Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
LUNA
“Your parents are the Talton’s who have that RV channel?” Maisie stared at me, her eyes wide.
I nodded. “They sure are. I went by Jane on the channel. They didn’t want me to use my real first name, and they straightened my hair.”
She pointed at her own curls and shook her head. “That must’ve been a chore.”
“It was,” I replied dryly.
Stella, who was sitting beside Maisie at the table, slid her gaze to the side. “Are you really into following RV influencers online?”
Maisie shrugged. “I wouldn’t say I follow them, but I watch sometimes. There’s no way I would live a life like that with my kids, but it seems, I don’t know, carefree.”
Madison, who was seated across from Maisie, cleared her throat. “It’s your turn.”
Maisie quickly refocused her attention on her cards.
Casey had brought me along for card night with this group of women.
I’d known many of them when I was a little girl, but since we’d started traveling when I was still in elementary school, it felt like I was getting to know them all over again.
Most of us didn’t actually play cards, but there were a few who took it seriously, including Maisie, who usually won.
Tonight, we were at Tish and Griffin’s house with Griffin out with his friends. We were taking turns cooing over Tish’s little boy, Teddy, a cute little toddler.
He was sound asleep in Tiffany’s lap at the moment. She glanced over to Tish. “Should we just put him to bed?” she whispered.
Tish nodded and scooped him out of Tiffany’s arms. Teddy didn’t even open his eyes as Tish carried him away.
“Babies are so cute,” Tiffany said when she glanced to me.
“Babies are cute,” I agreed. “Is he still a baby? At what age do babies become toddlers? I don’t actually know this.”
Maisie snorted when she looked up from her cards. “I don’t know what the rules are, but I say after they turn one. They’re heavy then,” she pointed out.
“Speaking of age,” Casey chimed in. “How old were you when your parents started doing this RV influencer life? I zigzagged all the way from the coast of North Carolina to Alaska. It was fun and nice to see the views, and I don’t regret doing it, but that’s a lot of driving.
I can’t imagine doing that and not having an end date to a trip like that. ”
Maisie played another card, nodding as she glanced up. “Yeah, I don’t even know how parents can handle that, to be honest. It would be much harder to create structure for kids.”
“I ended up hating it,” I said, that familiar bitterness lacing my words.
Tiffany’s eyes went wide. “You sound like you really hated it.”
A sigh slipped out. “At first, when my parents told me that was their plan, I thought it would be cool. It was fun for maybe six months. There are cool places that I got to visit. I’ve been to every state, and I’ve seen most of the main parks and places like the Grand Canyon, the Badlands, the Catskills and Adirondacks, the Blue Ridge Mountains, coastal Maine, and more.
All of it beautiful. They didn’t tell me at the beginning about their plan to create content.
” I rolled my eyes. “I’m the first to say there’s a lot of cool stuff that can happen online.
That’s where I go when I need to learn something.
That’s how I learned to make donuts. My grandmother used to bake with me when we visited here in Willow Brook and then I would practice by myself.
But I got sick of my life being online. I got so tired of having my hair straightened.
I got tired of being called Jane. It was just me and my parents all the time.
My mom signed me up for online school and I didn’t really have any friends.
I had one person who I thought was my friend, and—” I paused as my heart twisted in my chest. “Her parents were also RV influencers. I didn’t know they got a cut from my parents’ ad money every time we did stuff together.
Since my parents were more successful, they made sure Margie hung out with me. ”
Tiffany curled her arm around my shoulders and squeezed. “Luna! I don’t like that,” she said with feeling.
I returned her side hug. “I didn’t like it either.
It hurt. And the stuff you see online are the clips that they make perfect.
I got so tired of everything being recorded.
I never even had a boyfriend.” My cheeks puffed when I let out a big sigh.
“I love my parents even though I didn’t like that.
They’re still doing it and they’re pretty upset I’m not there anymore.
I think they had this idea, I’m not freaking kidding, that I would stay with them after I became an adult.
I think they hoped they’d end up with grandkids on the channel.
Although I have no idea how they thought I’d manage to meet someone and have anything resembling a relationship.
” I shook my head. “There need to be laws that protect kids from this shit.”
Maisie caught my eye. “Hearing this is so sad. I do watch these short clips, but I don’t want to anymore. I’m so sorry you went through that.”
“When people ask me about the channel, I usually say they should stick to watching creators who don’t do the family stuff. That way, you don’t have to wonder how the kids are affected,” I said.
“Are you glad they had you go by Jane?” Casey asked.
I nodded. “That was one thing my parents did right. Although I was annoyed with it at the time, now I’m really glad I’m just Luna.
I’ve never been recognized in the wild, or at least not by anyone who told me.
Not since I stopped straightening my hair and started using my real name, which I did the second I moved away. ”
“How old were you when you stopped?” Phoebe asked.
“I moved out of the RV the day after my eighteenth birthday. I had already talked to my grandmother and she’d opened a bank account for me and sent me enough money to find an apartment and get on my feet. It was spring, so we had just gotten back to Alaska.”
“Did you tell your parents you were leaving?” Tiffany asked.
I shook my head. “I called them after I landed in Juneau. They wouldn’t have done anything crazy; they’re not like that, but they definitely would’ve tried to talk me out of it. It would’ve been a big argument with my grandmother. We did Christmas with her every year, mostly because I begged.”
“Wow,” Madison breathed.
“I don’t mean to be that negative about my parents.
I love them. They decided they wanted to try it.
Once they started making enough money to fund their travel, they just kept doing it, but it ends up—” I paused.
“It ends up feeling like you’re not doing it for the experience.
You’re doing it for the content.” I looked around the small table at the room of women.
“I’m embarrassed to say this, but you all are my first actual friends since I was in elementary school. ”
Tiffany squeezed me again. “We are absolutely your friends, and we are here for you.”
My eyes stung with tears as I took an unsteady breath. “Thank you. I really mean that.”
Amelia, who was tall and kind of intimidated me because she ran a construction business and was a badass, caught my eye and smiled. “We really mean it too.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
I started to feel a little uncomfortable with all the attention, and because they were my friends, even if these were new friendships for me, they didn’t dwell on it. Conversation moved onto lighter topics.
“You’d better be careful if you have a thing against firefighters,” Maisie offered wryly after the card game was over a little while later, and we were relaxing around the table, eating off of the dessert tray I’d brought.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “I cannot believe I’m gonna say this, but falling in love with a firefighter is practically a rite of passage in this town.”
I snorted. “I have noticed that,” I commented. My gaze arced around the table. “I’m not planning on falling in love with anyone because I’m just figuring out how to be friends and have a normal life.”
Casey nudged me with her elbow. “Parker is cute.”
“And, he’s single,” Maisie supplied helpfully.
My cheeks started to burn. Since Maisie was the lead dispatcher at Willow Brook Fire & Rescue, she knew pretty much everything about all the firefighters. Of course, she was also always up to speed on any emergency in town and everyone involved. She was a great source of information.
“Hmm,” I replied vaguely.
“Parker’s a hot one,” Tiffany said. “He’s also got that whole mysterious broody thing going on.” She waggled her brows.
Amelia cast Tiffany a sly smile. “Wes could be called mysterious and broody,” she teased lightly. Wes, being Tiffany’s husband and a firefighter.
Tiffany bit her lip as she laughed. “Okay, maybe he could be. He kind of keeps to himself.”
Warm-hearted teasing carried on while I savored being with women who weren’t spending time with me because I was on my parents’ online channel. It was a blessing I’d never take for granted.
Later that night, after I got home, I eyed the text from Parker. My belly felt a little tingly just thinking about him.
I still remembered my first and only kiss. With him. I was embarrassed to even tell him I hadn’t kissed anyone since him. Those few hours at the beach with Parker that afternoon felt like a slice of time I snatched out of the universe and kept for myself.
It was rare for my parents to let me wander anywhere when we were traveling.
Alaska was the only place where they felt comfortable letting me do my own thing.
In hindsight, that was kind of funny because there were moose everywhere, the occasional bear encounter, and plenty of other wildlife to worry about.
That afternoon, they were busy because they were updating the registration on the RV and taking care of other things. There was no content to make for that.