Page 91 of Movers and Shakers

“It would be hard,” Ruth said.

“I told her that I’ve seen tornados before. She’d easily be the best one.”

The room fell silent. None of us had talked about the tornado since it happened.

“But they’re still scary,” Ruth said slowly.

“I wasn’t like you two. I was fine.”

“You were left to process it alone,” Tom reminded. “That wasn’t right.”

“You both were scared too.”

“I mean, it wasn’t right of ourparentsto do that.”

“Only one of them is related to me.” I was unable to look them in the eyes.

“Dad thought you were his and he still sucked as a dad. I know you handled that storm—all of it—better than Ruth and I did. You’ve always been ahead of us when it comes to things like this. But you’ve got one thing wrong. You’renotalone.”

My heart pounded at seeing my normally tight-assed brother be so open.

“The kid and sobriety did you good, huh?”

“We’ve all finally caught up,” Ruth said. “And Tom’s right. Maybe it didn’t work out with Lila, and it sucks that it didn’t, but you have us to talk to about it. And you have your bar and your friends. Lean on us.”

Any other day and I would have said no. But onthisday, when my heart had been stomped on, I couldn’t hold back anymore.

And so I told themeverything.

Chapter Eighteen

Rose

“This feels so fucking wrong,” I said once Barry left.

“You did the right thing,” Juno replied. “You don’t want to put everything you’ve worked for in jeopardy.”

My hands went to my hairline, yanking off the heavy wig and wig cap, letting my red hair tumble down. The plan was tomove to an Airbnb in Rose’s name. We’d gone back-and-forth on where I should hide out, but Mom wouldn’t want to see me—even as Rose—with all the heat on Lila’s name, and I wanted to see Barry again.

It was risky to stay in Nashville, but Lila would disappear for now. We were working on borrowed time as it was, so I packed up even though my heart ached.

Weren’t decisions like this supposed to feelright?

When we got settled in our new place, Juno was looking at me like I was a grenade with no pin and I grew tired of it.

This decision ate at me, filling me with buzzing energy with no outlet. I needed to leave, to do something close to fixing the mess I’d created.

“I’m going to Movers and Shakers,” I announced.

“Is that a good idea?” Her voice wavered, but I knew I would lose it if I stayed.

“I’ll be fine. I need to see how badly I’ve broken Barry’s heart. I won’t even talk to him.”

Probably.

“Rose,” Juno called. I only paused as I was halfway out the door.

“What?”

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