“Oh, he did. But he would never let us come up here alone, I think because he was afraid Cass would try to spirit us out of his control. We either came with him or didn’t come at all. That’s why I thought this place would be full of his ghost. It’s not, though. It seems like Cass managed to exorcise him.” Her face had fallen.

Noelle wished she could hug her. She’d known it was more complicated than Miriam choosing to throw away an idyllic life with Cass and the wonderful Rosensteins, but it was so much more than complicated. She’d been right that Miriam was running scared, and it seemed like she might have had good reason.

They all looked around at each other, the sadness a blanket.

“So,” Tara said over a forkful of chicken riggies, “Noelle, tell me about yourself.”

“Well,” Noelle drawled back, “I got my master’s in forestry—”

“From Yale,” Hannah interrupted, because she felt it was her sacred duty to brag on Noelle.

“Fine, fine, I went to Yale,” she said. “It was full of people I hated and guys named Todd. But it was a good program. I had fun. I intended to go into public land management, work for the Parks Service, maybe.”

She’d always wanted to work outdoors, and she’d thought a little cabin on the edge of the Grand Canyon might suit her, with just herself and her books. A meeting in Flagstaff when she got lonely. Unlike people, nature was never a disappointment.

“What happened?” Miriam asked, finally looking up from her plate. She had schooled her features back to neutral, although she was still hunched in on herself.

“My parents died suddenly,” Noelle said. “And we were on pretty shaky terms at the time. I kind of ran away from my life for a while. Spent six years wandering around the world, working on sustainable development farms, being inaccessible to anyone I had an emotional attachment to, basically.”

As she said this, she realized she’d done pretty much exactly what she’d accused Miriam of doing, and maybe to a greater degree than Miriam ever had. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, thinking maybe she’d been judging herself, instead of Miriam.

This dinner had too many emotional revelations. Thanksgiving was the worst.

“How did you end up at Carrigan’s?” Cole looked fascinated, probably because he was imagining himself with a manbun and a puka shell necklace, planting crops next to an adoring vegan girl. She had only ever seen Cole in boat shoes, so she wasn’t sure he was cut out for farming.

“A college friend got married here, and I came back to the States for the wedding,” Noelle explained. “I lost touch with the friend but kept Carrigan’s.”

“Basically, I kidnapped her and made her be my best friend,” Hannah said.