Page 126 of Hollywood

“He’s my family!”

Dad’s eyes widened. His face paled. Even under the wash of the security lights, I could see the color leach from his face. “What did you say?”

“Hollywood is my family too,” I said quietly. “Him and Ruby.”

My heart thundered, and my palms grew clammy. I was treading dangerously close to a truth I couldn’t come back from. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to jump over that last barrier, tear down the crumbling bridge between us, or back away carefully and try to rebuild our trust.

“Tex, there’s love for a friend and then there’s love for your family. It’s not the same. You owe?—”

“He’s more than a friend.”

Okay. Shit. Apparently, we were doing this.

Dad stilled. “I don’t know what that means.”

His words came out stilted and stiff. He knew. He didn’t want to be right, though. I understood that. I’d spent months knowing, deep down, and wishing I didn’t. In the end, facing the truth was better than fearing it.

When I faced it, I got to love Hollywood. Got to build a life with him and Ruby.

And that made everything worthwhile, didn’t it?

“I’m bi, Dad. I’m in love with Hollywood. That’s why he’s important to me. That’s why I can’t let him down. That’s why I need you to pay me back. The rent is coming due, and I need to pay my share. I need to?—”

“Go to hell,” Dad snarled.

“Dad—”

He whirled and charged down the ramp, nearly falling in his hurry to get back to the truck. “You’re not my son! My son wouldn’t do this to me.” He shook his head, eyes wild. “Just stay the hell out of my life. Once a fuckup always a fuckup. Shoulda known something was wrong with you from the start.”

He spit one more time onto the asphalt, then got into the truck and slammed the door. The engine roared to life.

I stood on the loading dock, his words sitting like ice in my gut. So cold I barely felt the wind that was tugging at my hair and clothes. I wasn’t sure how long I stood there.

Long enough that my fingers grew as numb as my insides.

Until a passing vehicle’s headlights cut across the lot, flashing in my eyes. I came back to myself enough to stumble inside and close the garage door.

Then I sank to the floor, huddled in a ball, and tried to hold myself together. I had a few more hours of packing up goods for shipment. Hollywood was waiting at home, warm and sweet and everything good in the world.

And I’d just burned my last chance at getting Dad to ever repay me. If I couldn’t come up with the rent, if Hendrix saw what a fuckup I really was, would he still love me?

Or would he tell me to go to hell too?

CHAPTER 27

Hollywood

I tookRuby to see Carrie the next morning.

Tex was still asleep when I got up. He managed to sleep all through Ruby’s loud sing-along with The Wiggles, so I figured he needed his rest. I’d tried to wait up for him last night. Tried and failed, crashing out before midnight rolled around.

Carrie sat in the same chair in the visitor’s lounge, a wedge pillow between her legs like before. She looked more comfortable than the last time I’d seen her.

“Hey!” She smiled. “There’s my girl!”

Ruby squirmed out of my arms, shimmying down my body to the floor. As soon as her feet hit nubby carpet, she ran toward Carrie.

I took a hurried step forward. “Oh, no, Roo?—”