Page 44 of Fragile Touch (Fragile 1)
“You’re so sweet, Claire!” Lillian exclaimed, giving the woman a hug. “I really wish I could, but I’m taken the rest of the day. How about you compile all your visuals and we’ll spend some time looking over them next week?”
Claire’s face lit up like a light bulb. “Oh, that just sounds wonderful. I’ll look up some more ideas and think about which ones would be most practical here.” Scratching her chin in thought, she stared at the closet near the bottom of her front staircase.
Lillian knew if she didn’t leave now, Claire would get an idea and start rambling about it. “Excellent. Thank you for lunch!” She sidestepped to the door.
“Don’t worry about it, silly.” Opening the front door, Claire patted Lillian on the back. “Have a good afternoon, and thank you for all your help, dear!”
“My pleasure.” Lillian smiled with her lips together.
“I’ll call you if I have any questions!”
She’ll call me. Not the other way around. Every encounter with this woman was like something out of a sitcom, and she stifled an exhausted laugh. “All right. ‘Bye, Claire.”
As she shut the car door behind her, she heard the woman calling yet another goodbye to her. If it were an option, Lillian would have sat in the car to decompress from the constant talking, but every time Claire stood there on her front steps watching her until she drove off. Today was no exception. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, she saw the woman still standing there with her hands in her pockets. She looked so small compared to her big house; it was a caricature come to life.
She started the car and drove slowly down the street, her energy totally depleted from the last hour and a half. Before she arrived at Claire’s this morning, she couldn’t get her mind off breakfast with Cayden. He asked for a chance, and she said yes. His grin was so wide and bright it stuck in her mind and put a smile on her own face even now.
The weather was gorgeous she couldn’t help but roll down all the windows and take a deep breath. She felt the air fill her lungs. It smelled like honeysuckle and roses. Honeysuckle. That’s a plant I haven’t seen in his garden, she realized, and made a mental note to ask Cayden about it later. What are those red ones? Poppies? I’ve got so many names to learn...
Her phone blared from the passenger seat, jolting her out of her trance. With every ring it also vibrated, adding unwelcome chaotic noise to the peaceful vibe.
Lillian snatched it up. The number wasn’t in her contacts and didn’t look remotely familiar. To answer or not to answer, she debated, and decided to answer on the last ring. “Hello, Lillian Warren.” There was a millisecond too long of silence from the other side. “Hello—”
“Hey, stranger.”
She gasped, immediately identifying the voice. “Andrew?”
“You guessed it!” His voice was smiling.
“What the hell, Andrew! Where have you been? Are you good?”
“Where have you been is more of the question, milady.”
Ouch. She knew it was true. After Amelia had passed, she detached from the family. Processing together was impossible for her at that time; it reminded her of too many memories, and happiness wasn’t something that meant a lot to her at that point. All the heartache of the past pinched her with his words.
“I know,” she replied quietly. “Andrew, I’m really sorry. I never meant to leave.”
“We know you better than that.” Hearing his voice brought tears to her eyes, and she pulled the car over to the side of the road in front of a random house. “Mom told me you called the other day.”
“Yeah, I did. I’ve just...” She took a breath. It had been so long since she had felt this soothing feeling, like someone was stroking her hair. “I’ve had a lot on my mind lately. I...there have been a lot of things in my head.” The words weren’t coming. Why can’t I just say it? “I’ve been thinking about Amelia. It all came back to me. And I had a tough time with it. I miss you. I miss the family.”
“We all miss you, too, Lillian, but we never gave up on you. We knew you would always come back. And look, here you are.”
She wiped a teardrop off her cheek.
“So, do you want to get together and talk about it?”
“Yeah, your mom mentioned you were coming.”
“Actually, I’m already here.”
Her heart stopped mid-beat. “What?”
“Yeah. She thought I was coming in a couple of weeks. It was much more sudden than we thought. They told me a few days ago, ‘Hey, Andrew, we need you to go down to Hanniston soon to make sure they’re getting set up right.’” The way he talked in a deep voice like someone else lightened her mood. “And later that night I got a call saying to pack my bags. I got here yesterday.”
“Where are you staying?”
“They’ve put me in a hotel down near the museum.”
