Page 27 of Dream On, Ramona Riley

Ramona breathed a sigh of relief—no need to bring Llama Face into all this quite yet. She waved Dylan over to the bright green pleather love seat in the corner, and they both sat, the iPad balanced between them. “I’ve got a Putt-Putt option.”

“Dickie’s?” Dylan read from the screen. “That’s bound to be incredible.”

“It is,” Ramona said. “Just wait.”

“I trust you.” Dylan nudged her shoulder, and Ramona fought against a flutter in her stomach.

“What else?” Dylan said.

Ramona wroteMoon Lovers hikeon number two of her bulleted list.

“Moon Lovers?” Dylan asked.

“It’s a great trail. Lesser traveled during the day because it doesn’t go around the lake, so we shouldn’t run into a ton of people.”

No need to mention that Moon Lovers Trail was also a local legend, that any couple who walked its path under a full moon—which draped the trail in a silvery glow at its height—would fall in love and live happily ever after. His junior year of high school, Owen took the girl he had a crush on for a moonlit walk, and they’ve been married for twenty-six years.

“Sounds perfect,” Dylan said.

“You mentioned bowling, but I wonder if that would be too complicated,” Ramona said.

She explained that there was only one bowling alley in town, and it was constantly busy with professional leagues and families sending gutter balls down the lanes, especially during the summer.

“Hmm,” Dylan said, tapping her chin. “I’ve never bowled before.”

Ramona dropped her pencil against the screen. “We should make a list of things youhavedone.”

Dylan laughed. “That’s a long list too, only filled with scandalous shenanigans I would shield you from. Though you’ve probably read about them.”

Ramona said nothing, because honestly, she probably had. She wroteBowlingwith a question mark on number three. Her cursor blinked on number four, mind whirring for ideas, things Dylan had said she wanted to do.

Swim at a quiet spot in the lake. I bet you know all the secret places, don’t you?

And just like that, all she could think about was Mirror Cove, where she and Dylan had first met. First laughed. First kissed. Well, their only kiss, she supposed. Their only anything.

“I think three is enough for now,” she said, closing the folio over her iPad. “We can think of more later.”

“I like that plan,” Dylan said.

Ramona nodded, but she couldn’t get rid of the knot in her throat. She needed a second, a few actually, and probably had to get back to the diner anyway. She was technically still on shift.

“Hey, Dyl,” April said, appearing in the doorway. “Allow me to show you a cornucopia of options for a tattoo on your ass.”

Dylan laughed, but immediately popped up and headed into the workspace. April winked at Ramona on her way out, and Ramona had never felt so thankful for her best friend in all her life. She collapsed back against the couch and let her mind wander through memories of a night she hardly ever let herself think about anymore.

Chapter

Six

Eighteen Years Ago

Baby Olive wasstill screaming when Ramona closed the door of her house behind her, the July night thick and sweet around her, but she hardly noticed it.

She just needed out.

Guilt tightened in her chest as Olive’s cries crew fainter, Ramona’s feet hurrying down the sidewalk in the dark, tears already starting to race down her cheeks. She’d held them in all day—well, for the last two weeks, really, except for at night when she was finally in her room alone and her dad wouldn’t see her cry. Her dad, who’d been walking around like a ghost, wandering from room to room with Olive in his arms since Ramona’s mom left, as though looking for something he’d misplaced.

Go, he’d told her tonight.