Zadie nodded and headed back to the car to give her sister privacy. She didn’t need to ask who Finn was calling.
Finn sucked in a breath and tapped on her foster mom’s icon on her phone. Kathy answered on the first ring. “Finn?” Her voice was shrill.
“Hey.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. Did you get my note?”
“I did. After we called half the neighborhood.”
Kathy didn’t get angry that often, so Finn knew she had screwed up. “I’m sorry. I should have put it somewhere more obvious.”
“What youshouldhave done is tell us you were leaving early, not sneak out in the middle of the night. Your dad about had a heart attack.” Kathy normally caught herself when she started to refer to Steve as Finn’s dad, but she was too upset to notice.
Finn felt herself shrivel inside. “He didn’t get my text?”
“He forgot his cell at the office.”
“Oh… I’m sorry. It was stupid.Iwas stupid.”
“Stupid is right.” There was a pause. Finn could hear the sound of traffic in the background. Kathy must have been driving. “Was this Zadie’s idea?”
“No. It was mine.”
More silence. Somewhere in San Antonio, a car honked. “I’m just glad you’re safe,” Kathy said, the edge in her voice sanded off.
“I really am sorry.”
Her foster mom sighed. “It’s okay. Have fun. Bring me back a seashell.”
A lump formed in Finn’s throat. When she opened her mouth, the lump turned into a lie. “I will.” She hung up and took a moment to compose herself. She’d betrayed Kathy’s and Steve’s trust. It made her feel small and ungrateful, because in her heart she still felt like she owed them something for taking her in. Since they’d proposed to adopt her, that feeling had only intensified. After five years of providing for her, loving her, had they not earned the right to call her their daughter? Was it wrong of her to deny them that? Whether it was objectively selfish or not, shefeltselfish in that moment, and that made it real.
“Kathy?” Zadie said as Finn returned to the car.
“Yeah.”
“Was she pissed?”
“Kinda.”
“Why does that not surprise me?”
Finn felt heat rush to her cheeks. “She’s just worried. I don’t blame her.” She could hear the defensiveness in her voice.
Zadie must have heard it, too. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
An awkward silence followed. The sun was higher now, and the air rippled with heat. Finn shaded her eyes with her hand. “So what do we do now?” The question felt more daunting than it had earlier that day. She had exactly seven days to find their mom; actually, now it was more like six and three-quarters.
Zadie looked equally overwhelmed by the decision. “We could keep driving west, I guess, but at some point, we’ll end up in the Pacific Ocean.”
Finn had hoped an echo would come to her by the time they were done with breakfast, but she’d had no such luck. “I can try again once we start driving,” she said, uncertain.
“We don’t really have any other options, so I guess we’ll just keep heading toward Tucson.”
“Well,” Finn started, “there’s one other thing we can try.”
“Oh? What’s that?” Zadie narrowed her eyes at her sister.