“I hope so. I’m ready for what comes next. We’re all ready.” He breathes out in a long, steady exhale. “It’s just turning out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

“Look, if anyone knows how hard it is to leave the Parkers, it’s me. But I also know that unlike me, you’ll do it the right way.”

“What, you mean like actually telling people I’m leaving instead of sneaking off in the middle of the night like a criminal?”

“Thanks a lot, jerkface.” She pauses. “And okay. Fine, I will go on the stupid show because – see? – I’m still paying for doing it the wrong way.”

Shawn grins. “Also because you love us and want to be there for Mom.”

“Yeah, sure, that, too.”

Back in the green room, Kate is sitting at a small vanity, gazing at herself serenely in the mirror, while Katriina stands behind her, fixing her hair. Walter sits next to her in a suit and tie, holding her hand, his leg bouncing up and down. Sitting still was never one of Walter’s fortes, and it had gotten worse since he handed over the day-to-day operations of Superior Tours to Nicki and Hamish.

“Why in the hell would you do that?” Finn had said when her father told her his plan. Old habits die hard.

“You know why. I need to be here for your mother. Besides, Nicki and Hamish both know how to run a business.”

“Hamish is a bootlegger!”

“Well, yes, but he’s a successful bootlegger.”

And despite Finn’s warnings that Nicki and Hamish were sure to turn Walter’s boats into a Mexican drug-smuggling fleet, it actually hasn’t been a total disaster. Even now, Nicki is coaching Kate on ways to work a Superior Tours plug into her interview. “If Cassandra asks if going over the falls was fun, you should say, ‘Not as fun as one of our new Friday-night booze cruises,’ ” Nicki instructs her, holding up a flyer. “We have discounts for groups over twenty.”

Walter frowns. “The Miss Penelope only has seating capacity for twenty.”

Nicki waves him off. “They never all show up anyway.”

A production assistant with a headset and a clipboard comes to the door. “It’s time,” she says.

Kate doesn’t respond. She simply pats her hair in the mirror, humming under her breath.

“Mom?” Finn tries to catch Kate’s eye in the mirror. “It’s time.”

“Of course,” says Kate, standing up. “It’s time.” It’s obvious she has no idea what it is time for, but it doesn’t matter. Together, they will get her through it.

—

“But there must have been something that happened that spurred you to take that barrel over the falls. Were you trying to kill yourself?”

“Of course not, dear. Why on earth would I want to do that? Life is too short as it is.”

—