She sat on the multicolored rug and leaned her back against the mostly empty dresser.

“Oh Mother, hi.”

Renee heard giggling in the background, and the slam of a car door.

“I’m a little busy. Mia—you remember Mia, right? The girl who lives across the hall? We’re heading—”

“No,” Renee replied immediately, her tone serious and commanding.

“No what?”

“You and I are going to talk now. I don’t care where it is you and your friend were going, I want five minutes.”

“Um, okay?” she replied, taken aback. “What?”

“I just, I just called to say,” Renee took a deep breath. “You’ll be spending your summer in Cranberry Cove, not in Colorado. I’d be open to you going for a week or two, but that’s it.”

“Um, yeah. That’s not happening. Beckett already told his parents I’m coming,” she sniffed haughtily. “I won’t risk upsetting them.”

Renee felt some of the wind escape her. Apparently, Beckett’s parents’ disappointment was more concerning to Tansy than her own mother’s.

“This isn’t some joke, Tansy,” Renee said, her nerves frayed. “I finally got wind of your social media this morning. From the kegs to that shirtless boy you’re constantly draped over like a curtain, your behavior isn’t exactly scholarship material. And smoking cigarettes? Really? What the heck are you thinking? Remember Grandpa’s lung cancer? Hello? I thought you were smarter than that.”

“B-but,” Tansy started to stutter, “you hate social media! How do you even know what I’m posting?”

“A friend brought it to my attention.” Renee decided not to out Sadie. She didn’t want Tansy to know her former babysitter had ratted her out. “You’ve worked your talented little butt off to get where you are. Why risk blowing it? You’re going to be the next Nora Ephron, remember?”

Tansy snorted. “Beckett thinks rom-coms are stupid.”

“Too bad for Beckett then.” Renee stared at the Sleepless in Seattle poster over Tansy’s desk for so long that Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were reduced to blurry peach-colored blobs. Tansy was nine the first time they watched it together. As the credits rolled, she’d declared it the most romantic thing she’d ever seen, and asked to watch it again the next day. It had felt so pure, and so fun, to bond over movies, squee during the grand gestures, and bury faces in pillows during the dark moments. “Since when are you the kind of girl to change yourself based on what a boy thinks?”

She’d raised her better than that, hadn’t she?

“Whatever.” Renee could tell Tansy was rolling her eyes. “Anyways, that was just a kiddie dream.”

“It’s kiddie to want to write great comedies?”

Tansy exhaled. “Look, I get that it’s hard for you, but I’ve grown up a lot since moving out here. I’m changing. I’m not some helpless child who needs Mommy holding her hand all the time.”

Renee closed her eyes, her migraine going up a notch. “If you’re such an adult, how are you keeping up with your schoolwork? It looks like partying is your new major.”