Page 149 of Dream On, Ramona Riley

“I’m proud of you,” he said into her hair, rubbing her back like she was a little kid. “Always have been, always will be.”

“Thanks, Daddy,” she said, her throat thick. She breathed him in, Old Spice and cotton, that Dad smell that made her feel young and soft and innocent.

They’d just broken apart when the front door opened and Olive walked into the house, her duffel bag on her elbow, her cheeks flushed, and her eyes a bit red.

Ramona and her dad parted, but he kept a hand on her arm, his fingers tightening in anticipation.

“Hey, Ollie,” Ramona said softly. “How—”

But before Ramona could ask a thing, Olive dropped her bag and hurried across the room, diving in between them, her face buried against Ramona’s chest as she started crying.

She caught her dad’s eye, his expression just as sad as hers felt, but neither of them asked about Rebecca or the visit. They just held Olive between them, their little family of three, and told her they loved her.

Chapter

Thirty-Nine

“I don’t careif we’re from different worlds.Youare my world. Wherever you are.”

Blair said the words with heart.

With feeling.

Tears brimmed in her eyes as she held Dylan’s face between her hands. Dylan’s own tears trailed down her cheeks as she gripped Blair’s wrists, their foreheads pressed together.

“I’m yours,” Dylan said. “In any world. Every world. Always.”

The moment of Eloise and Mallory’s reconciliation was romantic and taut. The entire crew around them seemed to be holding their breath right along with the paid extras as the two actors stood in the middle of Clover Moon Café, which Mallory had filled with a thousand purple irises, Eloise’s favorite flower. Eloise had opened the restaurant door that morning to a sea of purple, a powdery floral scent filling the space.

And in the center stood Mallory in a pair of worn jeans and a tee, ready with all the reasons she and Eloise should be together, despite the chasms in their lives.

The scene was cute, a grand gesture for the big screen, but it was powerful too. Weighted. Because Blair was goddamn good at herjob, and every single one of Dylan’s emotions had been living at the surface for days, ready to spill over for this very moment.

It had been two weeks since her split with Ramona, and since then, she’d only caught glimpses of her, a flash of dark hair and curves, always carrying clothes, always hurrying, never looking up or around at anyone.

Which was just as well.

Dylan didn’t know what to say to her. Didn’t know if she wanted to say anything. Anger and hurt simmered just under her skin, but there was something else there too.

Her own mistakes.

Her own lies.

Her own…missing.

Because she missed Ramona so much. More than she’d ever missed anyone in her entire life. When she and Jocelyn had broken up, even when all the drama and publicity about it slowed down, she never longed for Jocelyn like this. Never felt her arms ache from emptiness, her bed too big for her solitary form. But there was nothing to do about it. She’d hurt Ramona. Ramona had hurt her, and Dylan had never known how to get around those feelings to the other side.

She wasn’t sure there even was another side.

“Kiss me,” she whispered against Blair’s mouth now.

And goddammit, she tried not to think about Ramona. She’d tried this entire shoot, the penultimate scene of the movie and the last day of filming in Clover Lake, tonotthink about Ramona, about reconciling, about taking her in her arms and kissing her, but she couldn’t help it.

And maybe that was a good thing, because Dylan wasgood. This scene was emotional and intense, and even Gia was speechless as she and Blair kissed, hands in each other’s hair, tears on their cheeks.

“Always,” Blair whispered.

“Always,” Dylan whispered back.