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Please, Kam. You have to convince her not to race again.

I sat on my balcony until the sun disappeared beneath the silvery waters of the horizon. Until the traffic waned on the boulevard. Until the lights dimmed on the pier. My body ached when I finally dragged myself to my feet, my muscles stiff and heart heavy.

Standing at the railing, I replied to Seren.

I can’t, I’m sorry.I have to support her.

Scene 48

A stoop-shouldered woman in an Uncle Sam hat swung a hemp cord necklace toward Dillon.

“Name on grain of rice? Unique gift for special boyfriend.”

Dillon would have ignored her, having already managed to avoid the other hundred clamoring Venice Beach street vendors, but the wordboyfriendmade her laugh.

“Not today, thanks.”

The woman’s smirk turned wry. “Perhaps for pretty girlfriend? I have all names. If not your spelling, I make you one.”

Dillon paused in front of her table. The last thing she needed was a cheap boardwalk trinket, but it was Kam’s birthday. They’d agreed on no presents, just time spent together, but she thought the chintzy tourist souvenir might make her smile. A token reminiscent of the stuffed dolphin won on the pier in what felt like a lifetime prior.

“Alright.” She leaned against the cart. “You’ll make one custom?”

“Anything you like.”

She sorted through the hollow glass charms, choosing a sea turtle. “Can you put two grains in there?”

The woman shrugged. “Ten dollar more.”

“Deal.” Dillon told her her name, and then spelled out Kam-Kameryn.

“Ohhh, withK, like big movie star.” The woman’s eyes grew to a disproportionate size behind her magnifying glass as she printed the letters with impossibly steady hands. “She live near here, you know? Not far.”

“Oh yeah?” Dillon cocked a disinterested hip, running her fingers through a box of beads. “Smashing.”

“Must be nice. Live in big glass tower. Another fifteen dollar—I show you where.”

Pulling a pair of twenties from her pocket, Dillon politely passed on the tour. Wouldn’t the woman have been disappointed to learn that samebig movie starhad already given her the backstage, VIP, full-benefits package entirely free of charge?

Kam’s flat was only a few blocks away, just past the Santa Monica Pier.

It was as excessive as Kam had warned her it would be. A grandiose rooftop suite screaming with all the amenities of the Hollywood elite. There was no semblance to the life of the girl who’d felt her luck had peaked when she signed her first blockbuster contract for less than a tenth of what her male co-stars made. Recently, a headline had run in theDaily Mailreporting the finalSand Seekersfilm had landed Kameryn Kingsbury one of the most lucrative deals in cinema history.

The luxuriant penthouse overlooking the ocean was a glaring confirmation.

“It’s okay, you can tell me you hate it,” Kam had said a week prior when Dillon first arrived. “I know it’s ridiculous, especially for how little time I spend here.”

Dillon had given a cursory glance through the chef’s kitchen, before stopping in the palatial living room surrounded by walls of glass. “I mean, it is a bit cramped,” she’d teased, “but it’s got you—and a kettle—so it’ll do in a pinch.”

“Well, I’m glad I got billing above the kettle.”

“Who’s to say I listed my necessities in order of priority?”

Kam rolled her eyes. “You’re an ass—” but the rebuke was cut off in a shrill of laughter as Dillon caught her belt loop and dragged her to her.

“An arse who’s glad to be here,” she whispered against her temple, and realized she meant it.

For the first time since her failure to qualify for Los Angeles, the world felt a little brighter. A little less daunting. Simply being with Kam restored a glimmer of hope for a future she’d no longer been able to see clearly.