Page 17 of Crew Girl

Like father, like daughter, apparently.

TEAGAN

Downing as much vodka as she could in one go had not been Teagan’s wisest decision. It was a few notches down from telling Cam her dad was dead, though.

Was there even a world in which she could go back to Easton?

“What happened to you?”

Teagan swirled around. Juliet was smiling sweetly at her. Too sweetly. Her dad hadn’t defrauded her parents, too, had he?

“What have you been up to?”

Juliet grinned. “I figured out how to convince my mom to visit. But first, tell me what’s going on.”

“Ohhhh…” Teagan lurched a little, grabbed on to Juliet for balance. “I got publicly executed.”

Juliet propped her up against a nearby car and walked over to hers.

Teagan squinted, trying to figure out what she was doing.

“Tell me about it when I’m back at school,” Juliet said over her shoulder.

After a hiccup she could taste—gross—Teagan asked, “Aren’t you going tomorrow?”

“No,” Juliet said casually. “I gotta get my car fixed.”

It still looked very orange. Very expensive. “What’s wrong with your car?”

Juliet moved Teagan a bit farther away from it, struck a match, then threw it at her car. Instant fireball.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

Juliet gave her a sweet smile. “You should probably get going.”

Teagan had never in her life 911’ed her mother. But the cumulation of today’s events demanded it. Her mom showed up two minutes later in her Crab Shack uniform, guided Teagan into the car, and wisely didn’t ask any questions on the ride home. But when Teagan fell out of the car in the driveway and pretty much had to crawl onto the porch, she figured she owed her mother an explanation.

“I’m sorry, Mom. I messed up.”

“Yeah,” her mom said, then sat down beside her. “I’m glad you did.”

Teagan would’ve done a double take if she hadn’t felt so awful. “What?”

“It means you’re talking to me.”

“You never want to talk.”

“Of course I do,” her mom said, then pulled a bottle of water out of her bag, uncapped it, and handed it to Teagan.

“Not about Dad. Not about how he wrecked our lives.”

“He didn’t wreck our lives!”

“See!” Teagan felt the warmth from the vodka start to leave her system. “You can’t talk about anything real. I found his duffel bag earlier. Hidden in your closet.”

“What were you—”

“I was looking for the curling iron and instead I found Dad’s duffel bag. Why’d you hide it? Why’d you even bring it? And don’t sugarcoat the truth. If you know it.”