“Timber! Timber! Come here, boy!” she called to no avail.
Feeling more than a little worried at this point, she stalked around to the back of the house, but still no Timber.
Oh my gosh, what have I done? She ran up the block, calling for him, then turned around and jogged the other direction until a tight stitch in her side told her it was time to slow it down. Where was her dog? Why had he left, and would she ever manage to get him back?
A deep feeling of dread took her over as she realized the dog had intentionally run away from her, just as she was going to do to Oscar. Not only was she a terrible dog owner—she was a terrible person, too.
Did she even deserve to have her dream come true?
Chapter 10
The moment Oscar answered the phone, he was met with a sharp sob.
“Lolly? Is that you?” he jumped to his feet, immediately feeling the need to protect her.
“He’s gone!” she cried into the phone, and even before she explained, he knew. “Timber’s gone!”
“I’ll be right there!” he shouted back. He wanted to ask her to stay on the phone with him, but she hung up too quickly for him to get the words out. Oh, well, it was a short drive. Maybe he could find Timber along the way.
Of course, he blamed himself for this. How could he not? He should have spent more time telling Lolly about Timber’s past, emphasizing the challenges she might face taking on a dog with a history of abuse. But Timber had been every bit as smitten with her as Oscar was. So smitten, in fact, Oscar hadn’t thought running away would even be a possibility.
When he reached Lolly’s house, he found her pacing the length of the front yard, her face red with tears.
“What happened?” he asked as she flew into his arms and let out another wracking sob.
“My agent came. She was so mad. I let Timber out, but when I tried to call him back inside, he was gone.” She shook in his arms as he held her. He hated to see her like this, hated knowing it was his fault and that Timber might never make it back, given his old age and the many dangers that lurked nearby.
“Don’t worry, Lolly. It’s not your fault. He must have just been scared off, but we’ll find him. An old dog like that couldn’t have gone far.” He decided not to mention bears, moose, wolves, or any of the many other predators that could pose a threat. This was a huge problem, one he needed to fix before things got worse.
She pushed him away, swallowing a sob and becoming angry instead. “You’re always saying things aren’t my fault, but sometimes they are, Oscar. I’m the one who blew off my agent. I’m the one who let him outside unattended. Me. These are choices I made, and I’m responsible.”
He tried to close the distance between them again, but she took a big step back.
“I should have warned you,” he said, trying not to cry himself. He had such a big heart for animals, especially those he knew well like Timber, and he hated seeing his dream girl trapped within this horrible waking nightmare. “Timber is a good dog, but he was hurt by people in the past. The confrontation with your agent probably scared him. And a sled dog’s first instinct, no matter what the situation, is to run. He’ll probably come back on his own, but just in case, let’s go look for him.”
She took a series of slow, deep breaths, and then nodded to him. “Okay, let’s go.”
Oscar drove, because he knew both the city and the dog better than she did. Thankfully, everything was green and bright for the summer, which meant the white and gray dog didn’t blend in to his surroundings. But they still couldn’t find him, no matter how hard they looked. At least if he had been hit by a car, they’d have found him by now. He had to still be out there. They needed to keep looking.
“It’s going to be another long night, but we’ll search as long as it takes to bring Timber home. Should we grab another couple sludge bombs from the Coffee Cave to help keep our energy up?”
Lolly didn’t answer, and when he turned to look at her, she pulled even farther away in her seat. “I knew this was a mistake,” she whispered, looking out the window as they drove.
“How could you have known your agent would go psycho on you?” Oscar pointed out. “We haven’t found him yet, but we will. He’ll turn up, I promise.”
“Not the agent.” She turned to look at him, hurt reflecting in her eyes. “You.”
Me? No single word had ever brought him so much pain. You. You were a mistake, Oscar. Ouch. Just because she was too good for him, it didn’t mean they weren’t good together. As a point in fact, they were great together. They were perfect. Couldn't she see that?
He didn’t know what to say, so instead he waited for Lolly to say something more.
“I didn’t come here to find a boyfriend, or to adopt a dog, or to take day trips to Beluga Point. I came here to make something of myself, to make my dream come true, and I haven’t given it my all the way I need to. Kelley is right. I have to want it.”
He reached for her hand, but she pulled away as if from hot coals.
“Don’t,” she said flatly. “Just take me home, please.”
“I’m going to keep looking for him,” Oscar promised, but she didn’t even seem to care. Didn’t she know that he hurt, too?
“If you find him, let me know,” she said, getting out of the car the moment he pulled into the driveway. “Otherwise, please don’t call me again.”
She turned away, but not before he caught the sight of fresh tears welling in her eyes.
“Goodbye, Lolly,” he whispered, reversing out of her driveway and, it also seemed, out of her life. For good.
Lolly watched as Oscar Rockwell drove away from her, trying not to feel hopeless as he did. It’s what needed to happen, she told herself, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. Maybe now she could finally write a song that meant something, because pain like this, it needed somewhere to go.
She sat down on the porch, taking in the sights and smells of Anchorage, allowing herself to appreciate the beauty one last time before putting it out of her mind and moving on. Mount McKinley stood tall and steady in the distance as pollen and dandelion puffs floated through the summer sky. Everything about this place was larger than life and so far from what she had expected, she could scarcely believe it. Maybe one day she could summer here, too—the way Kelley did.
Places like this made great vacations, but they didn’t form the foundations for an actual life. This small-town Ohio girl needed more than Anchorage, more than Oscar Rockwell could ever hope to offer. She had been born to do something big, to touch people with her music—and she couldn’t lose sight of that.
She took a picture with her phone to look back at later, then placed a call to Kelley Lux. “Can we move our meeting up?” she asked. “I’m ready to do whatever it takes. I want this.”
“Meet me at Allure,” the agent answered in a rush, but for once she sounded happy with her new client. “I’m headed over now.”
“On my way.” Lolly stood and rubbed at her eyes to make sure all the tears had gone and wouldn’t be coming back. She thought about changing into something other than her t-shirt and pajama bottoms, but what was the point when her agent would be giving her a full makeover anyway? Better to just go now before she lost her resolve.
And so, she said a quick goodbye to Aunt Ann and headed off to meet her destiny.
“What a mess!” Kelley cried, giving her air kisses on each cheek, as if she’d made a perfectly acceptable greeting. “Don’t worry. Simone is the best in all of Anchorage. She’ll get you looking more like a superstar and less like something the cat dragged in.”
“How do you feel about red?” Simone asked, snapping her gum as she fastened a cape around Lolly’s neck.
“Love it!” Kelley answered for her, talking about Lolly as if she weren’t even there or that she wouldn’t have an opinion about her own hair. “And what do you think of making it a pixie? She’s got the bone structure for it. Don’t you think?”
“Definitely. And we’ll add som
e cotton candy pink highlights to really make it stand out.” Simone spun the chair before she could catch the look of horror on Lolly’s face. She’d always loved her long, brown hair and got compliments on it all the time.
“Don’t look so worried,” Kelley said with a laugh. “If you want to stand out, you can’t look like everyone else. The hair is the easy part. Say buh-bye to those long locks, because they haven’t done you any favors.”
“Goodbye,” Lolly whispered, fighting back tears as the first tendril fell to the floor. It’s just hair. It’s just a dog. He’s just a guy. She couldn’t bring herself to believe any of those things as she watched her hair pile up on the floor below.
Simone and Kelley laughed and chatted away as Lolly went from respectable girl next door to her new alter ego, Lolly Pop.
“What do you think?” Simone asked spinning her back toward the mirror after hours of cutting, dying, deep conditioning, and styling. The fairy-like girl staring back at her looked like a stranger, but maybe that was a good thing. A fresh face for a fresh start, she thought.
“Can we add some purple, too?” she asked. “That’s my favorite color.”
“Sure can, sweetie. That okay with you, Kelley?”
“Finally, there’s that passionate girl I met online! Add some lemonade yellow, while you’re add it. Katy Perry won’t know what hit her when all her fans flock to you instead.”
Lolly had always thought of herself more as the Carrie Underwood type, but Katy Perry made great music, too. Being the next Katy Perry had to be better than being the only, undiscovered Lolly Winston. Lolly Pop would be a star so long as she committed to this.
That gave her an idea.
“Hey, Kelley?”
“Yes, hon?”
“When are we going to Nashville again?”
“Three weeks.”
“Can we maybe move it up?” she squeaked, not sounding as confident as she wanted, but at least she was trying, at least she was proving she wanted this.
The agent laughed. “Seeing is believing, huh? Sure, I’ll see what I can do. Let me make a few calls.”
“I know it’s hard making such a big change, but you do look amazing,” Simone reassured her as she mixed up a fresh batch of dye for Lolly’s new highlights. “It just takes time to get used to it.”
She was right. Of course, she was right. New hair, new persona, new life.
“Okay, hon,” Kelley said, bursting back into the salon. The stale scent of smoke followed her in, too. “Four days.”
Four days? Would that be enough time to find Timber and to arrange to bring him with them? Would it be enough to get someone else up to help with Aunt Ann? To say goodbye?
“Are you in?” Kelley asked, appraising Lolly with one eyebrow raised. “Because if you’re not going to commit, you need to get out now. This is the big time, sugar. There are no backsies.”
It would be enough time, Lolly decided, because it had to be. This was it—her dream was finally coming true. And even if it took her heart a couple extra beats to catch up to the melody, this is what she wanted.
Lolly took a deep breath and put on her best smile. “Let’s do it.”
Chapter 11
Oscar pushed his halibut around the plate, unable to bring himself to take another bite. He always met his parents and brothers for Sunday dinner, but he should have called off this week. He needed time to mourn his relationship with Lolly, to get past what could have been.
“And, within two weeks, she was skiing down Diamondback on her own. Can you believe that?” His brother Sebastian finished the story of his latest student to the applause of his dad and their other brother, Noah.
“That’s my boy. You always get them to come around in the end,” his father said and took another large bite of potatoes.
“That’s nothing,” Noah shot in. “Guess what I picked up today.” He paused for dramatic effect. “A new rifle for my caribou hunt this fall. It’s a real beauty.”
“Is it that time already?” his father asked with a chuckle.
“I still can’t believe you got drawn for the hunt and we didn’t,” Sebastian complained.
“This is all very nice, boys,” his mother said after clearing her throat. “But I want to hear from Oscar. Why so quiet tonight?”
Yes, I definitely should have stayed home. “I’m just tired,” he answered, forcing himself to take a bite from his potato salad to throw off her suspicion. “So, Noah, when’s your hunt? Will you be taking the plane out?”
“Don’t answer that,” his mother said. “Sorry, Noah. Your brother is hiding something, and I want to know what it is.”
“What’s up, little bro?” Noah asked, nudging him with his shoulder.
“I’m honestly fine.” He took another bite, but all eyes remained on him.
“It’s that girl. She broke up with you,” she declared, setting her fork down with a clatter.
Something in his gut twisted hard, and he had to work to keep his expression neutral to avoid even more probing questions from his mother or ribbing from his brothers. “I don’t really want to talk about it,” he said.
“I knew she wasn’t good enough for you. She folded way too easily to her agent’s will. You don’t need a pushover. You need a strong woman. No two ways around that.”
“Yes, okay, Mom. How are your cats? Did you decide which of the kittens you’re going to keep?”
His mother sighed heavily, but she couldn’t make him feel worse than he already did. At least there was that.
“You know what they say,” Sebastian cut in. “The best way to get back in the game is to play a different sport.”
Oscar had never heard anyone say that before, but then, his brother ran in a different crowd than he did—and Oscar had received all of his mother’s brainy genes while his brothers had gotten all of their father’s brawn.
“Sebastian, you’re a genius!” his mother declared. His ski instructor brother a genius? Well, that was new.
Sebastian sat up straight and lifted his chin in the air. “Yeah, but we all knew that already.”
His dad and Noah laughed, and their mother batted the noise away.
“I met the nicest girl at the grocery store this week. I bet she’ll be there if you want to stop by and ask her for a date.”
“Mom, no.” Turned out she could make him feel worse, after all. “You promised no more setups. Maybe Noah or Sebastian could go out with her instead. How long has it been since you fixed them up?”
His brothers’ laughter immediately quieted.
“That’s what I thought,” he said. “Now can you just let me get over my breakup in my own time? Please, I beg of you.”
“You know I can’t stand to see my boy hurting,” she said. “Family is there to lift you up when you fall down. Isn’t that right, Wayne?”
“Sure is,” his father answered from behind his napkin. A lot of help he was.
“And, technically, you didn't go on that date with Sadie,” his mother continued, seemingly even more encouraged. “You still owe me one.”
Oscar closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “If I go, I want it in writing that you will never set me up again. I mean it. I want that promise signed and notarized.”
“I can live with that,” she said.
They all started eating again, and Noah launched into a vivid description of his newest rifle.
“By the way, I’m keeping Boy George,” his mother said when another break in the conversation arose.
Of course, back to the cats. “Have you found homes for the others?”
“I’m going to take one,” Noah said. “Think it will help me pick up a few dates of my own?”
“If you need a date, I can help with that!” his mother offered.
Yes, run Noah’s life for a while. It’s definitely someone else’s turn.
Oscar wasn’t doing the best job running his own life at the moment, but unlike his mother, he hadn’t given up on Lolly yet. There had to be a way
to win her back.
There just had to be. And he was going to find it.
Lolly tossed her clothes into the open suitcase. Folding them neatly wouldn’t accomplish anything, given that Kelley planned to get her a whole new wardrobe anyway. These were placeholder clothes, and she was placeholder Lolly. Both would have to do until something better could be forged.
During the past few days, she’d managed to get her younger cousin Julie, who was between her sophomore and junior year of college, to agree to spending the rest of the summer with Aunt Ann—so that was taken care of.
She’d spent the rest of her time roaming the streets of Anchorage, searching everywhere for poor, lost Timber. She wanted to call Oscar, but she knew he’d have done that on his own, had he found the runaway husky.
She emailed a picture to Julie and asked her to be on the lookout in case Timber turned up, but honestly, Lolly had no idea what she would do if the dog returned. Should she book him a plane ride to Nashville, or should she just give him back to Oscar and let him live his last couple of years here in Anchorage, the only home he’d ever known?
She wanted the dog. She wanted the man, too. But she’d also made a promise to herself. This was about something she’d wanted her entire life. She couldn’t just walk away from it on a whim.
“Nashville, here I come,” she said, printing out her boarding pass on her Aunt’s ancient printer. It was time to go, time to move forward, time to become the person she truly was on the inside.
“Fly,” she said aloud. “Time to fly.”
A wave of emotion crashed into her. Everything came back all at once—arriving in Anchorage and first seeing Mount McKinley through the tiny plane window, the feeling of soaring when she finished her gig at Chilkoot Charlie’s, and, most of all, standing in Oscar’s arms as the wind tickled by at Beluga Point.
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