August rocked a little side to side. “Not stop thinking about it, exactly . . . but stop wanting it so much. It gives me strength to resist, I guess is what I’m saying.”

Zoe watched him speak, a hint of a smile on her face. After everyone murmured approval for his confession, Zoe reached for his hand and squeezed it.

* * *

After meditation, Karina was desperate to crawl back into bed. But as Micah finished speaking, Zoe walked to the front of the group and began passing out yoga mats. Karina reluctantly unrolled one. She hadn’t taken a yoga class since the one with James and Yoga Girl on the quad last year, and images of their two bodies intertwined kept coming unbidden to her mind as she stumbled through the next hour, trying to follow Zoe’s guidance.

After yoga, Karina followed the others into the kitchen for breakfast. Chef Guy made two big pans of soft scrambled eggs, and Ericka ran a full loaf of whole-grain bread through the toaster. Karina offered to help, but when no one took her up, she poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down, yawning widely.

“Tired?” August asked, joining her with a plate heaping with food.

Karina nodded. “I think I need a nap.”

“You’ll get used to it.” He chuckled. “I used to need nine or ten hours when I was gigging every night. Never got up before noon.” He gestured to the pink- and red-streaked sky. “Missed all those beautiful sunrises for years. Here, it’s so peaceful, I get by with five hours.”

Karina found that hard to imagine, but if it was true, she supposed it would be helpful. After breakfast, Micah ran through the day’s projects: weeding a field of crops, spreading fresh mulch in the citrus grove, mowing the front lawn, raking out the chicken coop. Karina approached Micah. “Hey, did you get those horse brushes? Maybe I can do that today?”

“Not yet. Maybe later, we can go together,” Micah said. “Why don’t you work on weeding today? You have a great eye for those little insidious ones.”

It was eight o’clock when they began working outside, and except for a few water breaks, they worked straight through until after noon, when Karina began to feel hungry. “Should we . . . stop for lunch?” she asked Ericka.

“We don’t usually,” Ericka said, without looking up from the soil. “We don’t stop during our work periods, so we can maintain focus and self-discipline.”

Karina wasn’t sure what to make of this, but she was reluctant to go back to the house alone when everyone else seemed content to keep working. She drank more water and tried to keep her mind off the gnawing in her stomach. Thankfully, by four o’clock, they were finished. Several people got into the pool to cool off, and Karina went inside to take a shower. She was still wearing the clothes she’d slept in, now covered in perspiration. All she wanted to do was get into bed and sleep for the night, but she was too hungry for that.