get a few animals, and one of the girls has a very nice business. Lorelei, why don’t you go and see if Mae has a gift box we could give to Mrs. Wilson?”
“Okay.” Lorelei shot out of the kitchen, leaving Eden alone with the puzzled-looking Mrs. Wilson.
The woman sipped her tea before speaking. “I thought you meant they were helping you get your farm going, Eden, but it sounds as though everyone’s staying.”
Eden met the implied question with a bland smile. “Not everyone, but it’s not just my farm, you know. And I still have a job in town, so I can’t be here to manage things.” Odd, that those words already made her feel vaguely hollow. There would be a time when she couldn’t be here every day to help, and it felt…wrong.
“Oh.” Mrs. Wilson toyed with the lemon wedge on the rim of her glass. “I thought the farm was just yours. I assumed, you know, when Albus died and Zachary didn’t come home for the funeral.”
On paper, it did belong to her. Albus’s last defiant gesture, leaving everything he owned to Eden. As much as she’d wanted her father to reconcile with his brother for his own peace of mind, Eden was fervently glad Zack hadn’t returned for his father’s final, bitter days. Albus’s body might have failed, but his mind and his vicious hatred had stayed as sharp as ever.
“We’re family,” she told Mrs. Wilson, just like she’d told her father. Just like she’d tell Zack. “I may own the farm, but it belongs to all of the Greens. That’s how it should be, don’t you think?”
“But will Zachary ever come back to it?”
The old biddy hadn’t seen him yet. Eden considered lying, but Zack’s presence would come out eventually, and everything she’d ever said on the topic would be scrutinized by Mrs. Wilson and everyone she knew. “He’s already here. Working hard on the barn right now, I think.”
The woman straightened, obviously taken aback. “I didn’t know that.”
Lorelei hadn’t returned. Eden was starting to envy her. “Yes, he’s been here for a few days. He came with Lorelei and the others.”
“I see.”
Silence stretched out, expanding and growing until it was a tangible presence every bit as real as Mrs. Wilson, who stared at her in awkward discomfort, clearly at a loss for words.
Well, words she’d say to Zack’s cousin, in any case.
Eden cleared her throat and gestured to the barely touched glass. “Can I get you some more sweet tea?”
A good deal of the older woman’s indulgent courtesy had chilled. “Actually, I should be going. You will keep the construction noise down, won’t you, Eden?”
You hadn’t even heard it until you found out Zack was here. This was how it would be from now on. Zack didn’t have to do anything to be guilty. If the town couldn’t find a crime he’d committed, they’d make one up.
They always had.
It was hard to smile when she wanted to bare her teeth in a snarl, but Eden managed. She smiled until her jaw ached. “Of course, Mrs. Wilson. Thanks so much for the basket.”
“You’re welcome, honey.” The woman rose and returned Eden’s smile. “And tell your daddy I asked after him, all right?”
“Absolutely. Let me walk you out.”
She kept her smile fixed in place like it’d been stapled there until the door was shut with her adversary on the other side. The wolf stirring inside her wouldn’t view the old woman as anything else, not when Mrs. Wilson invaded their territory and stank up the room with disapproval and chilly disdain.
Too bad for Mrs. Wilson, and too bad for every nosy gossip in Clover. Eden wasn’t a helpless kid this time around, and no one was going to drive Zack away from his home.
Lorelei peeked around the open archway into the living room. “I hid. I’m not proud of that fact, but there it is.”
Eden laughed hoarsely and closed her eyes. “That just makes you smart.”
“I heard bits and pieces. She thinks we’re starting a filthy hippie commune and that Zack’s the Antichrist.”
“They’ve always thought that, ever since he was a teenager.” Eden pushed away from the door and headed back for the kitchen island. “It’s not going to get better once they see him. The tattoos are a bit much for Clover.”
Lorelei lingered, staring at the front door with a troubled expression. “We’ll have to be careful, won’t we?”
It had always been the truth, but maybe the wolves who were used to the city hadn’t understood.