Page 46 of A Place for Daydreams

“Of course.” Julia gave Hazel another hug, rocking her back and forth a little. “You can always come to me or Alexis or Mom when you’re feeling worried. You don’t have to face your fears all by yourself.”

“That’s a good reminder, thank you. It’s like I know that, but sometimes I get so caught up in my own head that I don’t think to reach out to you guys. And in this case, I guess I feel kind of silly to be worrying so much about this.”

Julia shook her head. “It’s not silly. You care about your daughter. We can all relate to feeling worried about someone we love. But just you remember that she’s going to be more than fine.”

Julia wrapped her arm around Hazel’s shoulders and together they walked back to their group. Samantha was just stepping out of the changing room, wearing a darling pale pink dress with a full skirt, and tears sprang into Hazel’s eyes.

“You look amazing, honey,” she said, hugging her daughter.

“Aw, thanks.” Samantha spun around. “I think this might be it. I would love to dance in this dress.”

“I can imagine! And it looks like something Glinda might wear,” Vivian said, beaming at her granddaughter.

Hazel smiled, knowing her daughter was going to have an amazing time at the dance and that she was well-equipped to take care of her own heart.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Dean stood in his office at work, staring at the carpet without seeing it. His brain was spinning, and although he was smiling slightly, his palms were beginning to sweat from nervousness. He wiped them on the pants of his mechanic’s jumpsuit, thinking to himself that he couldn’t remember the last time his palms had sweated that much.

He glanced at the clock, noting that it had been fifteen minutes since he’d had Keith call Noelle. He wondered if she was just going to come by the auto repair shop, or if she might call him first before bringing her car in.

Maybe this was a stupid idea,he thought, scratching the back of his neck.I should have just called her myself instead of having Keithcall her. I guess it just seemed more plausible that way.

He started to pace, feeling jittery. The truth was that there was nothing wrong with Noelle’s car, but he’d asked Keith to call her and tell her that there was a minor adjustment that they’d forgotten to do on it and she needed to bring it in.

Dean had concocted the scheme because he wanted to talk to Noelle in person, and he thought it would be a good way to get her to come over to the shop. He knew that he wouldsee her again soon for physical therapy, but what he wanted to talk to her about was something he didn’t feel would be right to bring up in the professional setting of his physical therapy appointments.

He heard the front door of the auto shop jangle, and he hurried over to the door of his office that led to the lobby. He opened it and saw Noelle stepping inside the shop.

“Hey!” She smiled at him, but she looked a little flustered. “Is everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely. It’s nothing to worry about.” Dean cleared his throat, wondering more than ever if his scheme had been such a good idea after all.

“What needs to be done on my car?” she asked, stepping a few paces toward him. “Keith said it was something minor?”

“Uh, yeah, I’ll have the guys take a look at it,” Dean said awkwardly. “It’s probably nothing.”

Noelle frowned. She seemed to be slightly guarded and his heart sank a little. Making her uncomfortable was not what he had intended to do at all.

“I guess—well, I’m confused.” Noelle exhaled, her expression quizzical. “Why did you just think of this now? It had seemed like you’d done such a thorough job on my car, and I don’t understand why something was missed when you were checking it over. You seem like you’re very professional here, and well—I mean, I don’t mean to be rude, but—I don’t understand.”

Dean cleared his throat again, realizing he’d made a mess of things.

I need to just be honest with her, he thought.

“Noelle, I’m sorry. I didn’t think—well, I came up with kind of a silly plan just now and I see that I should have thought it through better before putting it into action.”

She cocked her head to one side, clearly unsure of what he was talking about. “What kind of a plan?”

“There’s nothing left to do on your car. I invented that as a pretext for asking you to come over here. I—I wanted to talk to you.”

Noelle blinked at him a couple of times and then her eyebrows lifted slowly. “Is everything okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah, everything’s okay. I mean, I hope so.”

Her brow furrowed even more. “You hope so?”

Dean shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. “There I go, making a mess of things again. Sorry. Yes! Everything is okay.”

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