Dylan smiled, her own tears breaking free now.
“Ramona and Dylan,” Ramona said.
“Dylan and Ramona,” Dylan said, and then she did take Ramona’s face in her hands. And she did wipe away her tears. And she did kiss her. And she kissed her and kissed her and kissed her, until Harold came up to the deck and escorted them both out into the world.
Chapter
Forty-Three
Ten Months Later
Ramona sat ina turquoise Adirondack chair on a pier overlooking Clover Lake, the twilit sky reflecting purple and pink on the water. The late May air was perfectly crisp and carried the scents she’d missed so much these last months living in LA—a loamy forest, that mineral-lake smell from the water. Behind her, the sound of her father laughing with Jack Monroe as they grilled hamburgers and debated guitar legends made her smile, which only broadened when she spotted Olive and Marley share a small kiss in the canoe they’d taken out on the lake to watch the sunset.
“I didn’t think Olive would ever get wise,” April said, sliding into the Adirondack chair next to Ramona’s and handing her an open bottle of beer.
Ramona laughed. “Amazing what sharing a tiny space will do.”
“Right?” April said. “Junior year at RISD, I think I slept with my roommate before even learning her last name.”
Ramona clinked her beer against April’s. “To roommates.”
April rolled her eyes. “I thinkroommates is a bit of a stretch to describe you and Dylan,” she said, but drank to the toast regardless.
Ramona just smiled bigger. She and Dylan had recently moved in together in LA. Dylan had sold her house in Silver Lake in favorof renting a smaller bungalow in Hollywood Hills—the price was still astronomical, and Ramona’s share felt like a drop in the proverbial bucket, but at least the house was cozy, felt more like a home to Ramona than her apartment had or Dylan’s cavernous white house, which hadn’t even felt like Dylan.
They’d barely moved in when Ramona’s work on Noelle’s latest project wrapped up, and she and Dylan flew east to stay in this waterfront house at Clover Lake for the next month—adorable and sky blue with navy trim, right near the cove where they’d first kissed all those years ago. Ramona was looking forward to a quiet summer with Dylan, with her family and April, whom she’d missed so much.
Once settled in LA, the homesickness was overwhelming at first. While happy to be reconciled with Dylan, they still lived apart, and Noelle’s next film project afterAs If You Didn’t Knowwas a period piece that took far more designing than buying, which Ramona loved. It was also completely exhausting, taking most of her energy during the day, and sometimes deep into night and early morning hours.
Still, every sleepless night was worth it, every skipped meal, and she knew she did good work for Noelle. Meanwhile, Dylan took a couple of months off to read scripts, went to a lot of therapy, and worked on her relationship with her parents. It was hard work, and sometimes Dylan didn’t know how to express just how hard it all was, but luckily, patience was one of Ramona’s virtues—that, and the fact that she was so wild about Dylan Monroe, she’d take her as a disaster, as a paragon of mental health, and every gray area in between. She was proud of Dylan, proud too of Jack and Carrie, to whom Ramona had grown quite close—they were even staying with Ramona and Dylan in Clover Lake for the next week.
Now, Ramona watched her sister climb out of the canoe, holding Marley’s hand, a familiar ache in her chest she could never quite shake. It was a sweet ache though, one that meant she loved hersister, her dad, her family. Olive had had a great first year at Vanderbilt, had fallen in love, come out as bisexual. Ramona couldn’t be happier for her.
“Did you read Penny’s latest post?” April asked, handing over her phone.
“Oh, lord,” Ramona said, setting her beer on the chair’s arm and taking April’s device. “Does it read like theHollywood Reporter?”
April moved her hand in a teeter-totter motion. “Slightly classier.”
Ramona shook her head, then started to read the latest edition ofPenny for Your Thoughts.
Happy May, my dear Cloverians, that lovely month of warm(ish) weather and the calm before the storm of the Summer People™ arrives. While we’re all still waiting with bated breath to find out who Natalie Jacobs will choose to walk down the aisle with—her longtime boyfriend Dave, or Logan, everyone’s favorite golden boy furniture maker who professed his undying love to Natalie just weeks ago—the mayor has asked everyone to please stop betting money on the union. These are people’s hearts, Cloverians! Have some dignity.
Meanwhile, this summer proves to be much quieter than the last. Much to my own personal disappointment, no Hollywood studios and film crews are on their way here to shoot a movie. Though we are all extremely excited about next month’s national release ofAs If You Didn’t Know, last summer’s dramatic rom-com that had our local darling, Ramona Riley, riding high on her own romantic escapades.
Well, move over, Natalie, because Ramona and Dylan Monroe—yes, that Dylan Monroe, who fell forour dear Ramona last summer and then mucked it all up in the last days of shooting—are back in Clover Lake after reuniting at the end of last summer in La-La Land. They’ve been living in romantic bliss in sunny California for the last ten months while Ramona worked for the legendary Noelle Yang on a project that this author hears is going to get plenty of Oscar nods.
Dylan, however, has been quieter on the career front. The gossip rags have posted lots of photos with her and her parents—and our Ramona!—out at brunch and at parks and shopping, like any normal family might do. She hasn’t yet officially signed on for another project sinceAs If You Didn’t Know, but this author has heard rumblings that she’s recently committed to a Marlene Dietrich biopic, which would be a career maker for anyone in Hollywood.
Well, I say, bring on the bisexuals!
Ramona chuckled at Penny’s flair, but wondered, not for the first time, how the hell Penny learned all this information. She was gossipy, but, as far as Ramona could tell throughout Penny’s entire time running her blog, she was also wildly accurate.
“She’s clairvoyant, I swear to god,” Ramona said, handing April back her phone.
“Who’s clairvoyant?” Dylan said, walking down the pier toward them, a can of sparkling water dangling from her fingers. She wore a pair of cutoff shorts and a purple bikini top. There were only two chairs, so she slid into Ramona’s lap, kissed her on the cheek.
“Penny,” Ramona said. “She knows all about the Marlene Dietrich biopic.”
