Page 81 of Dream On, Ramona Riley

Ramona grinned. “Not appetizing?”

“Did you hear my brain comment?”

Ramona just shook her head as they wandered to the next display. There were several other people in the room, fellow mushroom enthusiasts, but Ramona also noticed they were paying a lot of attention to Dylan, a few phones out, whispering to one another.

“I think we have an audience,” Ramona said quietly.

Dylan lifted her brows, looked around the room. Then she waved at everyone, smiling beatifically. “It’s fine,” she said. “Part of the gig. Better to just acknowledge them once, then ignore them. What’s this one?” She motioned to the next mushroom, but Ramona felt uneasy, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling from the attention.

“Um,” she said, trying to focus on the mushroom, which wasn’t hard once she realized what it was. “Mauve parachutes.”

“You do realize you just said that in the same tone one might coo over a new puppy.”

Ramona nudged Dylan’s shoulder. “Just look at them. These are actually my very favorite mushroom.” She pressed closer to the glass, staring at the tiny, flowerlike fungi with the mauve-colored umbrella-like cap, delicately fanning over a thin, darker pink stalk. They grew on the forest floor, usually in bunches like a bouquet.

“They look so vulnerable,” Dylan said.

“They do,” Ramona said. “But they’re really tough. They shrivel up when it’s dry to wait for rain, then they open back up to life. They have marcescence.”

“Mushroom newb over here.”

Ramona grinned. “It’s a mycological term that indicates reviving ability.”

“So they basically die…and come back to life?”

“Sort of. And look.” She tapped on the glass. “They’re just so beautiful. Like flowers. They’re also called purple pinwheels. And nature justmadethat. It’s a miracle.”

She knew her mouth was hanging open, like she was watching an eclipse or some other rare phenomenon, but in a way she was. She sighed happily, ready to move on, but when she looked at Dylan, Dylan was looking right back at her, her own mouth open a little too.

“What?” Ramona asked.

Dylan just shook her head. “Nothing. Just…” She shrugged, then took Ramona’s hand again and ambled with her to the next display. She let Ramona prattle on and on, even seemed interested, and when they left two hours later and headed for a local fast-food restaurant that purportedly had the best seasoned fries on the East Coast—all researched and discovered by Dylan—Ramona felt like she was a kid who’d just visited her favorite theme park.

Or…maybe she was a small-town girl who’d just experienced the best date of her life.

Chapter

Twenty

Ramona didn’t seeDylan at all the next day. She knew they were filming at the diner, but she and April had promised to take Olive and Marley shopping for dorm room supplies in Concord, the closest town with big commercial stores most likely to have everything they needed.

“Wait, you didn’t kiss?” April said as they strolled through the bedding aisle at Target. April pushed the cart, which was already half-full of plastic hooks, a lamp with a purple shade, two shower caddies, shower shoes, and a jumbo pack of ramen.

“There wasn’t really a great opportunity,” Ramona said as she investigated which pack of twin sheets was the cheapest but also wouldn’t feel like Olive was sleeping on sandpaper.

“You’re both terrible gays, you know that, right?” April said, leaning on the cart’s handle.

Ramona laughed. “She walked me to my door like a gentleperson, though.”

“And…” April rolled her hand for more details.

“And…Dad opened the door.”

“Clam-jammed by Mr. Riley.”

Ramona laughed again. “He turned so red. Said he thought he heard something and was worried it was the paparappi again.”

“You mean paparazzi?”