I pause. Did Mom just use a pun?
“I’m proud of you, Mom,” I tell her. “That was very clever.”
“I’m not a complete idiot.”
“How is Isla doing?” I ask, swallowing hard.
I already know the answer. I can hear her hysterical meltdown in the background.
“She’s determined to turn your room into a nursery,” Mom says with a long sigh. “I don’t know what to do, Ingrid. Her bedroom is bigger than yours. She’s just going to have to deal.”
“Agreed,” I say.
She exhales, and I can hear the exhaustion she’s going through.
“Isla has a broken picker.”
I frown. “What does that mean, Mom?”
“It means,” she laments, “she’s not like you. She picks people who don’t really like her. She thinks because they stick around for a little while, they must care for her. But they don’t. Not really. When they get tired of her, they just leave.”
I’m not sure what’s going on at home, but is Jill Winthrop actually making sense?
“Sometimes, I don’t think Cash liked me very much,” I say quietly into the phone.
“No,” Mom returns. “He didn’t always act like it. But Wilder does. You picked right this time, Ingrid. You picked someone who likes you and won’t get tired of you.”
“How do you know?” I ask her.
“His actions speak louder than his yapping.”
I laugh. “Words, Mom. His actions speak louder than his words.”
“You know what I meant.”
For the first time in my life, I miss my mom. I miss the sound of her voice and the chaotic way she moves through life and how she can’t ever get a single adage right.
“I miss you, Mom,” I say to her.
“I miss you so much, Ingrid.”
But then, Dad starts yelling again and I can hear Isla sobbing uncontrollably.
These are my people. I wouldn’t choose them. But somehow, they’re still mine.
And I miss them.
Even Isla’s deranged sense of entitlement.
What if she gets my room?
I don’t think it’s the end of the world, really. Wilder should go to NYU, and I should go with him. I can do online classes and work.
Isla and her terrible picker can have my room.
“How is your trip?” Mom asks.
“Good,” I tell her. “We’re only a few hours from our destination.”
