Then a streak of lightning lights up a mesquite tree only a few yards away. The feathery branches are briefly lit by a burst of fire and then just as suddenly the flame is drowned by the rain.
The kiss is over. Oscar grabs her hand and they run all the way back to the house. There’s a narrow patio overhang along the south side of the building and they huddle beneath it but everything is all right because she’s in his arms.
“You should go in,” he sighs, running his lips along her neck.
“I will.” It’s a weak promise. She has no desire to go anywhere.
“Loren.” God, her name never sounded as good as it does coming from his mouth. He gently kisses her forehead, her eyelids. “This changes everything you know.”
“I know.”
“There’s no going back. No matter what.”
“I don’t want to go back, Oscar,” she promises, hugging him stubbornly. She doesn’t even know what it means. She doesn’t know what she’s saying. She only knows that she needs him. She feels lightheaded and needs to breathe deeply before she can speak. The words aren’t as hard to say as she thought they’d be.
“I lied from the beginning,” she whispers. “I don’t want to be just friends. I never did.”
He strokes her hair. She hears the smile in his voice. “Good.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
OZ
Loren Savage was never as tough as she pretended to be. I’d figured that out less than five minutes after meeting her. Beneath that know-it-all shell was a vulnerable girl just aching to be loved.
Which I did. Goddammit, I did. Not that it mattered when the world caught fire and a choice was laid at her feet. I don’t know what she really believed or didn’t believe. But she turned her back and cowered behind her train wreck of a family.
And now…
I don’t know who the hell she is. I just know that the second she sees me she looks like all the blood in her body went somewhere else and she might tip over.
Maybe if she does fall over I will catch her.
Maybe I won’t.
Some perverse part of me is glad to see the alarm in her eyes. She probably thinks I’m just here to fuck things up with her stupid show. Ren glances sideways at a creeping cameraman and then looks back at me with what seems like silent pleading.
Yeah, I know they’re there, sweetheart. If you think I give a damn you’ve got another thing coming.
I’m pretty good at playing it cool when it suits me and right now it suits me to act like I’m just here for shits and giggles.
“Are you staying?” she asks.
The tremor in her voice does something to me and it crosses my mind that I ought to cut the crap and just go to her. If I could touch her, just once, I’d know right away whether or not I’m wasting my time. Problem is, I’m not ready to face it if that’s the case. I’ve upended my simple, solitary life to come out here and expose myself to the world.
For her.
I’m just not ready to let her know that.
“I am,” I answer and she tiredly nods like she was expecting that answer but hoping for another one.
There’s no time to say anything else because the most irritating feline shriek in the world crushes all the conversation.
“Oh. My. GOD!” it says as its owner flies out of the house in a cloud of red hair and skin. “Oscar Savage! We thought you were dead!”
It’s Brigitte, the youngest and most obnoxious of the Savage siblings. I didn’t like her five years ago and I don’t like her now, especially not when she wraps her ropy arms around my neck and makes me choke on her perfume. She detaches herself after a quarter of a second and starts howling about how she absolutely can’t believe it and oh my god she’s so glad I’m not dead and oh my god she can’t believe that the earth is really round and that I’m still walking around on it.
Ren remains silent, rooted to the front porch, although I notice she has shifted her attention from me. She’s now glaring at her sister with angry suspicion. She should. After all, someone told that Vogel character more than he ever had a right to know and by the look on her face, that someone sure as hell wasn’t Ren.
“Hey there, Oscar,” says a more timid voice. It belongs to a stacked blonde holding a little kid.
I don’t know her. I wave half-heartedly. Never mind, I do know her. It’s Ren’s other sister, the one who was always walking around with her teenage tits hanging out and waiting for someone to notice them.
“Hey, Ava.” I greet her with a smile because I don’t remember her being awful. Kind of lonely and needy but generally a good kid. The only ones in this ridiculous family I could stand to be in the same room with for five minutes were Ava and her twin brother, Spencer. And Ren of course. The rest of them were generally pains in the asses. Brigitte with her scheming seemed destined to be a carbon copy of her witchy mother. August kind of lost himself in his own hazy fantasies and generally couldn’t hold a conversation. And Montgomery, Ren’s older brother, always skulked around spoiling for a fight just for the sake of fighting, not because he gave a shit whether he won or not.
Once we’ve said our awkward hellos, things kind of come to a standstill. Ren disappears into the house without another word, Ava on her heels. Brigitte sighs and wanders purposefully toward the scenic backdrop for some meaningful modeling.
I would grab my bags out of the truck but no one ever gave me any hints about where I’ll be staying. Atlantis looks pretty much the same as is ever did, a fake town that some rich guy bought as a souvenir. A sturdy-looking barn has replaced the dilapidated building that I remember. The brothel has crumbled a little more, the phony jail is more rusted, the church seems like it’s one sigh away from pitching over into the dirt.
The only really nice building is the main house and it looks like someone has been keeping it up okay. But overall, Atlantis Star doesn’t look like the kind of place anyone would brag about so once again I wonder about what kind of ideas that Vogel character has.
I still don’t know what the hell the point of this show is. Was the whole pack of Savages lured out to this bad memory just to be made fun of? Gloated over? And are they all so goddamn desperate not to have to earn an honest living that they fell for it?
“Oz!” hails a voice and suddenly there’s some middle aged woman with bouncy implants heads my way. She’s not familiar so either she’s part of the crew or some other long lost Savage.
I was right on the first count. Her name is Cate Camp and she’s part of Team Gary. She fluffs her brassy blonde hair, describes her role here as something more than a director but less than a therapist, Ha ha.
She actually laughs just like that; HAHA, two staccato bursts of artificial personality. She’s trying to get me to like her because someone in Reality Television School probably told her if she wins over the cast they’ll be more likely to spill a thousand and one of their darkest secrets. Nothing about her interests me but I’m trying for minimal civility until I can figure a few things out.
So instead of silence or profanity I give her a series of one-word answers.
Cate Camp says, “You’ve traveled a long way.”
I say, “Yes.”
Cate Camp says, “And you haven’t had any contact with the family at all these past five years.”
“Yes.”
“You spent a summer here and left shortly after the death of your adopted mother.”
“Yes.”
Cate Camp shows me her un-Botoxed frown lines. She’s displeased with me. “From what I hear you left under bad circumstances.”
“Yes.”
Cate Camp goes for the throat. “And all the trouble was due to an inappropriate relationship with one or more members of the family.”