“HAWAII.”
Lily looked up from the book she’d been reading. They were almost through the ten-hour drive of day two on the road that would keep them on schedule to arrive in Magnolia late Friday night.
She felt sore and sticky despite the cool air blowing from the vents on the dash. The Oklahoma sky was in the midst of turning from pink to gray, but thanks to the late summer days, it still wouldn’t be full dark when they reached their destination.
She threw a questioning glance at Garrett, who managed to look unrumpled and strangely attractive with the shadow of stubble across his jaw and his hair curling around his ears.
He pointed to the sedan in front of them. “A Hawaii license plate.”
“Seriously?” She straightened in her seat. “That’s amazing. I would have totally missed it.” She checked her list. “Now we only need Maine, Alaska, Vermont and South Dakota.”
“You need them,” he clarified. “I’m not playing.”
She laughed softly. “Whatever you say as long as you keep looking.”
He rolled his eyes and adjusted the radio to a country station with decent reception.
Lily hummed along with the old Luke Bryan song while she glanced behind her. Chloe’s big body was stretched across the back seat, tongue lolling out of her mouth as she slept. The dog didn’t seem to mind the hours of driving, sleeping through most of them and perching her chin on Garrett’s shoulder to look out the front window when she was awake.
To be honest, Lily didn’t mind the long hours either. Something inside her had loosened as they got farther away from Los Angeles, and she realized how unhappy she’d been.
Why had she gone through the motions for so many years with no regard for what she’d truly wanted?
Because it would have made her mom happy? Tears had clogged her throat when she’d explained to Garrett that her mother’s dying wish—as the pancreatic cancer had decimated her body—was for Lily to pursue the dream of stardom. To succeed where her mother had failed.
That had been Lily’s senior year of high school and, despite her father’s protests, she’d done it. She’d moved to Hollywood and tried to find work as an actress, hoping that her mom would be watching over her and guiding her on a path to success.
A path that Lily now wished she would have gotten off of sooner.
“I think a hotel for tonight is a better idea,” Garrett said as Luke’s crooning voice faded and a song Lily didn’t recognize came on. She hadn’t listened to country music since she’d left Magnolia and had forgotten how much she liked it. Another tiny piece of herself she’d stripped away trying to become a person she was never meant to be.
“No way.” Lily shook her head. “I heard your mom when you talked to her earlier. She’s so excited to see you, even if it’s just for one night.”
“I can stop on my way back.”
“Garrett.” She waited until he glanced her way and then squeezed his arm. It was odd that she kept finding excuses to touch him in the confined space of the SUV. Or when they stopped for gas or food. Potty breaks for Chloe. No wonder she’d kept her distance at the restaurant. Some part of her obviously knew that she wouldn’t be able to ignore her attraction to him.
Just as she understood that he wasn’t the type of guy who’d be interested in her. Garrett was an English teacher who’d written a rabidly popular debut novel that had been turned into a blockbuster movie. He might not have had much follow-up success, but he was intelligent. Book smart like her sisters. Not like Lily, who’d struggled with school most of her childhood.
She’d learned to make the best of her strengths, and having super-smart friends or boyfriends wasn’t part of that.
Unlike her older sisters, Garrett didn’t make her feel stupid. As the miles rolled by, he’d become less guarded, and they’d talked about everything from their families to favorite books, movies and flavors of ice cream.
She’d been the one to suggest he call his mom after realizing their journey would include a night near his home.
“Trust me,” she said gently, “I get how hard it is to return to where you came from. At least you’ll be just passing through. You can visit your mom and then drive away tomorrow morning. I won’t have that luxury.” She laughed, trying to sound flippant even though it came out more like a squawk. “Not that anyone other than my mom believed I’d make it big. My return proves them right.”
He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel in time with the beat. “Do you care what they think?”
Lily sucked in a breath, his question hitting her like a punch to the gut. She turned and pressed her palm to the window, watching the plains zoom by between her outstretched fingers. When she finally had control of her emotions, she shook her head. “I feel so much relief at leaving California it makes me regret not going back sooner. But my mom would have been disappointed, and I hate that.”
“You can’t know how she would have felt after all these years. Maybe if she’d lived, she would have missed you. Maybe she would have realized that your happiness was more important than her unrealized dream.”
How could she have ever thought this man was a coldhearted jerk? In a few simple sentences, he managed to give her the comfort she’d never been able to find on her own.
“I want to believe that,” she told him.
“Then do.” He rolled his shoulders. “On the other hand, I had the dream in my hot hands and messed it all up. Hollywood welcomed me with open arms, and I wasted my chance.”
Last night, as they’d had dinner in an authentic Mexican restaurant outside of Albuquerque, Garrett had shared the downward trajectory of his career once his book had become a bestseller. He’d gotten involved with drugs and alcohol, partying hard with his so-called friends. His girlfriend had left him for one of the stuntmen on his movie, and after his second book tanked, he’d spiraled out of control.
“Do you believe in second chances?” she asked. “You know Hollywood loves a good redemption story.”
“I’m not sure there’s anything worth redeeming.”
“Don’t say that. Your aunt believes in you, and from what you’ve told me, your mom does, too.”
“She didn’t care about the money or the fame. I could have been a high school teacher by day and obscure novelist at night for my entire life. If it made me happy, she’d be happy for me.”
“Were you happy then?”
One side of his mouth turned up in a sad smile. “Yeah,” he whispered.
“Have you thought about moving back to Oklahoma permanently?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think I belong there anymore, and I definitely don’t belong in Hollywood.” He glanced at her and the emotion in his gaze made her heart beat faster. “Have you noticed how much easier it is to breathe away from LA?”
Lily nodded, shocked that he felt the same way she did. “At first I thought it was the lack of pollution but...”
“It’s more than that.”
“You’ll find your home,” she told him, hoping the words were true for herself as well as Garrett. “We both will.”