Page 1 of Crew Girl

TEAGAN

Teagan Tao had heard that there were nine circles of hell. Five days stuck in a car with her mom on an enforced cross-country road trip was definitely one of them.

Ella Tao-Emerson. Former small-town beauty queen, cockeyed optimist, low-key delulu.

“Teags!” her mom squealed out of nowhere.

Drop the low key. She was straight-up delulu.

“Teagan, look!” Ella pointed at the hundredth Friendly’s they’d passed since they’d hit the East Coast.

Its bright red signage popped cheerily against the white clapboard exterior exuding a “families welcome” vibe. A vibe that excluded them as they weren’t exactly a family anymore. Not since her dad had gone AWOL six months ago when the FBI showed up at Teagan’s regatta. He had disappeared before she’d crossed the finish line. A first. Sent her mom a pathetic text saying “sorry” after he’d hit the road.

You’d think six months was long enough to get used to the fact her dad was a wanted felon, but nope! Not so much.

She could feel her mom’s eyes on her—anxiously hopeful Teagan would join her in this celebratory sighting of a chain restaurant—so she tried to make one of those bright oooh, cool sounds, but an unexpected scratchy sting of tears morphed it into a lackluster hmmph.

What the hell? Teagan wasn’t a crier. Whenever she got upset after a training session or a bad race, her dad always cited one of his The Way of Tao philosophies: There’s no reason to despair. All problems have a solution—you just need to face it head on to see the way forward.

Not all of them legal, apparently. Or worth facing head on given the fact he’d vanished. According to the search warrant (a freaking search warrant!), David Tao—California’s premier boutique hotel visionary, doting husband (gross), best dad/coach/parent ever—had been quietly defrauding his investors of millions and was currently on the run. Not exactly the behavior of a hero. Not even in a Deadpool kind of way.

How was she supposed to come to terms with that? Was she as delusional as her mom? Her dad was the reason she rowed. Why colleges like Stanford, his alma mater, were keeping their eye on her. It was hard not to despair.

“Earth to Teagan.” Her mom’s hand waved in front of her face. “Did you see the Friendly’s?”

“What? Yes. Why?” Teagan snapped. “Have you been manifesting Fluffernutter Sundae energy?”

Her mom gave an overly jolly hoot of laughter. The kind that masked the hurt she felt when Teagan’s Toxic Teen Tone hit too sharp. “I see someone’s been Googling the menu,” she teased. Warily. “Would you like to get sundaes? We went there with your grandmother last time we were here.”

“What? When I was four?”

“Who stops liking sprinkles?”

“Who starts liking sprinkles?” Teagan knew she was being a brat. She tipped back her head and gave a silent wail of despair. God, she missed being on the water.

“There was a Starbucks about twenty minutes back.” Her mom gave her a desperate-to-please smile.

As easy as it was, punishing her mom because of what her dad did wasn’t fair. “How about we have DIY sundaes after I win my first regatta?”

“Deal.”

They both might be waiting longer than either of them liked to make good on it. Despite some forensic internet searches, she’d yet to find clear evidence of a rowing team on Easton Prep’s website.

Teagan’s mom had grown up in Eagle’s Cove and had always dreamed of going to Easton Prep, the school in the “castle.” Thanks to the education trust her dad had set up—one of the few things the FBI hadn’t confiscated—Teagan would be making her mom’s dream come true. At a price. It had meant leaving California so they could live in the house her mom had inherited from her parents (so, free). Ella had eBayed and Vinted pretty much everything that hadn’t been carted away in evidence vans, and even then, Teagan had overheard her telling a gas station cashier that it was barely enough to cover the motels and gas to get to Massachusetts.

“Mom.” They both heard the panic in her voice. “Easton Prep does have a girls’ rowing team, right?”

“I’m sure it does,” her mom said through a forced laugh. “It’s beside a lake.”

“That means they have geese, but not necessarily a rowing team.” She wiggled her phone between them. “I can’t find them on any of the top-ten rankings.”

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough.” Ella pointed at a sign listing the exit to Eagle’s Cove. “I’m getting some good vibes, Teagy-T.” She gave Teagan’s head a stroke, like she was a cat. “All the feely feels.”

Teagan returned her mom’s hand to the steering wheel. “Eyes on the road, please, Mother.”

“Hey, Teags. Despite what you think, I can do two things at once. Drive and be happy that we’re in the friendliest state in the West.”

“East,” they both autocorrected as Ella drifted into the next lane. A bunch of people honked at them as the SUV lurched back into the right lane.