Touch of Heartache

by Joy Penny

  Lilac dialed and then put the phone to her ear. “Security?” she said, and Nolan didn’t know whether it was a good or a bad thing that she’d gone for security before the police. “There’s an issue in the West Tent Tildy parking lot—”

  But Nolan didn’t hear anything else she said as Earl roared then, putting his all into shoving Nolan forward. The shock made Nolan unprepared and his back slammed into a Chrysler parked nearby.

  He grunted in pain, then went to kick at Earl, anything, but Earl was dropping his grip on Nolan’s hands now, turning toward Lilac—

  But before he could turn, a small, pointy dress shoe came up between Earl’s legs and slammed right into his crotch. He winced and his hands went to his balls as he fell to his knees. Nolan scrambled up and went to Lilac’s side, not caring that his foot “accidentally” kicked forward into Earl’s thigh as he did.

  “Are you all right?” he asked Lilac, taking her by the shoulders.

  “Better than all right,” she said. “He just gave me cause to kick him in the balls.” She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear as her face took on this devilish grin and Nolan wanted to slam her lips to his and never stop kissing her. “Self-defense and all.”

  “Or saving me.” Then he did put his lips to hers, gently nibbling on her bottom lip, sliding his tongue just slightly inside, grazing the tip of her tongue as shivers ransacked his whole body.

  “If you’re fucking her,” said Earl between breaths, “you can forget any complaint you made up to use against me.” He smiled, even through the tears watering his eyes. “That’s right. I know it was you who went to HR about me.”

  Reluctantly, Nolan pulled away from Lilac’s lips, although he kept his hold on her upper arms. “Half the staff filed a complaint about you.”

  “Because of her.” Earl pointed toward Lilac, his finger shaking with rage. “No one had any complaints until you did—”

  Lilac’s nose went up in the air, the perfect example of the uptight, mature businesswoman Nolan initially thought her to be. “You can speak to my lawyer,” she said just as the security Jeep pulled up.

  “Oh, I will,” said Earl, leaning on Lilac’s car to stand himself up.

  “Get your hands off her car—” Nolan started, but Lilac put a hand on his chest and shook her head, as if to tell him to let it go.

  “I’m going to get a lawyer, too,” he said. “And tell them she fucked her way into getting help to make up this whole case against me.”

  Lilac took a step away from Nolan as the security guys got out of their vehicle and Nolan waved at them. She crossed her arms, staring Earl down. “Now I’m confused. Was I leading you on or did I make the whole thing up?”

  Earl spit again—this time at Lilac’s feet. She jumped back. “Both, bitch.”

  One of the security guys shook his head in exasperation and went straight to Earl without even being told. “You were told to clean out your office,” he said, as if he’d been fully aware of the situation. “And to wait there for an hour before you left.”

  Earl stepped back out of the man’s grip, waving his hands toward him. “Like I’m going to do what they say? What are they going to do if I don’t, huh? Fire me?”

  The second security guard said some code gibberish into his walkie-talkie.

  “Okay,” said the guard nearest Earl with all the patience of a Tildy’s Tots Tildy Scout speaking to a child camper, “let’s take a ride to our office.”

  “Like hell,” said Earl, jumping back and wincing. His junk probably still ached.

  “Sir,” said the walkie-talkie guard, “we have jurisdiction under the state of Florida to detain people on-site in the event of an incident.”

  “Detain them, then!” shouted Earl. “They assaulted me!”

  “Uh, no,” said Lilac, all-business. “He tried to keep me from leaving,” she said, “and then he assaulted Nolan first.”

  “Sir, are you aware that keeping someone from leaving a place they desire to leave can be charged as kidnapping?” said the officer who reached out to grab Earl’s elbow.

  “Kidnapping? Kidnapping? You have got to be kidding me,” Earl said, but he let the man guide him toward the Jeep. “I didn’t lay a fucking finger on you.”

  Lilac scoffed. “Not today anyway.”

  “You asked for it,” he said as the guard opened the Jeep door. “You think a sorority bimbo like you would get a job like the one I offered you if you hadn’t asked for it?”

  “I wasn’t in a sorority,” said Lilac. “But I’ll thank you not to throw the term around as an insult.” She checked out her nails then, as cool as a cucumber.

  Earl was still shouting something unintelligible as he got into the Jeep and the guard shut the door closed.

  “Do you want to file a report?” asked the walkie-talkie guard. “We can call in someone from the county.”

  Lilac exchanged a look with Nolan. “Yes,” Nolan said. Lilac seemed unsure. “At least… I do.”

  The man turned, talking into his walkie-talkie once more.

  “I don’t want…” said Lilac. She sighed.

  “Hey,” said Nolan, putting a hand on her back. “You didn’t ask for any of this, I know. But it’s here and… We ought to make sure he gets what he deserves.”

  “He’s fired,” said Lilac. “That’s enough. Plus, his wife kicked him out.” She shrugged.

  “And if he tries to use this incident against you?” asked Nolan. “Against us?” Oh, boy, would he have some explaining to do to his dad. “Let’s get the papers filed. We don’t have to press charges.”

  Lilac turned around, both her hands resting on his chest. “I’ve got you,” she said. “My lawyer… Whatever you need.” She looked up and met his gaze then and Nolan felt, surprisingly, that she was all there in the moment with him. There wasn’t a shadow weighing her down. There wasn’t the cavalier jovialness of a girl just looking for a casual fling. She had his back. Whatever that meant, as friends… As something more… She understood him now. She cared.

  And despite how he’d tried to keep it casual for her sake, there was no question that he felt the same way.

  He took her into his arms, resting his chin lightly atop her head. “Let’s start over,” he whispered as the walkie-talkie guard finished talking to his partner and made his way back toward them. “Let me take you on a date to Tildy World.”

  Lilac chuckled then—hard. “Is that a joke?”

  “No,” said Nolan. “Just you wait and see.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  It’d been a harried few days. Calls to Lilac’s lawyer and reports to file. Lilac hadn’t wanted to press charges, and Nolan had followed suit. Ironically, Earl had wanted to pursue charges, though the guards and police had directed him to an attorney rather than doing much of anything themselves. Nolan vouched for Lilac and Lilac vouched for Nolan—no one cared that Earl was shouting obscenities about them being a couple. Plus, there was security footage, so Earl was toast.

  A couple. Lilac hadn’t ever thought of herself as one half of a couple. It was too final, too confining.

  Only now, she actually felt freer than ever. “What are you up to this fine Saturday morning?” Gavin sipped a coffee casually as he gazed into his phone’s video camera from a place Lilac had never seen before.

  “Um, where the hell are you?” asked Lilac, her tone more playful than her words suggested.

  “Nowhere special,” said Gavin. “Just the boss’ townhouse.” He took another sip but kept his eye on the camera, waiting for the reaction.

  “You little Jezebel,” said Lilac, making Gavin actually spit some of his coffee back into the cup. “So you and Gabriel are… a thing now? A full-fledged official thingy?”

  Gavin wiped his lips. “Well, when you put it like that, it’s suddenly ten times less romantic.”

  Before Lilac could say more, Pembroke of all people dialed in, asking to join the call. Gavin welcomed her, curiosity plain as day on her face. “Hey, Pem,” he sai
d.

  “Hi,” said Pembroke, grabbing hold of a swath of blue hair that flew at that moment across her eyes. Wherever she was, it was windy.

  “Where are you?” asked Gavin, studying her image.

  Lilac instead focused on the bigger issue that came to mind. “Did you change your blue streaks into entirely blue hair?”

  Pembroke laughed and sat back on something. If Lilac didn’t know better, she thought she saw the handle of a roll-on bag behind the girl’s back. “Chicago and yes, I went all-blue.” Her gaze traveled over the camera. “Though I don’t know why. Bad enough I got all the stares with the blue streaks. I’m getting twice as many glances with an all-blue mop.”

  “You know you look fabulous,” said Gavin. “Eat it up, Broke.” He frowned. “But what are you doing here without letting me know you were stopping by?”

  “Yeah… Sorry about that.” Pembroke cleared her throat and looked around her. Lilac saw more people go by with suitcases. “It was kind of impromptu. And I won’t be here long.”

  “You’re in front of Union Station,” said Gavin. “You’re going on vacation?”

  “Sort of,” said Pembroke. “I… I actually don’t really have a destination in mind.”

  “Okay, hold up, don’t you go anywhere,” said Gavin. “I’ll be there in…” He looked over his shoulder and a man with a pretty tight body walked by behind him, a towel around his waist. He paused, almost frozen in the spotlight. He looked way too young to have his own successful marketing company, but then Lilac supposed he could have come from a trust fund like she did. She could have created a marketing company and hired Gavin to run it.

  She should have thought of that.

  The hot towel-toting boss came closer to Gavin and then pressed his lips to Lilac’s best friend’s. “What have we here?”

  Smiling sweetly, Gavin returned the peck and then turned back to the camera. “Gabriel, meet my bestie, Lilac, and my other sweetheart of a friend, Pembroke.” All that was missing was Brielle, but her messages had grown curt as of late. Gavin had surmised she’d broken it off with her comic book celebrity paramour about a week before.

  Lilac waved hi and told her nether regions to behave as the sexy man leaned forward to get a closer look. Nolan. And Gavin. Down, girl.

  “Doll, can we head to Union Station?” Gavin asked Gabriel. “Pembroke’s there now.”

  “Sure.” Gabriel nodded and pulled back, disappearing from view.

  “Someone’s got his boss wrapped around his little finger,” said Lilac, snorting when Gavin turned scarlet.

  “Anyway,” said Gavin. “Chat later, ’kay, Li? When are you meeting Mr. Sandgrouse?”

  “He’s picking me up at three,” said Lilac. Which was pretty late for a Tildy World date, but who was she to complain? It wasn’t like she wouldn’t have a zillion and one other chances to check out the park. Unfortunately, Christian had been named Earl’s replacement, though whether it was because of Earl’s situation or his lack of proximity to the man, he hadn’t given off any skeevy vibes in the day since. They’d agreed to let her keep setting up shop at Gyu-ri’s and to check in with him at least once a day on her progress with the big Tent Tildy/Ballroom crossover. That suited Lilac just fine.

  “Have fun,” said Gavin. “And you better remember all the details.”

  “Not until you tell me the story of how, precisely, you wound up there last night.”

  Gavin grinned widely and signed off.

  “You have a date?” asked Pembroke. Lilac had almost forgotten she was on the call.

  “Yeah,” said Lilac. “The guy in the Silly Sandgrouse suit.”

  “That’s great,” said Pembroke. “I hope you have a fun time!”

  “Thanks,” said Lilac, feeling the awkwardness hang in the air even with hundreds of miles between them. “And you have a nice trip… Wherever you’re going. Traveling can broaden your world.”

  Pembroke scratched her cheek. “I’m not leaving the country or anything.”

  “Even so,” said Lilac. “It’s a first step. An important one. Maybe someday you’ll head to Japan, too.” Lilac’s parents had moved on to Taiwan this week—or maybe it was Hong Kong by now. Lilac could never be sure.

  “Maybe,” said Pembroke, her smile faltering.

  “Hey, if you’re ever serious about it, let me know,” said Lilac, a genuine idea popping in her head. “I could foot the bill and maybe we’d invite Gavin and Brielle—”

  “Oh, no, I couldn’t.” Pembroke’s already-pale face looked ashen. “I mean, not that I’d mind going with all of you, but I couldn’t have you pay for it.”

  “Well, think about it,” said Lilac. “And tell me how your trip goes.”

  “Lilac?” asked Pembroke, just as Lilac was about to end the call.

  “Hmm?”

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” she said. “Whatever exactly happened, I’m proud of you for standing up for yourself and happy it all turned out okay.”

  Lilac felt her stomach turn sour, though the subject didn’t make her quite as dizzy as it once had. “Thanks.”

  “I don’t know if I’d have been brave enough to do what you did,” said Pembroke.

  “You would be if you turned to your friends, Pem,” said Lilac. “If you ever need to talk to someone—or if you just want to go kick a man in the junk, I’m your gal.”

  Pembroke broke into laughter at that and they said their goodbyes.

  “Lunch is here,” called Aunt Frankie from inside the house. Lilac stood and grabbed her iced tea from the table on the patio. Frankie had ordered them some Thai.

  And though her stomach was still spinning—largely because of the countdown to her first official date since she and Nolan had decided to start over—Lilac felt entirely happy and at home as she sat down to eat with Aunt Frankie. It was a feeling she thought she might never experience again, but it was there, and though the shadow of her pain would never entirely leave her, she felt like she’d managed to banish it to some dark corner of herself, a dark corner almost obliterated by the rays of sunshine from those who cared about her the most.

  “You can’t want to go on the Tildy Whirl for a third time,” said Nolan. His legs were genuinely shaking as they exited the ride.

  Still, Lilac tugged him back toward the growing line. “I always rode the Tildy Whirl three times,” said Lilac. “Then Tildy’s Cavern Adventure twice and if I had time, Tildy’s Never-Ending World about four or five times.”

  “And you thought a date at Tildy World would be boring,” said Nolan with a sheepish grin as he stepped back in line with her.

  “No,” she said. “That could never be the case.” She draped her arms over his shoulders and leaned up for a quick kiss. “I’d just… Forgotten what it looked like on this side of things. Without the Tildy Scouts and the cramped hallways and the hidden doors behind the murals.”

  Lilac let her gaze wander around the park at the employees. She actually didn’t know that many out here in the park proper because she’d been so caught up in the rather small worlds of Tent Tildy and Queen Animaliao’s Ballroom. Most of the employees still wore Tildy Scout outfits out here since camping was an important enough theme in Tildy Tapir cartoons, though some wore costumes more thematically tied to the specific attractions where they worked. Like the Tildy Scouts—they still had that name for employees, regardless of what they wore—at Tildy Whirl wore clown outfits.

  That had made Nolan shudder almost as much as the rocking and rolling whirling carts themselves. “Well, I’m just glad we’re going on these rides before dinner,” he said.

  “You’re being awfully coy about dinner,” said Lilac. “How much time do we have left before we should get going?”

  Someone cleared her throat as the line moved and Lilac spun around, taking Nolan’s hand in hers as they moved to fill in the gap that had appeared. “We won’t have to go far,” said Nolan. “And dinner is at eight, so if we hop on a shuttle by about 7:30, we should make it with plenty
of time to spare.”

  “A shuttle?” asked Lilac.

  “Of course,” said Nolan. “You don’t honestly think I’d take you on a Tildy World date and not treat you to a meal at Queen Animaliao’s Ballroom, do you?”

  Queen Animaliao’s Ballroom—he had to mean the Royal Dining Hall. The finest dining spot in all the theme park. There was only room for five parties a night and they booked up months in advance. Her parents could have easily afforded it but certainly hadn’t cared enough to bother. Besides, they’d told her, that place was for grownups. Kids ate downstairs at the Palace Kitchens.

  “How…?” asked Lilac, her jaw hung open.

  Nolan bumped his arm into hers as they took another few steps forward. “I have friends in high places,” he said. “Furry friends. And the queen herself.”

  A thought made Lilac’s stomach drop. “But I’ll pay,” she said. “It can’t be cheap—”

  “Hush,” said Nolan, laying a finger across her mouth. “Don’t ruin the magic. Since when does Tildy discuss finances?”

  “There was that one cartoon where she almost lost her cabin because of the queen’s new tax,” said Lilac. “Her Majesty was under the influence of the dark shadow,” she added.

  Chuckling, Nolan wrapped an arm around her as he leaned closer to her ear and Lilac shivered from head to toe. “Okay, Ms. Tapir’s personal archivist. But no dark shadow helped or hindered me. I get an employee discount.” He kissed her temple then and Lilac about melted into goo.

  By the time they staggered off their third turn at the Tildy Whirl, she took advantage of Nolan’s need to regain his land legs by stepping aside and making a phone call to arrange a little employee benefit of her own.

  Nolan had gotten them the best-positioned table at the finest restaurant at the best theme park in the world. Apparently, there’d been a cancellation and sometimes Tent Tildy threw that out to its staff to see if they wanted the chance to pick it up before they made it available to the public, but even so—Lilac was going to believe it was all a little Tildy Tapir magic that had aligned everything so perfectly together.