“Well, yeah, but—” Finn paused and shook her head. “Wait. No. You don’t get to make me feel bad about this. I finally have a clue. A real clue.” A second later, Finn was outside and slamming the car door behind her.

“Finn. Wait…” Zadie followed her sister to the driver’s side of the SUV. It was then that she noticed the bags in the back seat. “So that was your plan? To drive off without telling anyone where you’re going?”

“That’s still the plan,” Finn said defiantly, one hand on the steering wheel.

Zadie groaned. She loved her sister, but her obstinance was infuriating. “You’re seventeen! Do you even have any money?”

“I have a few thousand saved up, plus graduation checks.”

“I can’t let you do this alone. It’s dangerous.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I’ll tell Mom you said hi.” Finn tried closing the door, but Zadie braced it with her elbow.

“What are you doing?” Finn said, exasperated.

“Just … give me a minute.” Zadie looked out at the road that was only faintly visible by moonlight, a road to nowhere. She was silent for a few moments—at least from Finn’s perspective. In Zadie’s mind, a lot was being said.

Then finally, “Throw your shit in the car.”

“But—”

“My car,” she corrected. “I’m driving.”

Barely suppressing a squeal, Finn dove out of her seat and pulled her sister in for a tight hug. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Zadie said as Finn pulled away and air rushed back into her lungs. “I have conditions.”

“Shoot.”

“We’ll drop off the SUV. Then you have to text Kathy and tell her we left early for Galveston.”

“I already left a note.”

“Okay, fine,” Zadie said impatiently. “Second: don’t wander off. I need to know where you are at all times.”

“I have just the thing.” Finn reached into the SUV, pulled out her giant sun hat, and placed it on her head. “How’s that for conspicuous?”

Zadie ignored the attempt at a joke. “Finally: be prepared for the possibility that we don’t find her.”

Finn’s smile waned a little, as if the thought hadn’t actually occurred to her until just now. “I am.”

“You might be disappointed.”

“I know.”

Zadie gave a nod, then opened the back door of the SUV and pulled out an orange nylon bag. She turned to Finn. “Mom’s tent? Really?”

Finn grinned. “I brought a second sleeping bag, just in case.”

Zadie groaned, walked the tent to the back of her thirdhand Subaru station wagon, and tossed it next to the inflatable watermelon lounger she’d bought for the beach-house pool. She hadn’t been camping since she was seventeen, and she hadn’t liked it then, either.