Poppy coughed and wiped sweat from her face with the collar of her T-shirt. “No water necessary,” she said. “I just wasn’t prepared for the humidity. Hell, it’s nasty out here.”

“Takes some getting used to. I grew up in Massachusetts, so I know how it is when you’re not accustomed. You from up north?”

“West Virginia,” Poppy said. “So . . . sort of.”

The young woman took a long drag from the cigarette.

“Massachusetts, you said? You’re a long way from home, then,” Poppy said.

“This is home now,” the woman said. She tap-tap-tapped a bit of ash from her cigarette, then stared silently at the beach for a long moment.

Gathering that the girl didn’t wish to offer more on the topic of home, Poppy gestured toward the inside of the restaurant and said, “You work in there?”

The girl nodded. “Roxie, by the way.” She put the cigarette back in her mouth, wiped her hand on the apron, and extended it to Poppy.

“Poppy.” As she shook the girl’s hand, a great, ticklish outburst rose from her lungs and she had to step back and cough harshly.

“You sure I can’t get you anything?” Roxie said, her young face creased with concern. She patted Poppy’s sweating shoulder. “You’re welcome to come on in and sit in front of a fan for a minute. I’m a runner too. Same exact thing happened to me first time I tried to go for a run down here. I gave up a mile in.”

Poppy coughed again. “So’d you give it up for good, then?”

“No,” Roxie said. “I still go couple mornings a week, when I’m not working. You just need to stick with it, the body adjusts to the humidity. But you look like you should at least sit down for a minute, take a rest.”

“Actually,” Poppy said, taking a breath in through her nose to settle her lungs, then lowering her voice, “if you can keep a secret . . .”

Roxie’s eyebrows arched.

Poppy nodded down toward Roxie’s hand. “I quit cold turkey when I got pregnant with my first, eighteen years ago, but I still sneak one now and then when I know I can get away with it. My husband would kill me. But I swear, nothing sets me straight like a cigarette.”

Roxie laughed and passed the cigarette Poppy’s way.

Poppy raised it to her lips. She pulled long and hard on the Camel. Her eyes rolled back and she moaned deep and low with pleasure. Then she released a slow stream of white smoke through her nostrils, savoring the tidy thrum of the nicotine, the way it set her whole body right. Hell, the whole world.

Poppy made a move to return the cigarette to Roxie, who said, “Nope, that’s all for you. You earned it. You enjoy that.”

Poppy took another drag and gazed out into the gray-blue morning. “Sorry to interrupt your break and hijack your cigarette.”

Roxie said, “I’d take your company any day over the creeps who interrupt my break to talk my ear off about how far under par they were yesterday.” She paused to stick her tongue out the side of her mouth. “Sleazy rich losers. They’re relentless.”