“I was just—just checking these door jambs,” she stammered, rubbing her shoulder. “The jambs are loose. And the hinges are—are broke. We gotta get that fixed.” She ran her hand over the jamb like she was inspecting it, then turned to Mom. “Babe, can you call somebody to fix this?”

Mom took out her phone and put it to her ear. Without unlocking it. Or dialing a number. She pretended to talk to someone and then paused, shoving her phone back in her pocket.

“We were eavesdropping,” Mom admitted. “Sorry. We’ll leave y’all alone.”

They stumbled out of the room and closed the door—which worked perfectly—behind them.

I sighed. “They’re a whole mess.”

Marie laughed as she pulled out her phone. “What’s your number?”

“You want my number?” I asked.

“Yes.” She said it with zero hesitation.

It took me a second to actually remember my own damn phone number. I needed to get it together because I was embarrassing myself. After rattling off the numbers, she sent me a text so I had her info.

“Call me. We can talk more about Circe, about this place, or maybe something else altogether.” Before I had a chance to respond, she swept out of the room, glancing back to look me square in the eye. “Bye, Briseis.”

The way she said my name sent a flood of warmth through me—and not the kind that brought flowers to bloom. She disappeared down the hall. Not a minute later, my parents were standing in front of me.

“Spill it,” said Mo. “Who was that? And why was she lookin’ at you like that?”

“She said she was gonna pay you a hundred dollars for some seeds?” Mom looked extremely concerned. “What kind of seeds? Opium? Kids gettin’ high out here in the sticks?”

“What? No. It’s—it’s plants.” I needed to let them in on at least some of what was happening so they didn’t worry. “Circe and Selene were running an apothecary. We figured that, but the thing is, they were growing and harvesting everything themselves in that garden I told you about.”

“And there are already people willing to pay money for this stuff?” Mo scanned the shelves.

“That’s why random people have been showing up,” I said. “The place has been closed for a while, but now that word has gotten around that we’re here, I think people are hoping we’ll reopen it.”

“Will we?” Mom asked. She turned to me. “You want to do this?”

It wasn’t that I wanted to do it. I felt like I was supposed to. The only thing I’d ever been really good at in my life was the one thing these random people needed me to do. It wasn’t a coincidence. It couldn’t have been. “I want to try and reopen the apothecary. I’ll take care of the plots and see if I can bring back the plants. We could run it like the shop back home. Maybe you can help me figure out the business side?”