Page 57 of Touch of Heartache


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Tanya waved a hand. “We’re used to it,” she said. “We’ve got workers of steel in Tildy’s Tots.” She looked Lilac over. “If you ever get tired of planning events and running errands, you’re welcome to joinus.”

“Thank you,” said Lilac, flattered. “I’ll… I’ll keep that in mind.” She turned to exit then, remembering the phone in her hand and turning on the screen to check her messages. Therewasa text from Nolan amidst all the older notifications from herfriends.

I want to help, it read.Have dinner withme?

She opened Tanya’s door and there, a little ways down the hallway, he stood, his hair damp against his forehead, his body hidden beneath the furry plush bodysuit that belonged toSilly.

“I think you’ve lost something, Silly,” said Lilac as she sauntered over towardhim.

Nolan grinned, though his smile faltered somewhat. He took a wing and pointed it over his shoulder. “DeShawn has my head,” he said, and Lilac noticed a handsome, brown-skinned man laughing with someone in the break room, Silly Sandgrouse’s oversized head tucked beneath his arm against his side. “And he’s the boss around here, so I don’t have more than a moment before he snaps that sucker on me, mid-conversation orno.”

Without thinking, Lilac reached out and took Silly’s plush wing in her hand. It was soft, like her threadbare Tildy plush back at Aunt Frankie’s. “I got your text,” she said. “I can’t believe you want tohelp—”

“Why wouldn’t you?” he asked. “I’m sorry I didn’t think to askearlier.”

“No, it’s fine.” Lilac shook her head and continued to stare at the plushwing.

“You know that’s been in two toddlers’ mouths this morning alone. And I might have accidentally rubbed some forehead sweat with it.” He fanned himself with the other wing. “Dang, it’s hot outhere.”

Smirking, Lilac pulled him back inside the break room, where the fans blew. She took note of all the eyes on them immediately, but she kept dragging Nolan toward one of the blowing fans. “Better?” she cooed once they’d come to astop.

Nolan looked back and forth at the staring eyes and turned a bright shade of crimson. “Yeah,” he saidquietly.

“I heard about your sister,” said Lilac. “Why didn’t you tellme?”

Nolan cocked his head. “How? Oh…Landon?”

“I ran into him on the way here. He said his sister protected him from abully.”

At that, Nolan’s eyebrows scrunched together. “Dad said she got into a fight with some kid and both she and Landon fell, but Landon only got a tooth knockedout.”

Shrugging, Lilac ran her thumb over the soft wing she refused to let go. “He said she protected him from a bully. Didn’t he tell youthat?”

Nolan shook his head. “It’s been crazy,” he said. “And despite Willow’s injuries, the kids are both still so hyper. But I’m glad. Willow gets a bad rap, but she’s a goodkid.”

Lilac laughed then at the idea of a little girl with a “bad rap,” though she’d likely witnessed some of that at the mall a few weeks ago. A lifetimeago.

“I want to stand up to a bully, too,” said Nolan. “Can I… What if I told HR what happened that day when I bumped into you in the hall and all those pens and pencils went everywhere? Would thathelp?”

That was unexpected. Lilac actually had to strain to think—she remembered that moment clearly, remembered how a jolt of something like magic had ran through her when she’d locked eyes with Nolan, when their hands had brushed each other’s as they’d scrambled to pick the writing utensilsup.

How Earl had said something and Nolan had stood up forher.

How she’d actually failed to really thank him forit.

She hadn’t even thought of that day. Hadn’t told her lawyer about it. There’d been so much to discuss about that otherday…

She let go of Silly’s wing and took both of Nolan’s cheeks in hers. “You’d be a hero in sandgrouse armor,” she said, and then she kissedhim.

The fans couldn’t drown out the hoots and hollers that echoed around the break room, but Lilac just kept kissinghim.

Chapter Eighteen

Nolan had never spokento a lawyer before. Even when a ton of pamphlets had arrived in the mail following his mom’s accident, his dad hadn’t wanted to deal with them—ambulance chasers, he’d called them, and he hadn’t had the heart to deal with them with everything else toconsider.

So Nolan had kind of expected it to go like a courtroom scene on TV. Instead, a friendly enough—if a touch robotic—guy asked Nolan to walk through his story with him, then Nolan and Lilac had went out for a bite to eat—justa bite to eat for now—and the next day, Nolan had sat down at HR and told him exactly what the lawyer had told him to say. It was the truth—Nolan wouldn’t have abided otherwise—but the lawyer had had suggestions for how to word it and how to frame the scene that had set Brad the HR rep’s mouth into a grim line. Brad had witnessed at least part of that scenehimself.

He’d even sighed as he’d pulled out a thick file—complaints against Earl, apparently, though he hadn’t said from when—and had Nolan put his signature topage.

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