“Well, this should get you started, though you might not see any tomatoes until September. Until then, help yourself to some of mine.”

“Thank you so much.” She looked at her tray of plants. “You’ve all been way nicer to me than I deserve.”

“Bullshit. We’re all just sick of each other, and you fell into our clutches. This house is a Venus flytrap, by the way. Watch out.”

And Morgan is the nectar.

“Has your boss found a new large animal vet yet?”

“No.” Lillian unbuttoned her blouse in the heat, revealing a sensible undershirt. “No one wants to come out here. The pay isn’t as good as it is farther south, and Danielle doesn’t want to hire anyone out of desperation. Any chance you want the job?”

“I haven’t touched a large animal since vet school.”

“The position could be half and half.”

“I . . . I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Oh yeah.” Lillian grimaced. “I’m sorry. I’m still in doctor mode. Are you worried about Morgan?”

“It’s complicated.” The desire to confide in Lillian nearly overpowered her, and she knelt down to greet the tortoise to buy time to collect herself. Anything she said to Lillian might make its way back to Morgan. Then again, it wasn’t like she had any good friends left, and her family was likely to overreact. “I don’t want to put you in a difficult position.”

“I’m not going to tell Morgan what you say here, unless you’re planning on hurting her intentionally.”

“I’m not. At least, I hope I’m not.”

“Fair enough.”

“I don’t even know if I want to stay in the field. If I took a job at your hospital, assuming I was even offered one, I’d always wonder if I did it for the right reasons. I got into shelter medicine because of my ex.”

“And you want to make sure you’re choosing for you, not someone else.”

“Not to mention what would happen if things didn’t work out.”

“Also fair. Morgan and I had a policy in vet school when it came to dating: career first.” Lillian pulled a dead leaf off a hanging vine and crushed it. “Not that it worked out particularly well for either of us.”

“Well, I can’t recommend following your heart.”

“To no good options.” Lillian raised an imaginary toast. “Speaking of Morgan, are you sticking around till she gets home?”

“I don’t want to intrude.”

“You won’t. Here, leave your plants for now and help me harvest something for dinner.”

Angie joined them in the kitchen later on, dressed in a tank top, sweatpants, and a noticeable lack of bra. “I still smell like diarrhea, no matter how many times I’ve showered,” she said, wrinkling her nose.