Page 155 of Dream On, Ramona Riley

“She’s in Clover Lake,” Dylan said, slumping back in her chair. “Her whole life is there.”

Both Jack’s and Carrie’s brows lifted. They looked at each other, eyes wide.

“What?” Dylan asked, shifting in her seat. “What is it?”

“Pickle,” Jack said slowly, “Ramona’s in LA.”

The words didn’t register at first. Didn’t make sense.

“She’s what?” she asked.

Jack laughed a little nervously. “She’s in LA.”

Dylan just stared at her father.

“She took a job working for Noelle Yang,” Carrie said. “I heard it from Noelle herself when I called her about a gown for the premiere. You didn’t know?”

Dylan’s mouth opened, then closed again. She’d had no idea. She hadn’t really seen Ramona for more than a split second since their breakup, and no one on the film’s set mentioned her to Dylan. It had been like some unspoken rule, some protection Dylan never asked for.

Dylan sat there, trying to figure out how she felt about this new development. There was some hurt over the fact that she’d been in the dark about this huge opportunity, that Ramona hadn’t told her. But as she slowed herself down, really let the emotions justbe, as Eli would say, she realized how unfair that hurt was. Her feelings were what they were, sure, but she’d never asked Ramona about her dreams. Never looked beyond her own issues to really see what Ramona’s might have been. And god, right now, sitting with her parentsin Laurel Canyon, she wanted to know them. She wanted to know them all. She wanted to know what Ramona dreamed about costume design, and she wanted to know about this new job with Noelle. She wanted to know why Ramona never felt comfortable telling Dylan the truth, and she wanted to tell Ramona how sorry she was.

She wanted Ramona.

“Shit,” she said, pressing her hands to her mouth. “You think—”

“Yes,” Carrie said emphatically. “Yes, I really do think.”

Dylan just stared at her mother, her mind whirling withwhatandhowandif.

If.

That was the big one.Thequestion.

And there was only one way to answer it.

Chapter

Forty-One

“So this is LA,”April said.

Ramona stood on her tiny apartment’s even tinier balcony, squashed between her best friend and her sister, and gazed out at the evening vista that was her new home. The sun was just starting to set, sending pink and purple and orange across the sky.

“Strip malls and pine trees,” Olive said.

“With mountains in the distance,” April said in an ethereal voice, spreading her free hand over the view.

Ramona laughed. “How about constant sunshine and perpetually seventy-five degrees?”

“Ugh,” April said, but she was smiling as she held out her arms to the sun. “No one needs this much cheer. Give me some moody clouds and a stormy lake any day.”

Ramona shook her head, but when she took a deep breath, it was shaky.

She was here.

Shelivedin LA.

She had a job working for Noelle Yang.