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His flat blue eyes fell on his daughter, then on everyone around her. “Everyone, out. Get in your cars and go. I can’t even get into my own garage. Whose Toyota is that, packed to the gills like a homeless person’s?”
“That’s mine,” Oliver said, “sir.”
Garland shot Oliver a look, as if he’d purposely tried to make her look bad.
“Don’t think you’re going to move in,” Harry said. “Garland isn’t even going to live here if she doesn’t get her act together.”
“You don’t have to worry about me disappointing you anymore, Daddy. You’re not going to see me for a long time. I’m moving in with Cooper.” It was obvious that Garland thought this bombshell was going to do something, anything, other than what it actually did.
It made her father laugh.
“It’s true! Unlike you, he loves me.” Her eyes filled with tears. Real tears. Complicated ones, full of hurt, anger, resentment, andfear. Garland had planned for only one outcome. But she’d failed to understand that as long as other people were involved, you were never fully in control.
“I thought you had more sense than that, Cooper,” Harry said. “Do your parents know about this?”
“I know you’re good friends with them, but it’s none of their business,” Cooper said in a pretend sort of grown-up way, not helped by the fact that his Corona-beer boxer shorts were plastered to him and he was dripping all over the Spanish tile floor. “I’ve got my own money.”
“Your own money?” Harry repeated. “None of you have your own money. Youearnyour own money. Get out, all of you.”
“I hate you,” Garland said. But she didn’t leave right away. She stood there as if hoping her father would say something more—beg her to stay, apologize to her, say he loved her. That last one probably most of all. Oliver knew that she had a long road ahead of her, learning to accept that the one person you wanted to love you the most was the one person who never would. When Harry didn’t respond, Garland turned and ran out of the room. Cooper followed, then Heather Two and Roy.
Oliver lingered, thinking something might still be salvaged from this. “Sir? I wanted to introduce myself. I’m Oliver Lime.”
“Is that a real name?” Harry said, taking a croissant off the table. “It sounds like a cocktail.”
“I interviewed for the environmental manager position at the Rondo, and I haven’t heard anything.” Harry looked at Oliver blankly. “I went to school on scholarship, like you. I’d really like to get my foot in the door.”
“And you thoughtthiswas the way to do it?” Harry asked. “That position was filled weeks ago, Oliver Lime.”
“But the listing is still up on the website,” he said.
“Yet, instead of placing a follow-up call, you decided to hang out with my daughter,” Harry said as he left the room, shaking his head.
Oliver stood there, letting it sink in. Was that really it? It was over?
What in the hell was he going to do now?
He didn’t have much in Garland’s room. He packed his duffel and walked out to find Heather Two waiting by her car. Heather One was sitting in the passenger seat, quickly typing something on her phone. Roy was asleep in the back seat. He hadn’t bothered to change out of his bathing suit.
“Where are you going to go, Oliver?” Heather Two asked.
Oliver didn’t respond as he tossed his duffel into his 4Runner.
“You can crash on our couch if you want to. Hotel jobs are a dime a dozen. I don’t know why you had your heart set on the Rondo, anyway. You’d be wasted out here. Come with us to LA.”
Yells came from one of the open upstairs windows; then something crashed. Oliver looked up, alarmed.
“You didn’t think that was it, did you?” Heather Two asked. “That was just round one. She’ll make her exit as dramatic as possible. Then she’ll stay with Cooper for about a month—”
“Try two weeks,” Heather One said, without looking up from her phone.
“—and she’ll get sick of him, or vice versa, then she’ll be back here like nothing happened. You’ll see,” Heather Two said, sliding behind the wheel.
“Why do you stay friends with her?” Oliver asked.
Heather Two paused. “I know you just met us, so it’s easy to assume that we only exist inside Garland’s world. But Heather and I are opening a boutique this summer. We just signed the lease. And Roy is going to law school in the fall.” She closed the door andstarted the car, then rolled down the window. “Spending time with Garland is like acting in a very long play. I have my role. Heather and Roy have theirs. Cooper is still playing his role. But eventually the curtain goes down, the lights go up, and we all go home. The only person who thinks any of this is real is Garland. Come on. Follow us.”
She drove to the gate and stopped, watching him in her rearview mirror.
