Page 27 of A Thousand Little Goodbyes

“Sorry, kiddo, but you can’t call me boring in one breath and then demand my company in the other. You’re going to have to pick a lane.”

The scream this elicited was cut short by a low, soothing murmur in the background that calmed Chrissie by proximity. And when a voice returned to the other end of the line, it didn’t belong to her daughter.

“I tried to get her to wait and call you once she’d cooled down a little, but you know Kat,” Walsh said with a chuckle. “She’s fire and ice, that girl. I’ve never known anyone to throw herself wholeheartedly into life the way she does.”

Chrissie glanced over at her friend again. Scarlett and River had given up on their cocaine photos and had moved on to ordering what looked to be every single item on the menu offered by the outdoor café.

“I know someone elseexactlylike that,” she said, sighing. “I’m sorry. I could’ve handled that a lot better. My only excuse is that I’m operating on about three hours of sleep right now. Other than my daughter adding one more item to the list of things to hold against me for the rest of my life, how’s it going? How areyou?”

Walsh’s rich chuckle sounded again. Chrissie wasn’t sure why, but that sound was the only thing keeping her from breaking into exhausted, bitter tears right now.

“If you ignore the part where I share Kat’s outrage about not knowing what a phenomenal piano player you are, I’m fine. I hope you don’t mind, but I bought Rufio one of those little Astroturf rugs they sell at Costco. We’re working on changing our bathroom preference from my living room rug to the plastic grass. So far, we’re at about a negative 3 percent success rate.”

There were several things in that statement requiring Chrissie’sattention, but as was almost always the case where this man was concerned, she latched onto the wrong one.

“Oh, for crying out loud.Yousaw the video?”

He didn’t seem to find anything odd in her reaction. “If you want my honest opinion, it was the shock of it that upset her the most. You don’t even have a piano in your house. How did you learn to play like that?”

Chrissie closed her eyes and sank onto the seat of a peeling green picnic table. For some strange reason, she was shaking even more now than she had during last night’s performance.

For an even stranger one, she found herself telling him the truth.

“A decade of private lessons. When I was little, I had an older brother who was amazing at the piano—a prodigy, really. He died when I was seven, so I sort of picked up where he left off.”

“Based on what I heard, I’d say you were a prodigy, too.”

Walsh’s ability to throw out a compliment like it was the easiest thing in the world always warmed her from the inside out. It was the one thing both she and Kat couldn’t seem to resist in him.

“That’s nice of you to say, but you never heard Malcolm. For the longest time, I thought that if I just practiced hard enough, threw myself into lessons and recitals and got as good as he was, it might make my parents feel like we were still a family.”

She couldn’t recall the last time she’d admitted this out loud—or even to herself—but something about this trip and the Cokeville air and Walsh’s ready sympathy compelled her to keep going.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t work. I’ve had almost no contact with my parents since Kat was born, and I haven’t had the heart to play any sort of music in the meantime.”

“That’s too bad,” he said, still with that devastating combination of ease and sincerity. “I hope you find the joy in it again someday. Takeit from a man who’s seen his fair share of natural talent—it’s a shame to let it go to waste.”

As Chrissie struggled to hold back the emotions this remark elicited, Scarlett and River joined her at the table, each carrying an orange plastic tray loaded with food. Scarlett slid a particularly unappetizing basket of dried meat in front of her.

“Since you seemed so much in love with your meat sticks the other day, I got you the wild buffalo jerky,” she said. “Apparently, it’s a Wyoming delicacy. Here. You eat while I finish chatting with Kat.”

Without giving Chrissie a chance to correct her assumption, she plucked the phone from her grasp.

“Hey, love!” she called. Then, with a smile, “Oopsies. Sorry. I just assumed Chrissie was talking to Kat.” Then, smiling even bigger, “I know, right? It was even better watching them perform live. We’re actually bringing River along with us for a while. She was in a spot of trouble, and Chrissie being Chrissie—”

Chrissie practically hissed as she tried to snatch the phone away from her friend. “Give that back.”

Scarlett was, as always, too quick for her. She made a motion for Chrissie to eat and swiveled around to continue her conversation in peace.

Or turmoil, in Chrissie’s case.

“Oh, don’t worry. I’m doing my best to ensure she has as much fun as possible. Have you ever noticed that getting her to doanythingfor herself is like pulling a tiger’s front teeth?”

River slid onto the bench next to her, busy unwrapping a grilled cheese sandwich that looked much more appetizing than Chrissie’s endangered animal meat. “Is your friend always like this?” she asked.

“Yes, unfortunately. Be sure to hold any private phone conversations as far away from her reach as possible.” Chrissie grimaced. “Ireally am sorry about this whole going-viral thing. I honestly didn’t know she was going to post that video until it was already up.”

“It’s fine,” River said through a mouthful of cheese and bread. “I never meant to stay in Boise for longer than a few months anyway.”