LJ had warned her about crime in the neighborhood, but he’d made it sound like everyone knew him and would leave his house alone. She couldn’t cower in here, not with his mother lying in the other room, utterly helpless against an intruder.

She dropped the sheets and glanced around the bathroom for a weapon. The plunger. A bottle of shampoo. Nothing in here was going to do her a bit of good.

Slow footsteps crossed the kitchen, and a cupboard opened. Okay, no kind of burglar robbed the kitchen cabinets, and they hadn’t forced the door, so they must have had a key. She peeked out into the other room, releasing a breath when she recognized Reggie’s mother, Mona.

Mona took a plastic Saints cup out of the cupboard—one of the ones LJ was always nudging to the back. She glanced over at Andra, then continued on to the refrigerator. Her yellow sundress all but glowed against her luminous brown skin.

“Oh, hi. Rose is asleep. We didn’t know you were coming over,” Andra offered.

“You want some sweet tea?”

Andra shifted her weight, uncomfortable at being treated like a visitor in the house she’d been cooking, cleaning, and living in for days now. “Sure. That would be nice.” She needed to do her best to be polite. Rose’s best friend was so distant toward her that even offering tea was an improvement, even if it felt a little passive-aggressive.

Mona dropped ice into the Saints cup and topped it off with the tea pitcher LJ refilled every evening. She placed it on the farthest side of the table from Andra, who glanced at it, wondering where she was expected to sit. The floor creaked under Mona’s feet as she went back for a pale-blue tumbler, then returned to the fridge to fill it.

“Rose usually wakes up a little more in the afternoons,” Andra said.

“That’s okay. I didn’t come for her.” Mona sat and adjusted the fan before she put Andra’s sweet tea on the opposite side of the table. “Come here and sit on down.” She nodded to the other chair and waited for Andra to settle in. She smiled. “Rose has a lot of nice things to say about you.”

Andra’s fingers twitched on her chilled cup. Maybe she hadn’t been doing such a terrible job of fitting in after all. “Rose is great,” she rushed to say. “I’ve been enjoying spending time with her.” Saying it out loud made it sound false somehow. Her toes squirmed under the table, and she ducked her head.

“Are you having a nice visit?”