“No, let me say this,” he said. “I put too much on you. I know I did. With me. With Olive.”
“She’s my sister. You’re my father.”
“And you’re my child,” he said firmly. “I was lost, I’ll admit that, and didn’t know what else to do, especially after the accident. But I hated it every day, Ramona. I hated that you had to come home. Had to give up your life like you did. I wish it could’ve been different. That I’d had another option.”
He blinked, looked down, and Ramona was sure her father was on the verge of crying.
“Dad,” she said. “Look at me.”
He did, wiped at his face.
“I love my life,” she said. “Every second I’ve spent with you and Olive. I wouldn’t change anything.” And it was true. Getting to be part of her sister’s life like she had, not everyone got that. Not everyone got to see such an amazing person, a beautiful, kind, smart person bloom into being right before their eyes.
“I know that, honey,” he said. “But the fact is, you’ve sacrificed too much. And now with all this hullaballoo with Dylan Monroe.”
She cracked a smile. “Hullabaloo?”
He laughed, shook his head. “I just want you to be happy.”
“I am,” she said softly. And that was true too.
And it wasn’t.
She took a deep breath, picked at a string on a rip in her jeans. “Noelle Yang offered me a job in LA.”
She said it fast, the first time she’d said it out loud at all since Noelle’s offer.
Her dad blinked, his mouth falling open slowly. The words hovered between them for a second, the reality of them.
“Of course she did,” he finally said. “And you’re taking it.”
It wasn’t a question, but when Ramona opened her mouth, there was still doubt on her tongue.
“I’d have to be in LA by the end of the month,” she said. “And Olive”—her throat went a little tight—“Olive’s not due at Vanderbilt until the middle of August.”
She couldn’t miss it—couldn’t leave in July, letting Olive and her dad settle her into her dorm room without Ramona. It was amoment, one of those Ramona wanted to be a part of, and she couldn’t seem to see around it.
Her dad simply shrugged. “So take her with you. She’d love to see LA and where you’ll be living. Then you two can fly home, my treat, and you can drive with us to Tennessee. Fly out of Nashville later on.”
Her eyes brimmed. Such an easy solution, but it felt so huge in her heart. And there was also April, her best friend since she knew what a best friend even was. Ramona wasn’t sure she could get on without her. LA was so big, a different world from her small-town life. She’d be lost.
She’d disappear.
“Dad,” she said quietly, looking down at her hands. “I’m…I think I’m scared.”
His eyes went soft. “You’d be a fool not to be. But this is your time, sweetheart. You’ve spent years choosing other people over yourself. Enough, baby. You’re taking the job.”
He said it gently. Not a command, just a fact.
And in that moment, Ramona knew the only answer to Noelle’s offer was yes. She’d miss her town, her father, her best friend, her sister when she came home during school breaks, but Ramona had to go. She and April would always be just that—Ramona and April. When April was still at RISD, after Ramona had come back to Clover Lake, they still talked and texted all the time. And nothing could keep Ramona from checking in on Olive at Vanderbilt, probably to an annoying degree.
Her dad was right—it was time.
She nodded, and then they simply sat in silence for a while, father and daughter, the reality of Ramona leaving settling between them, bittersweet and right.
“I’m going to go to bed,” she said finally, standing. “I need to process all of this.”
“Of course, honey.” He stood too, then held out an arm. Ramona went happily, letting herself be held by her father.
