Andra’s stomach was too knotted to handle the overly sweet tea, but she tried to keep a pleasant look on her face anyway. Somehow stories about LJ sounded accusing coming from this woman. “He’s just the same on the ranch in Montana. Always the first to fix a broken fence or make sure we’ve ordered new feed before the old sacks run out, even though it’s not his job. He even bought a heating pad for our foreman’s stiff back and left it in his apartment so he wouldn’t have to say thank you and get all embarrassed.”

Mona didn’t smile back. “I imagine that ranch of yours is pretty big, hmm? Lots of employees?”

Maybe she should talk it up so his neighbors could be proud of the job he’d gotten. Or downplay the success of the ranch so they didn’t think she was some kind of spoiled rich girl who’d never done a day’s work. “We have a few.”

“Well, the Lower Ninth only has one LJ Delisle.” Mona looked up, and if her eyes had been cruel, Andra could have argued with her. But instead they were a little tired, and Andra couldn’t find a word to say. Mona reached across the table and touched her hand. “I know you like him. Everybody likes LJ. I know he’s got a whole lot of cowboy notions clouding up his head, but you said it yourself. This is his home.”

“You want me to tell him to stay here when I go back—is that it?” She pulled her hand back. “You may have known him since he was a child, but he’s a grown man now. That’s his decision.”

“It is.” Mona sipped her iced tea. “But you have a choice to make, too. Rose is over the moon that you’re here, because she’s afraid to die and leave her son alone in this world. She thinks you’re a smart girl. Kind.”

Andra gritted her teeth. “And you obviously think she’s wrong.”

“No,” Mona said. “Rose is most generally right. But a girlfriend won’t be enough once he loses his mama. He needs his home, his friends. And the Lower Ninth isn’t just a bunch of houses, not the way some towns are. He’s part of this place, of what it was before Katrina and whatever it’s going to be from now on.” Her brown eyes deepened, sympathy with a touch of sadness. “And I think you and I both know he won’t have any trouble attracting a woman here.”

The knot in her stomach slammed up into her throat. Mona might as well have ripped open Andra’s clothes to expose her laundry-day bra. And yet she couldn’t argue, because every word Mona had said cut with the too-sharp edge of perfect truth.