“No.” Lillian shook her head. “You have just as much right to be here as she does.”

The anger in Lillian’s voice surprised Emilia.

“What about work?” asked Stormy. “I know you were figuring that out, too. I could always use help at the bar although I know you are obscenely overqualified.”

“Actually,” said Emilia, meeting Lillian’s eyes, “I think I might look for a vet job. As a general practitioner.”

“Please apply to Seal Cove,” Lillian said at once. “I’ll be a reference.”

“I don’t know if working with Morgan is a good idea. I’ve been there before. Besides, I don’t have the large animal experience.”

“We can train you,” said Lillian. Then she hesitated. “But, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, I do know of a smaller practice a few miles up the coast that needs a new doctor.”

“Really?”

“It’s very small. Two doctors. One’s retiring, and I know the other, Dominique. I feel like you’d do well there. I can call if you’d like.”

The prospect of a real opportunity, one where she made a decent salary for work that didn’t drain her flooded her with a mix of hope and terror. She pushed aside the terror and nodded. “I’d appreciate that.”

“Besides. With climate change, you want to get out of Boston. Floods too easily,” said Lillian.

“Thanks for the warning.”

“And you’d miss out on my coffee and beer.” Stormy refilled their glasses as she spoke. “And let’s face it. That’s an even bigger crisis.”

Emilia raised her glass and toasted Stormy. At her feet, Nell sighed in contentment, and despite the ache in her chest a little of the same feeling crept in.

•   •   •

Morgan rubbed her face in her hands and remembered too late that they were covered in Kraken’s slobber from the leftovers she’d fed him. Normally, she abstained from giving him any people food, but it seemed a shame to let food go to waste just because her appetite had vanished along with Emilia.

No. She wouldn’t go there. She’d done what she’d needed to do for them both. Emilia deserved the chance to make a clean start, and Morgan had gotten out while she still had the willpower to do so. Emilia couldn’t stay for her sake. She’d only grow to resent Morgan, and it would be Kate all over again. Emilia might think she wanted Morgan—might genuinely want to be with her, but soon enough Morgan’s schedule would wear her down. And she couldn’t help wondering, as she had ever since Kate left, if there was something else wrong with her that it had taken Kate years to see, but had, at the last, made her impossible to love. Why else would Kate have left her? Pushing Emilia away had been the only option.