“Nitwits,” the robotic voice said from the backseat of the SUV as Cassie guided it along the two-lane road.
Lily pressed her lips together, sliding her eyes sideways toward her daughter and suppressing a slight smile.
Cassie tightened her grip on the steering wheel, her nostrils flaring a little as her eyebrows knitted. She shot a glance in the rearview mirror at the animatronic doll strapped in the backseat. “I’m sorry, Ri, but we’ll go to Savannah when there isn’t a hurricane bearing down on the city.”
“Postpone.”
Cassie sucked in a breath, shifting in the seat as she pressed the accelerator a little harder to speed up and climb the hill. “Well, we sort of are postponing. We’ll go as soon as we can arrange everything. But I think we all needed some time away.”
“Cassie’s right,” Lily said with a nod, eyeing the scenery passing by her window. “After everything that’s happened in the last few months, we need some time away. I think Bar Harbor is just the escape we need.”
“Savannah.”
Cassie clicked her tongue. “There is a hurricane coming toward Savannah. We couldn’t go there. Plus, we could have left you at home, you know? Wyatt is looking in on Willy. He could have brought you tacos.”
“Cassie mean,” Ri replied, her robotic voice tinged with disapproval.
“I’m not mean,” Cassie insisted, her eyes wide. “I brought you, didn’t I?”
“Stuck. Room.”
“Well, we got a suite, Ri. So you’ll have plenty of space. And we sprung for Oceanview.”
“Home. Same.”
Cassie eased her car to a stop at a red light, shooting her mother a pleading glance.
Lily patted her daughter’s shoulder before she twisted to eye the ghost in the backseat. “Ri, let’s try to enjoy this little mini-vacation, okay? You’ve been through a lot, too. And so has Cassie with all this business with her husband.”
“Ri, Cassie, bad husbands.”
