“You tried that last Thanksgiving and ended up missing the Black Friday sales because your eyes were too swollen to see. I’m staying here in the cabin. I’ll make it work.”

“Cabin…I was thinking more along the lines of shack. But I suppose with a good cleaning and some new furniture, a couple of rugs, some wall decor, a couple of plants— Oh Jesus, who am I kidding? It’s still going to be a fishing camp and it would probably take a hazmat team to get the smell out. But if you think this is best for you, then you know I’ve got your back.”

“Just not a scrub brush?”

Marina grinned. Her sister’s aversion to all things domestic was a pretty well-known fact.

Halcyon wrinkled her nose. “I’ll get Bonnie to help you tomorrow. My house can wait another week. This can’t.”

“Tomorrow’s Sunday.”

“And? I think we have bigger fish to fry than traipsing to church for the ole stare-and-whisper.”

“Yeah. I’m definitely not ready for all that.”

“Then we’ll work on this place tomorrow. But you’re not sleeping here until we’re certain everything is in working order and you install a dead bolt. And you’re taking one of my pistols and a shotgun. No arguing. There are things in this marsh to worry about that a dead bolt won’t keep out.”

Marina just nodded. Once Halcyon was in big-sister mode, it was easier to just go along and then adjust when she was focused on something else. And something else always came along to draw Halcyon’s attention. Usually a new man. And as much as Marina appreciated Halcyon’s generous offer to stay with her, Marina was also aware that it would never work. She and Halcyon were simply too different. They’d be at each other’s throats within a week, and since her sister represented the only solid relationship she had left, it was probably best not to put unnecessary strain on it. Besides, how was Marina supposed to figure out her new adult life if she was living in her sister’s spare room with Halcyon telling her what to do every minute?

“What did Letitia say when you told her you were leaving Harold and moving into her fishing camp?” Halcyon asked.

“I haven’t told her,” Marina said.

Letitia Comeaux was Marina’s mother and before the current situation with Harold, had represented the most difficult part of Marina’s life.

“When she went into the facility, I was given power of attorney,” Marina said. “I control everything of mother’s, which basically means her checking account and this camp.”

“Is there any money left from the sale of her house?” Halcyon asked.

“Yes, but it’s paying the difference for the assisted living facility that her Social Security doesn’t cover. If I don’t cover it, then they’ll toss her out, and trust me, they’re already looking for a reason.”

“Since when?”

“Since she tried to burn the place down.”

“I thought she was in a locked-down wing…you know, dementia patients and all that.”