Page 42 of A Thousand Little Goodbyes

But oh, how shehatedthat guy. Not because he was a pretentious sack of wind, and not because everything he said and did was a performative farce, but because the two of them were exactly the same.

They both wanted Chrissie’s heart, and neither of them deserved to have it.

“There.” Chrissie finished the piece she was practicing and stood up, stretching her arms above her head as silence once again descended upon the house. “I’m done for the day. Did you still want to check out that sketchy carnival in Ventura Park?”

Scarlett was on her feet in a flash. “Do you even have to ask? Sketchy carnivals are my favorite kind. I hope the Ferris wheel goes rogue like last time. We were spinning around on that thing forhours.”

Chrissie laughed (a good sign) and then immediately pulled out her cell phone (a very, very bad sign). “Cool. I’ll have Grimshaw meet us there. One of his cousins is in town this weekend, so…”

Scarlett bit back a groan. As far as she could tell, Grimshaw was related to no fewer than forty-five different male cousins, most of whom had tenacious body odor and even worse taste in literature than he did. He and Chrissie were constantly setting Scarlett up on blind dates with them, as if all that was needed to set the seal on their happiness was to ensure they always had a double date for the art-house movies Grimshaw favored.

“Don’t tell me,” Scarlett said, resigned to her fate. If she wanted to spend time with her best friend—and she did—she had to pay the price. “This one is different. A really great guy once you get to know him—and his acne will be sure to fade in a few years. All I have to do is be patient.”

“I’m sure this one really is different,” Chrissie promised as she closed the lid on the piano and started gathering up her things. “And if he’s not, we can always abandon him inside the fun house.”

Scarlett had to make do with that, but not before making sure she got one last dig in.

“Good idea,” she said. “With any luck, he’s so much like Grimshaw that he’ll get lost admiring his own reflection in one of the crooked mirrors.”

* * *

“You should ask Mitchell to go on the spinning teacups again. Now that his stomach is empty, he might actually enjoy himself.”

Grimshaw was dangerously close to winking at Scarlett as he spoke, so of course she responded with a glare. Since she was holding two pink puffs of cotton candy and had a matching stuffed narwhal under one arm, she doubted her glare held much authority, but she kept it glued to her face anyway.

“These are—I meanwere—my favorite sneakers,” she said as she tried not to think about the bright blue splatter of vomit that now decorated the tops. Honestly, if you were prone to motion sickness, why on earth would you eat a blue raspberry slushie right before you got on a ride? “You made him sit next to me on purpose.”

Grimshaw opened his eyes wide in an expression of innocence. It made his broodingly dark lashes look even less natural than usual. In all the time she’d known him, he continued to maintain that he’d never worn eyeliner a day in his life, but if that wasn’t the work of an Urban Decay smudge stick, she’d eat this narwhal.

“Whatever can you mean, Scarlett?” he asked. “Of course Mitchell wanted to sit next to you. He’s never been on a date with a beautiful older woman before.”

His wide-eyed innocence turned to even wider-eyed malice. Scarlett wished there was a way for her to bottle up that look and share it with Chrissie, but of course Grimshaw would never let that happen. Around Chrissie, he was a perfect gentleman, content to hold her handand gaze adoringly into her eyes, generously sharing his cousins so her dear friend wouldn’t end up a lonely spinster.

Around Scarlett, however, his true nature came out. It had no choice. That was what happened when like found like.

“You could have told us he’s only fourteenbeforewe got here,” she muttered.

“What, and ruin the surprise?” He slung a heavy arm around her shoulders. “This is the most fun I’ve had with you in months.”

Chrissie chose that moment to return to the group, her own arm around Mitchell as she led him away from the family bathrooms. The damp patch along the front of his shirt and the hangdog droop to his head indicated that her attempts to clean and cheer him up hadn’t been a success.

In a few years—possibly ten—Mitchell had the potential to rival his cousin in terms of height, hair, and hotness. As it was, he stood only one bare inch taller than Scarlett, his hair cut in an unfortunate bowl shape, the gangly awkwardness of his fourteen years evident in every line of his bearing.

The fact that he’d taken one look at Scarlett and fallen into staring, speechless adoration didn’t help matters any.

“See, Mitchell?” Chrissie gave the embarrassed boy’s hand a comforting pat. “I told you she’d still be here when we got back. Scarlett doesn’t care about things like getting sick on a ride. She’s one of the nicest people in the world. Aren’t you, Scarlett?”

Scarlett wasn’t, and everyone here knew it, but there didn’t seem to be any way to contradict the claim. When Chrissie Thomas looked at you with those soft, kind eyes and demanded that you be just as soft and kind in return, you did.

It was the one thing that made spending time with Grimshaw palatable—the one reason Scarlett hadn’t secretly nanny-cammed her interactions with him and posted them online for all the world to see.For some strange reason, Chrissie genuinely believed that Scarlett’s heart beat the same way hers did—that if left to her own devices, her decisions would be right, honorable, and just. She believed the same thing about Grimshaw.

Scarlett Sanderson was a lot of unpleasant things, but a hypocrite wasn’t one of them. If Chrissie could see something inside Scarlett that she didn’t know existed, then it was possible that she could see it in other people, too. Maybe Scarlett focused on the manipulative weasel inside Grimshaw because that was the only part of him she shared.

“Here. I got you this.” Scarlett shoved the cotton candy at the boy. “To clean the taste out of your mouth. Also because it was buy one, get one free.”

“Really? For me?” Mitchell accepted the peace offering, looking at her with such pleased surprise that she wasalmostready to rise to Chrissie’s astronomical expectations. “Chrissie was right. You really are the best.”

Scarlett flushed. She flushed even more when she caught Grimshaw’s gaze, mocking her from beneath a pair of perfectly arched brows.