Teagan
Was there even a world in which she could go back to Easton?
“What happened to you?”
“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.”
Her mom, to her shock, blazed back. “You want to know the truth? I hate Eagle’s Cove. When I left twenty years ago, I promised myself I’d never come back. But here I am. And not by choice. Because of your dad. Everyone here thinks I’m sad about it, but I’m not sad. I’m furious.”
Gosh. Teagan hadn’t seen that coming. It was strangely reassuring watching her mom have a meltdown. “Oh.”
Her mom looked up at the ceiling and laughed. “You know? As mad as I get, I remind myself, he’s your father.” She shook her head. “It’s been six months and I still can’t believe he did this to us.”
“But he did.”
Her mom shifted around to face her. “I don’t know why I kept his bag. Maybe I thought it would have some answers. But at this point? I don’t know if I should keep it or burn it.”
She ran her fingers through Teagan’s hair and for the first time in forever, Teagan didn’t want to pull away.
“I’m so angry at him, Mom.” Teagan tipped her head on her shoulder. “But I really miss him, too.”
Her mom’s arm dropped from her hair to her waist and gave her a squeeze. “Me too, Teags. Me too. That Asshole.”
Teagan laughed even though moving made the world spin. It was nice, sitting with her mom like this. Talking openly and honestly. Maybe this whole disaster was the thing that would finally bring them closer together.
“Mom?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“I think I need you to hold my hair in the bathroom.”
Mouth breathing was the only way Teagan was going to get through another morning of sweeping goose poop.
That, and dark sunglasses. Saved her from squinting against the too-bright day and dodging eye contact after Britney had destroyed her reputation.
Check that. She hadn’t had a reputation to destroy, and now she had one.
Embezzlement Barbie. Bankrupt Barbie. Boot-Her-Out Barbie. And the list went on.
Coach Hayden had come down a few minutes ago and even though it was fifteen minutes after practice was meant to have started, there wasn’t a sign of any of the rowers.
“You sure you don’t want to scrap the boys’ team and try to round up some girls instead?” Teagan chanced.
“Ha! Nice try. I’m sorry to say, kid, Easton won’t make a big push for a girls’ team until the boys start winning again.”
“They’re not going to win with hangovers.” Teagan nodded at the clubhouse where the boys, all in various states of disarray, were finally beginning to emerge.
Grumbling about the Dock Party, Coach met the guys halfway and barked out a command to give him a lap before they got on the boat.
Liam stumbled a few steps, then bent double to retch. “Just give me a minute, Coach.”
“You’re the cox. That means you’re meant to be leading the team—”
“I said give me a minute!”
Teagan, who really should’ve been keeping her head as low as possible after last night’s disaster, couldn’t help herself. “No wonder you’re losing.”
Liam turned his head, sunglasses slipping down his nose. “Ex-cuse me?”
“You’re wasting precious practice time being hungover. Do you know how many people would kill to get in that boat? I know I would.”
Liam started laughing. “Cute. But—”
Coach cut him off. “I think she’s onto something. Teagan? You want in the boat? There’s a position up for grabs.” He looked between the two of them, then said, “Cox.”
“What the—”
Coach held his hand up. “Liam? Teagan. You’re going to race for the position.”
The next thing she knew, Teagan was standing next to Liam in front of the team, all of whom looked as bewildered as she did. Or, more accurately, terrified.
She was a solo rower. Not a cox. And what happened once she beat Liam? Because she would totally beat him.
There was that little, teeny problem about the whole team finding out her dad was a wanted criminal last night. And Josh hating her for mixing up the seats yesterday. And telling Cam her father was dead. But apart from that, she had this.
“Right.” Coach rubbed his hands together. He looked like he couldn’t quite believe he was doing this either. “Two boats, four rowers, one kilometer.”
“I’m not doing it,” Liam said.
Coach wasn’t having it. “The losing team has to clean the docks for a month. Pick your team, Teagan.”
“Me?” Hard no. They all hated her.
“C’mon.” Coach gave her a gentle nudge. “You can do this.”
She could. Yes. She could and she would. “Umm… Cam, Baloo, Josh—”
“I’m not rowing for her,” Josh huffed.
A few of the guys laughed.
“Josh,” Coach warned. “She called your name.”
“She can have Ryder,” Josh shot back.
Ryder was good. Teagan shrugged. “Sure.”
Teagan clocked Josh giving his cousin a look warning him to do everything he could to lose. We’ll see about that…
Liam jumped in. “Josh, Quaid, Perry. And Noah. She can have Crabcatcher.”
“Great,” Teagan shot back. “Perfect.” Her entire body was shaking. This was about as far from perfect as it got.
While the guys grumbled and climbed into the boats, Coach came up to her. “You okay?”
“No. They’re not going to row for me.”
“You’re not like any coxie they’ve had before. You see things they don’t.”
“I don’t know how to cox,” she wailed. “I’m a rower.”
“Then you know what it’s like to be in their shoes. You can empathize. Use it. Get in their heads.” He let it sink in. “This is your chance to get in the boat. Do you want it?”
She did. “Yes.”
“Then prove it.”
Next thing she knew she was in the front of the boat with four pairs of eyes glaring at her.
It was either sink or swim time. “Okay, guys, I know you don’t want to be on my team, but I’m the one standing between you and a month’s worth of goose shit.
” She took a breath. “Right. The first two fifty? We let them set the pace. Josh will burn them out quick. He has too much to prove. When they lag? We’ll make our move. ”
No one said anything. She focused her gaze on Ryder. “I know you only agreed to row for me to throw the race.”
He pretended to be offended. Good thing he wasn’t an acting major.
“Consider this, Ryder. You do Josh’s bidding? You’ll spend the rest of your life as his sidekick.”
“Bullshit.” His eyes flared. She’d hit the nerve she knew would hurt the most. Out here anyway.
Too soon the boats were at the starting line, and Coach was sounding the horn.
As predicted, Liam’s team shot off ahead of them.
She could see Ryder itching to push harder. “Stroke pair, hold back.”
Liam was screaming a nonstop stream of commands to his team.
“Okay, guys,” she said when, as predicted, Liam’s boat began to lose power. “Now! Let’s take it to them.” To her delight, the guys ramped up the force, pushing the boat forward so that they were neck and neck. But neck and neck wasn’t good enough.
“Ryder!” she shouted. “Are you really going to let him win?”
He flicked a glance over at his cousin’s boat, then started to pull hard. Just like she knew he could.
“That’s right, Ryder! You’ve got this! Everyone! Push! Push!”
They did—and their boat crossed the finish line first. They’d won!
“You did it! You won! You guys won!”
For a moment, no one said anything. Teagan couldn’t breathe. What was going on? They’d won.
And then the boat erupted into cheers. Even Cam was smiling.
Whooping with joy, Baloo reached out his hand and shook hers. “Well done, Crew Girl.”
Teagan rode home on a wave of euphoria. Couldn’t wait to tell her mom the news. She was the Easton Eagles’ new cox! She burst through the front door, but no one answered when she called out.
A stack of mail sat on the kitchen counter. She sifted through it, stopping when she saw a letter from Easton Prep. She opened it even though it was addressed to her mom.
It took a minute for the red letters to take form. And when they did, every ounce of joy she’d felt evaporated.
TUITION PAYMENT DECLINED
As if she needed reminding who had landed them in this nightmare, her father’s voice came to her. Never get overconfident, Teags. One bad catch can end a run.
Thanks, Dad. I’ll try to remember that.