“I guess I’m a little rusty.” How had Finn convinced her to play Psychic Karaoke? She had cajoled her, of course. Her sister had given some speech about missing the time they spent together as kids, and that this game reminded her of those days, and would she please, please play just this once?

“One song,” Zadie had conceded after Finn’s begging had started to turn heads, but now that she’d gotten the first guess wrong, she felt a need to redeem herself. When the next performer was announced, Zadie focused all her mental energy on the stage.

“Got anything yet?” Finn asked.

“Shh! I’m trying to concentrate.” Zadie let out a slow breath and the weightless feeling in her stomach returned; with it, a name. Zadie blurted it out as if it would vanish if she didn’t get it off her tongue. “Aretha Franklin.”

“Song?”

Zadie hesitated. She had only a name. Before she could even make a guess, the opening bars to Franklin’s “Think” started playing over the karaoke speakers. “Shit,” she muttered.

“If you wanna stop playing, I get it,” Finn teased.

Zadie gave her sister a withering stare. “I’ll get it next time. Watch me.”

“Oh, I’m watching.” Without breaking eye contact, Finn clumsily grabbed a fry from the basket, dipped it in ketchup, and shoved it in her mouth. “Tell you what. How about we make it interesting?” she said, chewing.

“Go on.”

“If you get it right, I’ll give you the rest of the fries in this basket. If not, I eat them all.”

“Deal.”

A few minutes later, as “Think” drew to a close, Zadie threw the shutters of her mind wide open. A premonition was there waiting for her. Without hesitation, she said, “‘Friends in Low Places.’ Garth Brooks.”

“You sound pretty confident.”

“I am.” Although her voice wavered.

An older gentleman wearing a leather vest and cowboy boots climbed onto the stage. He pulled the microphone from its stand and began tapping his toes to the rhythm of the cymbals playing through the speakers.

Was this how the song started? Zadie couldn’t remember. Then the man began to sing, “Blame it all on my roots…”

“Boom!” Finn was in the middle of reaching for another fry when Zadie snatched the basket away from her. “I’ll take my winnings. Thank you.”

Finn didn’t look mad about the fries. Instead she grinned in a toothy, self-satisfied way. Zadie eyed her suspiciously. “What?”

She shrugged. “Nothing.”

“Seriously. Why are you smiling?”

“I just missed this side of you.”

“The fun side?”

“No. Not more fun. Just … relaxed.”

Finn was right. Zadie was feeling better than she had in years. Maybe this road trip wasn’t such a terrible idea, after all. “Let’s play again, only with higher stakes this time.”

“I’m listening.”

“Whoever loses has to go up there and sing.”