Love Online(76)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE




* * *





RYDER




I hoped she didn’t think I was crazy. I’d been wracking my brain for the past few months, trying to figure out how to move Eden and Ollie to Los Angeles without majorly disrupting Ollie’s life.

I’d figured out the education component. There was a prestigious school for the blind, The Larchmont School, about twenty minutes south of where I lived. I’d spoken to the headmaster, told her a bit about Ollie, and she seemed to think the school would be a good fit. They’d offer comparable services to what he was used to in St. George, as well as other programs he might never have had access to in Utah. Of course, there was a waiting list to get in, but if ever there was a time to use the McNamara name, that was it. She seemed willing to bend the rules and allow him a spot if we wanted it.

However, there was still the issue of Ollie’s day-to-day situation at home. It had taken his whole life to know his house well enough to be pretty independent. I didn’t want him to have to start from scratch in my gigantic house.

There was only one solution that made any sense to me, and I decided to throw it out there during dinner one weekend in St. George. Ollie was in his room. I didn’t want to bring it up in front of him and get his hopes up if Eden ended up dead set against it.

Pushing aside my plate, I cleared my throat. “So, I was thinking…what if we physically move this house to L.A.?”

Eden, who’d been drinking water, stopped mid-sip. “What? Move this house?”

“You heard me right.”

Her eyes were practically bugging out of her head. “Can you do that?”

“Yes. People do it all of the time. It’s small enough to actually move. I measured it out and made some calls. I already own an empty lot that would be perfect. I was originally thinking of putting it on my main property, but it’s too hilly, and the movers wouldn’t be able to get the house up there.”

Eden’s mouth hung open. “I don’t know what to say. I wouldn’t have thought this was even a possibility. That’s got to cost a fortune.”

“Don’t worry about that. The peace of mind will be worth it. I can’t put a price on getting to have you guys with me, not having to travel back and forth.”

“This is seriously doable?”

“Yes. I’ve been talking to a lot of people this week about it. If you agree, I’m gonna have the moving company come out in a few days to take their own measurements and confirm before we mention it to Ollie. But I need your okay first. You’d have to really want to move. Talking about it is one thing, but doing it is another.”

“You’re sure Ollie would be guaranteed a spot at The Larchmont School?”

“Yes. The headmaster gave me her word on that. But you’ll need to talk to her, too—make sure you approve of it before we confirm.”

She took a moment to ponder, then smiled. “This sounds a little nuts, but I love the idea of moving the house. It’s the last thing keeping us here.”

My body filled with excitement at the prospect of having everything I needed and wanted in one place. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

Eden beamed. “You did say you’d move mountains for me. I guess this proves it.”

***

Six months later, our dream became a reality. We ended up waiting for the school year to finish in St. George before we bit the bullet and moved our house all the way to California.

It was quite a journey and took several days because the truck carrying the structure had to crawl on the highway.

We’d apparently been the talk of the neighborhood as spectators lined up to watch while the workers settled the structure onto its new foundation.

After that, it had taken some time before we could actually move in.

Now that we were inside, Ollie kept pointing out how sometimes he would forget we’d moved at all, because everything was the same, aside from his school.

Thankfully, he was loving his new teachers and slowly making friends. Eden and Ollie moving to L.A. was the best decision we could have made for ourselves—not only because Ollie was adapting well, but because Eden was finally moving on with her life, having just enrolled in the music program at Cal State. She’d decided what she wanted to do, which was to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a music teacher. And while I was helping her with the tuition, she insisted on contributing, taking a waitressing job at a high-end restaurant. She was proud that she’d gotten it on her own, without my connections.

I was still running the studio alongside Benjamin, and we’d made no plans to change that anytime soon. He’d given me a commitment of at least another year. I was still deciding whether I wanted to sell my shares or eventually run the company. I was so thankful Benjamin had given me the time to make that decision.

Perhaps the biggest difference since Eden’s move was Lorena’s changing role in my day-to-day life. We’d determined that there was no better person to help us with Ollie while we worked—or in Eden’s case went to classes. Let’s face it, there wasn’t much housekeeping to do in our little place anyway, so Lorena became a trusted set of eyes we so desperately needed. She and Ollie got along well. He appreciated her humor, as I always had, and she was even teaching him Spanish.