“I’m just an asshole. You know I worry about you, though, right?”

“Isn’t that why you’re here?”

“Morgan seems . . .” Anna Maria hesitated, as if searching for the right word.

“Fuckable?”

“Besides that. What’s the word?”

“I have no idea.”

“Real.”

Emilia stared at her sister and tried to make sense of the lines creasing her forehead. “Real how?”

“Real in a way I’m not sure you’re ready for.”

“Doesn’t matter.” She pasted a smile across her lips. “We’re just friends.”

Anna Maria searched her face, then shrugged. “I’m glad you found good people. Come on. Let’s put you to bed.”

Real, she thought as she lay in the darkness of her father’s house. Real was a good word for Morgan. Real. Solid. Grounded. Everything that was missing from her own existence. Was that why she was so drawn to her? Hannah had been real in a different way—never stopping, always moving, creating the universe she wanted around her. Emilia had been sucked in like a satellite. What, she wondered now, would life be like in Morgan’s orbit? It occurred to her suddenly that she knew very little about Morgan’s past. Far less, in fact, than Morgan knew about her own. The disparity was disquieting.

But do I want to know? She’d had to tell Morgan about her recent past because it informed so much of her present—including the unspoken matter of her imminent departure. Falling for Morgan would complicate that and make it even harder to decide what to do about her father’s house. And falling was a very real danger.

Anna Maria was right. She wasn’t ready for someone like Morgan, nor was she capable of pushing her away.

“I’m so fucked,” she said into her pillow.

Anna Maria stayed another day, helping Emilia minimize the rest of her father’s possessions. For now, she’d settled for stripping the furnishings down to what she’d need if she decided to rent the house out for a few years.

“I know Mom’s pushing you to sell, but I say keep it and run an Airbnb. Or pay someone else to manage it. You don’t need to make any big decisions right now, and probably shouldn’t, anyway.”