they were more similar than anyone would’ve guessed. They gave and gave and gave some more. Kenna caring for the woman who’d raised her from the age of eleven when Kenna’s own mother couldn’t be bothered with the responsibility. And Caelyn giving up college and her dreams to come back to the island to raise her siblings when they had been removed from her parents’ custody.

I slapped my hands down on my knees. “Ladies, divide and conquer. I’ve got grocery shopping for both of you this month. Email me your lists on Tuesdays.” I turned to Kenna. “If Harriet has any doctors’ appointments, just make sure they’re in the morning, and I can take her.”

Caelyn ran her hands over the lush grass beneath us. “And I can cook dinner for you and Harriet. Just swing by my place on your way home from work, and I’ll have some containers ready to go for you.”

Kenna’s lips pressed into a thin line. “You guys are making me feel like a slacker.”

“Oh, please.” Caelyn waved a hand in front of her face. “Says the girl who’s done my taxes for free every year since you graduated.”

“That’s nothing—”

“It’s not nothing.” Caelyn cut her off. “It’s friends helping however they can.” She looked from Kenna to me, her eyes misting. “It’s what we do, right?”

“Damn straight.” I pushed to my feet and reached out a hand to each of the women who were more like sisters than friends. Women who had seen me through my darkest days and walked alongside me through it all. “Now that we’ve got everything settled, I need to get home so I can shower before I get started on inventory at the bar.” The scar tissue along my ribs pulled as I dragged the girls to their feet. I ignored it and the reminder the twinge brought.