“We lost touch after school. He moved away and met your mother, and when he moved back after the divorce we saw each other occasionally, but it was Morgan who knew him best.” His face softened. “Perhaps this isn’t my place to say, but your father was a good man. I know . . . I know it must have been hard. If you can, try to remember the good parts.”

“Aaron,” Shannon said in warning.

“My father was an alcoholic, too,” said Aaron. “It’s not an easy thing to live with.”

Emilia nodded and spoke softly. “No, it’s not.”

“Morgan tells me you’re a vet, too,” Shannon said.

“I am.”

“Small? Large?”

“Small, but I like large animal medicine.”

“How long do we have you in town for?”

Emilia glanced at Morgan before replying. “I’m not sure. I’m still figuring out what I want to do with my dad’s house. At least another month.”

“Your practice is generous with leave,” Shannon said as Morgan counted off the days in her head.

“I—”

“Ma,” she said, coming to her senses. “You’re prying.”

“I’m sorry. You’re right. Emilia, don’t mind me.”

“It’s okay.” Emilia took a deep breath. “I’ve actually left my practice. I’m taking a few months off to reevaluate things.”

Shannon shot Morgan another look.

“Good for you,” said Aaron. “It takes guts to take time for yourself.”

“I should check on the pie. Morgan, come help me set the table?”

“Don’t frighten her with any of your dad jokes,” Morgan warned as she slunk off into her mother’s lair.

Shannon beckoned her over to the oven. “Well, she’s certainly good-looking.”

“Jesus, Ma.”

“Does she know you’re in love with her?”

Morgan pressed her knuckles into the counter to keep from punching something. “Do we have to do this?”

“I worry about you.”

“Well, don’t. And no, she doesn’t know, and she’s not going to. You heard her. She’s leaving in a month.” No point in trying to hide the bitterness in her voice, she reflected as she listened to herself speak. Her mother wasn’t dumb.

“Have you asked her to stay?”

“I’ve only known her since May.”

“Take these plates,” said Shannon. “And Morgan—”

“Just stay out of it, okay?” A wave of rosemary wafted into the kitchen as Shannon opened the oven. Not even that smell could clear the sourness from her tongue. “She’s not Kate.”

“I can see that.”

“So you’ll leave it alone?”

Shannon stuck a thermometer in the pie and considered her answer. “You’re an independent woman. I raised you to make up your own mind.”

Morgan waited for the “but.”

“But I do hate seeing you hurt.”