Chapter Twenty-Six Tranquility Estates, Vermont Present Day
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tranquility Estates, Vermont
Present Day
Chrissie stood alone at the gates to Tranquility Estates, her hand raised to shield her eyes as the rideshare she’d ordered pulled up to deposit two bewildered teenagers, one exhausted man, and a howling cat in a carrier.
“You have no idea how happy I am to see you.” Walsh was the first to speak. Since he was the one holding Rufio, who rattled inside his carrier the way Chrissie imagined a rabid raccoon might, she was pretty sure she understood why.
“Was he awful on the plane? Did he pee on everything? Are you banned from that airline forever?” She rushed forward to relieve Walsh of his burden, but by the time she reached him, he’d already set the carrier down.
He’d also opened his arms and pulled her into a bear hug that knocked the breath right out of her body.
“How are you holding up?” He didn’t relax his hold on her by so much as an inch.
“We’ve been worried sick about you. When we got delayed in Denver, I thought Kat was going to hijack one of the planes and start flying it herself.
” He chuckled, the rumbling of his warm, solid body so thorough that she was forced to move with him.
“She probably could, too. I wouldn’t put anything past that girl. ”
Kat snorted. “It’s not like it’s hard. Planes are almost all automated these days anyway.”
Contrary to Chrissie’s expectations, Walsh didn’t relinquish his position right away.
He lingered long enough to step back and put his hands on Chrissie’s shoulders, his face inches from hers as he examined every line of her swollen-eyed exhaustion.
She could smell the mint on his breath and the tang of his aftershave, feel the warmth pulsing from his palms into her skin.
“Do you need anything? A bag of pretzels? A tiny bottle of alcohol? Hand sanitizer? We raided the airline supplies while the flight attendant’s back was turned.”
Chrissie shook her head, unable to speak around the sudden lump in her throat. Until this exact moment, she hadn’t realized just how much she’d needed a friend—this friend in particular. Walsh’s calm, easy affability was so far removed from this place that it almost felt wrong.
“Okay. But if you change your mind, I’m pretty sure Kat and Lily are hoarding a few illicit bottles in their backpacks. I’m planning on grounding Lily later, but Kat’s punishment is on you.”
Instead of laughing, as her daughter normally did whenever Walsh teased her, Kat pushed herself forward.
“If I did steal alcohol, I’m pretty sure it’s justified.
” She swept an anxious look at the gate, with its elegantly scrolling script and high-tech security camera mounted up high, the rolling hills extending behind it.
Like Chrissie, she seemed to have a difficult time reconciling the gorgeous grounds with what they signified.
“Mom, Scarlett’s not really dying, is she? ”
Chrissie’s chest squeezed so tightly that she couldn’t breathe for a full twenty seconds.
A few weeks ago, she’d have given anything to hear that particular note in Kat’s voice.
It had been a long time since her daughter felt safe—and vulnerable—enough to let her guard down, especially in front of someone like Lily.
But although the other girl looked uncomfortable, her tall, lean body shifting from one foot to the other as she chewed nervously on the end of one of her box braids, she didn’t seem to feel any urge to rake Kat down.
“I’m afraid she is, Kitty Kat.” Even that—her use of Kat’s despised nickname—didn’t have its usual reaction.
Risking everything, or perhaps nothing at all, Chrissie reached out to pull her daughter into her arms.
“I’m so sorry, sweetie. I’d have never dragged you across the country unless it was for real.”
Like the hug with Walsh, the tight grip of her daughter’s embrace seemed to unlock all of the tension that had been holding Chrissie together.
She’d promised herself that she wouldn’t cry, that she’d be the strong, stoic mother Kat would need to get through this, but it was all too much.
The familiar scent of Kat’s shampoo, the way her breath whooshed over her skin…
It was like coming home after a long, painful absence.
“But I don’t understand.” Kat’s voice was muffled where it pressed into Chrissie’s neck. “Was Aunt Scarlett going to leave without telling me? Without saying goodbye?”
Thankfully, Chrissie and Scarlett had already discussed this part last night. They’d discussed a lot of things last night, and even though none of it had been pleasant, it had been necessary.
“Do you remember that time Rufio disappeared for a few days and we couldn’t find him anywhere?
” Chrissie asked gently. She pulled away just enough to search her daughter’s face—that sweet, heart-shaped face that was so similar to Scarlett’s, but with the long-lashed, dark eyes that belonged to Grimshaw.
Kat was so much a part of both of them that Chrissie could see it in every expression.
“We were worried he’d run off to find his previous owners, but the vet said it was more likely that he was dying and wanted to do it somewhere private. ”
Kat sniffled. “You spent two whole nights searching the neighborhood for him. I was worried he’d change his mind and not be able to make it back to us on his own.”
Chrissie nodded and smiled at this oversimplification of what had been, at the time, a harrowing experience.
Kat had been eleven years old and so enamored of that dratted cat that Chrissie would have spent every night outside for a year if Kat had asked it of her.
But Rufio had eventually dragged himself back, having decided that the life he lost was only one of nine.
“It’s a bit like that,” Chrissie said. “Scarlett didn’t want to hurt you, that’s all. She was trying to save you the heartache by making sure your last memory of her was a good one.”
“But not you? She didn’t care how much you hurt?”
The question almost laid Chrissie out flat. Trust a child to cut straight to the heart of a matter and then stand by watching as the bleeding started.
Walsh’s hand came crashing down on Kat’s shoulder.
“I expect it’s a little more complicated than that.
When you’ve been friends with someone as long as your mom and Scarlett have, there’s a lot of baggage that doesn’t get unpacked in time.
Or at all.” He drew a deep breath and smiled down on them both.
“Speaking of baggage, what do you say we find our room and get this poor cat settled in? We’re all a little worse for wear right now. ”
“Yes. Yes of course.” Chrissie felt her cheeks flame as she realized her lapse.
These three—four, if she counted Rufio—had been traveling for almost sixteen hours, and it showed.
“I’m staying with Scarlett, but I booked you guys a separate cabin.
It’s got a really pretty view of the Green Mountains, and you can walk to the stables from there.
I asked, and they said you’re welcome to use as many of the amenities as you want.
All they ask is that you respect the privacy of the other guests. ”
Walsh nodded and started hoisting the suitcases. Kat looked far from happy to leave the conversation there, but she picked up Rufio and prepared to follow suit. Only Lily hesitated, one of her braids still dangling from her lips.
“I don’t like this place,” she announced. Like Kat, she was dressed in black leggings and a crop top—the chosen outfit of almost every volleyball player under the age of twenty—her expression one of mingled distaste and fear. “It’s weird. This whole thing is weird.”
Chrissie braced herself for Kat’s inevitable explosion, but her daughter only rolled her eyes and handed Lily the cat carrier.
“Yeah, well. I told you already. My family is weird. Wait until you meet my aunt Scarlett. She’s the only person I know who could throw a destination funeral and make it seem like the most natural thing in the world.”
Chrissie grimaced as she watched the two girls head up the gravel drive. Walsh made no move to follow them, his own expression heavier than she was used to seeing on him.
“I don’t think Kat’s fully processed what’s about to happen,” he said in a voice soft enough for only her to hear.
“To be honest, I don’t know that Lily and I have, either.
Far be it from me to critique your parenting choices, Chrissie, but are you sure you want her here for this? Or any of us? Your friend—”
“Is dying to meet you,” Chrissie said and gave a bitter laugh. “Sorry. Bad joke. But if you left now, I’m not sure I could get through this on my own, and she knows it. She won’t turn you away.”
“Chrissie…”
Chrissie shook her head and flung up a hand to keep Walsh from throwing aside the suitcases and pulling her into another of those warm, friendly hugs.
She wanted one so much that it was a physical ache, but that kind of proximity was too dangerous.
Until she talked to Kat, until Scarlett talked to Kat…
Well, it was too risky, that was all.
“Please don’t, Walsh. I know what you want to say—that Kat’s just a kid, that Scarlett should be allowed to die on her own terms, that there’s a good chance I’m ruining everything that’s left of my relationship with my daughter by dragging her here to be a part of this.
” There was so much truth in what she said that she had to fight a wave of nausea before continuing.
“The truth is, the situation is a little more complicated than I told you over the phone.”
Walsh hesitated, anxious lines starting to form behind the lenses of his plastic-rimmed glasses. “Complicated how?”
Chrissie drew a deep breath. This would be the first of many such confessions, and she wasn’t looking forward to any of them.
“Kat doesn’t know this yet, but I’m not her biological mother.”