Page 60 of A Thousand Little Goodbyes

“On it.” He propped his phone against the monitor and started typing. Chrissie tried not to count the seconds, but she had to do something to keep the creeping anxiety at bay.

The results came quicker than she expected.

“Huh.”

She wasn’t sure what was worse—the way he said the word or the look on his face as he said it. “How bad is it?”

“I’m not sure ‘bad’ is the right word—and I don’t even know if I’m looking at the right thing.” Walsh slipped a pair of readers over his eyes to peer more intently at the screen. “But there’s a place here called Tranquility Estates. A spa of sorts. A fancy one on a literal estate with horse stables and everything. Only—”

He cut himself off so quickly that Chrissie was afraid the call had been dropped. But the way he directed his full attention toward the screen told her that he was still very much present. “Chrissie, are you sure you want to hear this?”

Chrissie nodded—or rather, sheassumedshe did. In that moment, with Walsh’s eyes widening behind the black plastic rims of his readers and her own thoughts rushing together in a confluence of conflicting emotions, she wasn’t sure she’d moved at all.

“I think you and your friend need to sit down and have a chat,” Walsh said. “According to this website, Tranquility Estates is a cancer care center.”

“A cancer care center,” Chrissie echoed.

“That’s what I’m reading. Only according to their About page, it’s more of a hospice than a hospital. I’m so sorry, but it kind of looks like—”

Chrissie didn’t need to hear the rest. She already knew—hadknown for much longer than she was willing to admit. From the moment this road trip had started, there had been something different about Scarlett, something urgent.

Something final.

“It’s a place where people go to die.”

Chapter TwentyPortland, OR

2009

The first thing Scarlett bought with the money from her grandmother’s life insurance policy was a pair of first-class plane tickets to Paris.

The second thing she bought was a pregnancy test.

“Omigod, Scarlett. Please tell me you didn’t actually spend five thousand dollars of your inheritance on a senior trip for us to France.” Chrissie’s voice, caught somewhere between a scold and a squeal, reached the bathroom from the living room with a soft echo. Every conversation inside the apartment these days sounded like that, thanks in large part to the growing pile of boxes that contained the entirety of Scarlett’s childhood.

Bit by bit, Chrissie was packing up the pieces of Grandma that remained. Bit by bit, she was forcing Scarlett to move on with her life.

Scarlett hastily shoved the pregnancy test underneath a pile of towels on the back of the toilet. The requisite three minutes hadn’t passed, but there was no way she was risking Chrissie popping her head inside and catching Scarlett in the act.

“They’re nonrefundable, so you have no choice but to go withme,” Scarlett said brightly as she stepped into the living room. She tried not to wince at the sight of the cardboard stacks or at how bare and empty the apartment looked without her grandmother’s knickknacks on every available surface, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

Sheknewthe lease was up at the end of the month and she had no other choice but to find a new place to live. Sheknewall her grandmother’s belongings were waiting for her inside those boxes, ready to decorate wherever she ended up next.

But that didn’t make her resent them any less.Or to resent Chrissie less, either.How could her friend keep putting one foot in front of the other? Why was she so capable of carrying on when all Scarlett wanted to do was curl up in a ball and stay here forever?

“I know.” Chrissie’s arms were around her within seconds. “It’s awful in here while everything is in flux. I’m sorry. I’ll go to Paris with you to make up for it, and I won’t complain a single time. I might even try escargots.”

“And wine,” Scarlett sniffled, wishing that instead of helping her every step of the way, Chrissie would be less amazing of a friend. She needed that so much more than she was willing to admit. “And frog legs. And you have to have a scandalous love affair with at least two Frenchmen, but if you wear a beret even once, so help me…”

Chrissie laughed and let her go, which had been Scarlett’s objective from the start.

“I don’t think Grimshaw would appreciate me havingtwolove affairs. I can probably get him down to one, but that’s as far as I’m willing to push it.”

A wave of nausea came over Scarlett, so strong it was impossible to chalk up to the mild bouts of sickness she’d been having on and off the past few weeks. Chrissie had never used the L-word with regards to Grimshaw before, even as a joke. Whatever that stupid pregnancytest in the bathroom ended up saying, she couldn’t carry on like this.

“Chrissie, I—”

A knock sounded before she could make the confession that would ruin them both. Scarlett reared back, but Chrissie’s pleased look indicated that she’d been expecting someone—had even, possibly, planned yet another surprise to try and lift Scarlett’s spirits.