Chapter Twenty-Two
When Big Pete gave the signal, all three boats turned into a wide, flat beach on the north side of the canyon to break for
lunch. Mandy dropped her paddle across her lap and stretched her arms in the air, wiggling her fingers in the crackling heat.
Ten stories above them, on the south side of the canyon, two huge concave divots in the cliffside bored down on them, like
the eyes of a ravenous owl.
“Is this Deer Creek?” Charlie said.
“Not quite,” Katy said, leaping from the raft. She started staking the boats to the bank while Thor and Big Pete lifted folding
tables and coolers off the chub for lunch. “This is Tapeats. Deer Creek is three river miles ahead. There’s a massive waterfall
at its base that pours into the Colorado. We’ll make sandwiches here, and then you have a choice. You can float to Deer Creek
on the boats with me and Pete, or you can hike from here with Thor.”
“Shouldn’t we all stay together?” Devon asked.
“If you want,” Katy said. “But the hike is pretty amazing. It goes to a waterfall called Thunder Spring, then over these big
sprawling bowls of rock in Surprise Valley. The last mile links up with the trail from the North Rim to Deer Creek—the one
your sister is probably walking down right now.”
“Let me get this straight,” PK said. “We could float along for three miles to one waterfall, or we can hike for hours in the heat to see a different waterfall and a bunch more rocks?” He snorted. “Easy choice.”
“Thunder Spring is unusual,” Katy said. “An explosion of water. I promise you’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Pass,” PK said. “I’ll stay with the boats.”
“I will hike,” Stefan said.
“Me too,” Fiona said.
Lucinda nodded at her granddaughter. “As will we.”
“Nana, no,” Imogen said. “I need to edit the videos I shot this morning on the raft. And heights make me break out.”
Lucinda stared at her. “You hiked all the way down to the river without a problem.”
“That was down. Not up and over.”
Mandy wondered whether the radically honest Imogen was lying to her grandmother, and if so, why. It wasn’t shocking to imagine
the teen didn’t want to take an optional hike, but Mandy was curious whether there was more to the girl’s story. Had Imogen
made some recordings she needed to hide once Babette arrived? Or was there a way she planned to meet her celebrity employer—her
own surprise grand entrance—that she was preparing to execute?
“Suit yourself,” Lucinda said crisply. She adjusted her enormous sun hat and headed toward the lunch station.
Devon and Charlie lingered with Mandy and Liv on the bank as Katy cinched down the last of her knots.
“When do you think my sister will arrive at Deer Creek?” Devon asked.
Katy squinted up to the north. “If they got an early start on the hike down, they might be there soon.”
“The boats will reach her first?” Devon said. “Then I’ll float.”
“I’ll hike with Stefan,” Charlie said.
“Charlie . . .” Devon’s voice was low. “Don’t you think it would be wise for us to be together when we greet Babette?”
“When we greet her,” Charlie responded, “I’d like to have our biggest investor by our side.”
“And your first investor,” Mandy added. “I’ll hike too.” She stepped toward Charlie, then stared at Liv and waited.
It was times like this Mandy wished they were the kind of sisters who knew each other well enough to read each other’s minds.
She’d always been jealous of siblings like that, the ones who accidentally got the same haircut or yelled, “Fettuccine Alfredo!”
during a game of Charades as soon as the other one put a single finger in the air. They’d never had that kind of telepathy.
Even when their mom died and Liv had flown across the country to get home and be with her, some part of her big sister never
quite made it through the door. Liv was always keeping busy—doing dishes, sorting papers—hovering just outside the crush of
grief. She never allowed herself to collapse on the couch with Mandy and wallow in their pain. As if making herself soft was
too painfully hard.
Liv’s heart was off limits, her brain a steel maze locked in an iron box. You couldn’t watch the ball bearings as they rolled
through. You could only hear the muffled plinks and guess where you stood with her.
Like right now. Was Liv impressed that Mandy had volunteered to accompany Charlie on the hike, to facilitate a splitting of
the Sauvage siblings so they could learn more? Or did Liv think Mandy was hitting the trail just because Thor would be there?
And what would Liv choose?
“I’ll float,” Liv said.
The words shot a surge of pride through Mandy’s chest. Liv believed in her. She thought Mandy could handle Charlie and Stefan
on her own. But something else hummed in her heart too. Sadness that they wouldn’t be together. A spasm of fear of setting
off on her own. And one more note, twanging like a tired guitar string. Regret. She’d had no clue what Liv would choose, or
why she’d done it. Her sister was as inscrutable to her as ever.