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“Maybe I wished I’d have taken a cue from you,” Lilac said, forcing some friendliness she didn’t feel at that moment into her tone. She loved Brielle—she really did. But sometimes… “And had studied something more useless so I didn’t have to spend so much time in training and studying for mylicense.”
“Lilac,” said Gavin. He darted his gaze away and shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe Lilac had gone solow.
But it was true. Brielle had a historyanda philosophy major, and what was she going to do with those degrees?Nada,apparently.
Brielle bit her lip and kept quiet, a glaze covering her eyes. Lilac had gotten her right in the gonads—metaphorically, ofcourse.
“I’m serious,” said Lilac, her defensive shields lowering somewhat. “All that wasted time just showed me… I’m not cut out to be ateacher.”
“That’s not true!” Pembroke spoke up again, and Lilac smiled. She was sweet, for sure, although she couldn’t remember if Broke had even seen Lilac around kids much. She might have, though. Basically, anytime Lilac was around kids, she got into a zone and the whole world around her melted away. Time flew by alarmingly fast between breaking up fights over toy cars and dispensing hugs ondemand.
“That’s nice of you to say, sweet pea,” said Lilac, ready to finally drop the big news. “But wait until you hear what I’m going to be doing instead.” Shoving her tray aside, she leaned forward, as if ready to drop the juiciest piece of gossip imaginable. Only Gavin and Pembroke took the bait, though Brielle’s eyes were still on her. “I’m. Going. To. Tildy. World,” said Lilac, injecting pride into eachword.
Brielle looked as if she’d been struck. “Wait,what?”
Yeah, yeah, it’s not Disney World, thought Lilac, already ready to defend her choice. Growing up as a Tildy Tapir fan, Lilac knew just how rare it was to find someone who appreciated the happy-go-lucky cartoon tapir with quite the same fervor she did. All the other Orlando theme parks had nothing on Tildy World, small as it might be. She didn’t care what her friendsthought.
“Doesn’t your aunt live in Orlando?” asked Gavin. Aunt Frankie and Gavin had hit it off big the few times they’d both been over to her parents’ for a get-together. Two souls in harmony, like peanut butter andjelly.
“She does!” said Lilac. “And Mom and Daddy onlyapprovedof this venture because I’m going to move in with her, at least for the first few months. Not that I need their approvalexactly.”
Pembroke tucked a strand of her blue-streaked blonde hair behind her ears as she stared at Lilac, clearly completely lost. “But… are you going to be on vacation forthatlong?”
Okay, this was taking more to explain than Lilac had thought necessary. “It’s not a vacation,” she said, sighing and shrugging at once. “Well, not that I won’t ever just hang out at the park or head to the beach. Kind of the whole point of relocating to Florida instead of even-worse-winters-than-here-like-that’s-somehow-possible Minnesota.” Lilac threw her hands up, ready to lay it all on the table. “Aunt Frankie knows someone who works at one of the resorts as a manager. She knew he was looking for an assistant manager and voila.” She rotated her hand to gesture to herself. “I became available in aninstant.”
Maybe she didn’t want to have any regrets. Was that so hard for her friends to believe? Something sharp tugged beneath her breastbone, a little voice at the back of her head telling her she was headed fordisaster.
“They hired you as anassistant manager?” asked Brielle, oblivious to Lilac’s attempts to squash her own regrets. “Right out of college? With a degree that has nothing to do with running a hotel atall?”
Lilac smiled. Brielle of little faith. “What can I say? I’m a charming interviewee, even overSkype.”
She paused, taking in the scene around her.Okay, is everyone at this table now staring at mybreasts?
Lilac was no stranger to people staring at her double-Ds, but she expected more from her friends of all people. She cleared her throat, eager to stop associating her figure with her success. She’d worked hard at preparing for that interview, even if—especially since—it had all been last-minute. “And I’m just in training to start. Earl was especially keen to hear about my experience with elementary school children since running interference between the resort’s childcare center and the management office would be a big part of myduties.”
Gavin made a face like he’d just sniffed sour milk. “You’re working for a guy named Earl.Earl.”
Lilac dismissed him, waving a hand. “He could be named Billy Bob Jimbo for all I care if he got me a job inFlorida.”
“I don’t know,” said Gavin, injecting something sly into his words. “There’s just something ominous about a guy namedEarl.”
“I’ll behave,” said Lilac, smacking her fist into his shoulder. “It’s a thin-haired, chubby-faced man old enough to be my father named Earl. And I’m sure there’s a Mrs.Earl.”
“Hasn’t stopped the type before,” said Gavin, that beleaguered-dad-about-to-lecture tone in his voice clearer than ever. He exchanged a look with Brielle and something silent passed between them, as if they’d spoken about Lilac and men many timesbefore.
They probably had, the traitors. Gavin better not have told her that Lilac’s tastes usually strayed toward the older gentleman. In theory anyway, if not in practice yet. But not this guy regardless. Charming, hewasn’t.
“Stop being such a drama queen,” said Lilac. “Soanyway, enough about me.”Time to steer the conversation away. Far away.She wasn’t going to end her college experience arguing with her closest friends about things that didn’t even really concern them. “Pem, what about you? I know Brielle’s got a plan for the summer until she finds thatamazing jobthat awaits her, but you’ve never let us know what you have planned. Did you ever findanything?”
Cue Pembroke shutdown. “No. Notreally.”
“What?” said Gavin, clearly surprised but still gentle. “A catch like you, with honors in biology? There wasn’t any lab or something that would takeyou?”
Staring at her lunch tray like it was her toast that had posed the question, Pembroke shrugged. “Nothing local,anyway.”
Ah.Pembroke had been a commuter—a resident of this college town since the day she’d been born. Japan had been her one shot at widening her horizons just a bit. But even now, as she was about to cross that stage tomorrow and graduate college, she apparently had no interest in broadening her horizons. Lilac never could understand people like that. “And you can’t movebecause…?”
Pembroke snapped her eyes up at that. “I didn’t apply to any jobs outside the area,” she said curtly, as if that were the end ofit.
