Page 6 of Touch of Heartache


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Ew.Lilac crumpled the paper in her fist but thought better of it, afraid of some overly aggressive guy taking it the wrong (orright, really) way. She stuffed it into her pocket, her eyes darting to and fro for some hint, but she doubted it was either of the hyper twenty-something women sharing the row with her—or at least, they certainly didn’t seem to be concerned with her reaction. She stood, opening the overhead bin and shoving aside a suitcase to get to herbag.

“Need help?” asked a silver fox in a suit who’d stepped up from the row besideher.

Wow, thought Lilac numbly. “Sure,” she said, feeling her voice shake as she stepped aside to give him room. “Thank—”

She bumped into someone as she moved back and whipped around to apologize. “Hey,” said an orange beach bum in a tank top and swim trunks. His baby face made him look anywhere between twelve and twenty, but he stared at her above chubby cheeks, his gaze flitting between her face and herchest.

Oh, crap. No. Notyou.

“Did you get my note?” heasked.

Of course it wasyou.

“Miss,” said the handsome man from behind her. “Yourbag.”

Lilac spun around to take the bag from the man who held it out to her just as a beautiful middle-aged woman appeared from the row behind him and wrapped her arm around hiswaist.

Of course. Taken.“Thank you,” she said, nodding herhead.

“Can you guys not hold up the line?” shouted someone from the back of theplane.

Lilac turned back around to see the front of the plane nearly deserted in front of her except for the kid who looked ready to walk out the airport and dive into apool.

“So, uh, I’m Benji—” started BeachBum.

“Excuse me,” said Lilac, who had to shove him aside, smacking him a little with herbag.

He cleared his throat, the word “bitch” justbarelyaudible. Lilac walked faster, making sure to snatch the paper out of her pocket and toss it into the garbage can as she exited into the terminal. She followed the crowd in front of her, considering running to the bathroom but afraid that Beach Bum was not too far behind her and might linger outside the door. She hated thinking like that, but she was alone. Even in Spain, she’d usually had someone from her host family oruniversidadwith her. She bypassed the baggage claim because most of the stuff she wasn’t just storing at her parents’ was being sent via UPS by Grandma Violet. She pulled out her phone and switched it on to see where Aunt Frankie was waiting for her. There were a lot of notifications from her Instagram photo and Brielle at least had chimed in withHave a nice flight!in their grouptext.

There was a voice mail from Aunt Frankie—Argh, she always finds it easier to talk than text—and Lilac started to listen to it just as she spotted the wildly waving pale arm near one of thedoors.

“Aunt Frankie!” shouted Lilac, slipping the phone back into her bag and jogging the rest of the way. She stumbled once.Darnsandals.

“My favorite niece!” said Aunt Frankie, taking her into her arms. Lilac knew she was supposed to point out she was Frankie’s only niece, but she had grown wearisome of thatgame.

Grinning, Lilac pulled back from the hug and took a good look at her aunt. It’d been months—since Christmas—since she’d last seen her. She’d dyed her usual pixie cut gray-and-ginger hair a deep auburn and she looked twenty years younger than Lilac knew her to be. “Love the hair,” she said, and Aunt Frankie pretended to fluffit.

“Thanks,” she said. “You look fabulous. More and more like a model every time I seeyou.”

“Thanks,” said Lilac, a rush of heat flooding her body. Maybe it was just her body trying to compensate for the chill of the A/C.

Beach Bum Benji walked through the doors and headed out onto the sidewalk, sparing a scathing but leering glance her way as he passed. Lilac tried to ignore him, letting Frankie take her by thehand.

“No luggage?” sheasked.

“Grandma’s sending most of my stuff this week,” saidLilac.

Shaking her head, Aunt Frankie took her sunglasses off the top of her brow and slid them over her eyes. “Don’t be surprised if your boxes arrive with five thousand bottles of sunscreen. Even though I already have quite a stock from her over the years. Your grandma thinks it’s the perfect gift for a Floridian for every special occasion. Too bad she could never convince Dad to wearit.”

That reminded Lilac sharply of her own fears of getting melanoma. She gently took her hand from her aunt’s and dug into her bag, grabbing her sunglasses and her own bottle of SPF50.

Aunt Frankie crossed her arms as Lilac started applying the sunscreen to her elbow. “I see she’s got you trainedalready.”

“It’s got toner in it,” said Lilac. “I don’t want to stick out like a sore thumb in the Florida sun.” She paused halfway through lathering up one of her arms. Her aunt was pretty pale. She probably burned instead oftanned.

“That’s what these are for, dear,” said Aunt Frankie, pulling a sunhat out of her tote bag and affixing it to her head. The brim was so large, it cast a shadow over her entire upperbody.

“I’ll have to get one of those,” said Lilac, her skin already flush with the prickling of sweat. She stared out at the sky, so blindingly bright even with her sunglasses on. “And maybe polarizedlenses.”

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