Page 26 of A Thousand Little Goodbyes

Scarlett snorted. “Allplaces love child labor. Every corporation on earth would tap into the sweet well of innocence if they could find a way to do it without breaking the law. Is it true they hold demolition derbies on those combine things? I read about it in a book once—all the massive machines crashing and tearing into each other like mechanical dinosaurs. It seems fun, in a rugged-cowboy-without-a-shirt-on sort of way.”

“Yeah, actually. The town where I grew up used to hold one every spring to kick off the planting season. Rural America is so weird. Drinking and breaking things are their two favorite pastimes.”

Chrissie took the turnoff for the town of Cokeville—population 500—with mixed feelings. River might be unaware of what Scarlett was doing, but Chrissie had seen her friend do this kind of thing before. She was trying to figure out where River hailed from, and to do it in a way that lifted no red flags.

Because she was curious? Because she genuinely wanted to help? Or, as was most likely the case, because she knew it would annoy Chrissie?

“Well, it’s not much to look at, is it?” Chrissie asked as she found a small outdoor café that appeared to be the only place short of a truck stop to find something to eat. It was only ten in the morning, but they’d been on the road for so long that her stomach was starting to cramp up with hunger. “Lemme check my messages real quick, and then we’ll—Oh!”

Her phone started buzzing as she turned the notifications on. Then it kept buzzing until half the battery must have drained away.

Scarlett peeked over her shoulder. “What is it this time? More dickpicks from Walsh?”

Chrissie didn’t even bother to honor this with a response. She was already dialing Kat.

“Is everything okay, honey?” she asked the moment she heard her daughter’s “Finally” on the other end of the line. “What’s wrong? I’ve been driving so I had my phone on silent.”

“You’redriving?” came the hot retort.

Chrissie blinked at the vehemence in her daughter’s tone. Kat was given to emotional extremes most of the time, but this seemed a bit much, even for her.

“Well, yes. Aunt Scarlett and I are on a road trip, remember?”

“Iknowyou’re on a road trip. One you said I wasn’t invited to join. Even though I apologized for the stupid vaping—which wasn’t even my fault, since I was only in the bathroom with the other girls for, like, two minutes—and begged you not to abandon me.”

“Whoa, there,” Chrissie interrupted before her daughter collapsed from asphyxiation. She hadn’t taken a breath in the entirety of that tirade. “Slow down. What’s this about? Did something happen between you and Lily? Or—Oh, no. It’s Rufio, isn’t it? What did he pee on? Was itveryexpensive?”

“Mom! Stop trying to change the subject. I saw the TikTok. The one of you playing piano.”

“Oh. You did?” Her first feeling was one of delight that her daughter had seen the video and been moved enough to actually call—a thing teenagers only did on major holidays and when their bank accounts were low. Her second feeling was more anxious than anything else. “What did you think of it? I’m a little rusty, obviously, but—”

“Who is that girl?”

Chrissie glanced over at River and Scarlett before she even realized what she was doing. The pair of them were taking a selfie in front of a Welcome to Cokeville sign, a white substance powdered liberallyunder their noses. Her motherly instincts recognized it on sight as eye shadow, but that didn’t make her appreciate the joke any more.

“Her name is River. She’s quite the singer, isn’t she?”

“Mom.”

“Kat,” she replied. It was the exact wrong thing to say.

“Do you have any idea how unfair this is?” Kat practically screeched. “I never get to goanywhere, especially with Aunt Scarlett. It’s such a scam. All the other kids have dads and grandparents and hordes of fun relatives, but all I have isyou.”

As this was very much on trend with Kat’s mood lately, and Chrissie had promised herself that she would give her daughter as much space as she needed to experience said moods, she let this remark pass.

At least, she let it pass on the phone. The truth of it still stung.

“I can tell you’re upset, honey, but you have to understand my position—”

“No, Mom.Youhave to understandmyposition. You have no idea what it’s like being your daughter. I swear, I sometimes think the only reason you had a kid was so you’d have one person in your life who couldn’t leave you. Everyone else goes the second they can get free of you.”

That one stung even more. “Kat—”

“I’m not done yet,” Kat said through her teeth. “Not only did you refuse to take me on vacation with you theonetime you actually do something interesting, but now you’re playing the piano with some random girl. How do you think that makes me feel? When you basically abandoned me?”

Chrissie knew it behooved her to tread warily. Her relationship with Kat was already strained to the breaking point, their battles growing more and more pitched with every passing day. The fact that she’d invoked Chrissie’s solitary state was clear proof of that. Those accusations only came out when she wasreallyhurting, and when her mean-girl streak saw no recourse but to lash out in the one way sheknew would hurt Chrissie the most.

Still. She couldn’t help the next words from leaving her mouth. Apparently she was developing something of a mean streak herself.