Page 45 of Darling Beasts

“I don’t give two shits about the article,” he said. “Nobody reads newspapers, and haters gonna hate.” Ozzie glanced at Talia, who remained frozen beneath a tree, its teensy pink flowers falling softly onto her head. “You can’t be that shocked to see me,” he called out.

Truth be told, Ozzie was a tad shocked to be here himself, but times were tough. He hadn’t inked any collabs or sold much art or many watches and Talia declined the opportunity to “invest in the business of @DegenerateOz.” He’d really been starting to sweat it when, yesterday, a Google alert pinged with his name, and a new course was set.

Did the article bother him? Mostly no. Ozzie never considered himself conventionally attractive, and he knew he was “on the brink of chubby.” He had eyeballs and a scale, okay? Ozzie said much worse things to himself, every day, so welcome to the club. He was feeling pretty neutral about it all until he reached the sentence whereGunn is paying his kids handsomely, and yeah, that was quite fucking true. As Barclay said, $50K per month wasn’t nothing. More importantly, if Ozzie went to California, the twenty-five-year gift was back in play.

Suddenly Ozzie’s reasons for not wanting to work on the campaign didn’t seem important anymore. Staying in New York hadn’t done much for his image, and there were no longer jets or yachts in his life, which meant nothing to miss. San Diego would be something different, and the Ranch was freakin’ lit. He’d also have a whole new pool of buyers for his art and Californians were more open and freethinking, which he understood thanks to Mom, RIP.

“Ah, here she comes,” Ozzie said as Talia finally made her way over. “Don’t worry. Just because I flew commercial doesn’t mean I have a communicable disease. Then again.” He pretended to contemplate this, fake-scratching his chin. “Who really knows?”

“Are you here for a visit, or...?” Talia sounded out of breath, though she literally could not have moved any slower.

“No, silly goose!” Ozzie said, rumpling her hair. “I’m joining the campaign. The more I thought about it—”

“Youthoughtabout it?” Talia said, and Ozzie reminded himself to play it cool. He was the good-time guy, the loveable bear, and he wasn’t looking to provoke Talia, even though it was so easy and often fun to do.

“Yeah. I wasruminating. My entire business is optics, and my shtick is I’m the golden boy and black sheep of a dynasty.”

Talia made a face. “You can’t be both. Those are opposites.”

“You’re so pedantic,” Ozzie said, mildly blowing his sister’s mind with his use of the word. “The lore is I get into scrapes, but things always work out. My business manager thinks the campaign will open up new sponsorship opportunities and make for good content.”

“But you’re not going to actually do anything, right?” Talia said, and Gabby nudged her in the ribs. “Like, you’re here for the vibes or the location or whatever. We have enough people getting intoscrapesaround here.” She narrowed her gaze on Gabby.

“Of course I’m going to do something.”

Talia audibly sighed, and Ozzie was sure she was about to fling herself into the pool. He knew he wasn’t her favorite person but wished she’d give him some credit. He’d survived this long, after all.

“Also, you guys are here,” Ozzie added, slinging an arm around each sister. “And I can’t miss out on the fun. Look at us.” He gave them each a squeeze—first Gabby, then Talia. “Los tres amigos, the three musketeers, back in action.”

“We were never that,” Talia said, wiggling out of his grasp.

“Three musketeers...” Ozzie cocked his head. “And a dog, it seems?” Beside Gabby was a white dog with very pointy ears. It stared at him with great skepticism.

“Yes. A Jindo. I inherited it from Dad,” Gabby said, though he must’ve heard wrong. Meanwhile, Talia was walking away, telling them to have fun catching up, butsome of us have work to do.

“God, she’s fun.” Ozzie threw himself onto a lounger. Hedropped his aviators over his eyes and folded his hands atop his stomach. “You’re quiet.”

“I’m just surprised?”

“You’resurprised? I seem to recallyouinsisting you’d never come here. What’s the deal, sis? I thought we were a team.”

“We are!” Gabby said, and he laughed.

Ozzie hadn’t bought the “team” garbage for ages—obviously—but Gabby still clung to the old tale. He loved his sister, but she needed to get a clue. “Be for real, Gabs,” he said. “You didn’t tell me for a reason.”

“There’s not some big conspiracy, Oz. It must’ve slipped my mind. You don’t sound like yourself. Where is this coming from?” she said, and wasn’t that fucking rich.I dunno, sis, maybe it’s your hobby of not mentioning things, letting them slip your mind. Like when your kid brother is sent away for nine whole months, and you pretend it was no longer than a night.

“Wanna know my theory,” Ozzie said. “You were worried if you brought it up, I’d want to come, too, andquelle catastrophe! Degenerate Oz will only screw everything up.”

“Ozzie!” she yelped. “That’s not true! In case you haven’t noticed,I’mthe one screwing up around here. Your sudden appearance is practically a lifeline. Best thing that could’ve happened.”

Ozzie chuckled again. “Okay, sis.”

Gabby started to yap about how she couldn’t be happier, and he was the smartest person she knew, and they were all better off with him on the scene. Midway through this pile of absolute bullshit, she stopped abruptly.

“Do you smell that?” she asked, sniffing, violently scratching her arms.

“I smell nothing,” he said.

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