“I’m sorry,” Andra said. “You probably don’t want to hear about all this.”

He flicked on the burner again. “You talk,” he said. “I’ll cook.” He looked back and caught her eyes from across the kitchen. “Okay?”

Her head tipped slightly to the side, like a surprised nod. “Yeah.” She took a breath. “Okay.”

He ripped off a paper towel, wiped out the pan, and then put in fresh butter to melt while he took down some sourdough bread.

“I didn’t drop out. I kept going to class, all the way through graduation.”

“Good.” From the fridge, he chose cheddar and his tiny, prized chunk of parmesan and knocked the door closed with his elbow. “Glad you didn’t let that bastard ruin a degree you earned.” He dropped the cheese in front of her and retrieved a grater and a plate. “Can I put you to work?”

“Oh, yeah, of course.” She pulled the grater toward her. “My senior year was hell, and I spent a lot of it in courtrooms. When that was over, I came back to the ranch, and I just wanted everyone to stop looking at me. My family didn’t know how to talk to me anymore, and conversation was weird, stilted, when I was around. So I took my share of the past profits from the business and built my cottage. I wanted to be left alone for a minute—that was all. Around that time, Dad gave me Gracie, and I threw myself into training her.”

“He gave you that horse?” LJ flicked a glance at her before he dropped a piece of bread on top of the melting butter.

Andra smiled. “I know, right? A palomino quarter horse with top-notch bloodlines and four white socks isn’t something a good businessman can spare to put in his daughter’s stocking at Christmas.” She started grating cheese, her eyes dry now that she had something to do with her hands. “It helped, though. The first time I got back on a horse was the first time my body felt right again. It was good to come home, but I’ve spent too much time just making it through the day, you know?”

“Yeah,” LJ said. “I do know.”

After Katrina, it was all about getting people off the rooftops. Then being able to find a bottle of water for Mama when she was thirsty. A hose to rinse the mud off his only set of clothes. He went to college a few years late, partly because there was nowhere to graduate from high school in the year after the flood. And partly because he couldn’t concentrate on solving for x when what he needed to solve was how to build a roof that kept the rain out with no money and even fewer skills. But he didn’t say any of that, because Andra needed to talk tonight, not listen.