“Daddy, it hurts.” Noelle’s head came up, and sure enough there were tears streaking down her face, but a smile was there as well. “My leg hurts.”
Pain. It could be sweet. The world went watery, the two people in front of her crystalizing in a picture she would never be able to get out of her head.
It was enough.
It had to be.
She looked at Armie and Noelle, holding on to each other, and she wanted to be with them. It was an actual ache in her body, but she took a step back. She wasn’t a part of that family and it was time to let them be, to let them bond over this new beginning. She would be there for the next session. She would watch as Noelle healed and took back her future.
And maybe someday Armie would be ready for a relationship. It probably wouldn’t be with her, but she would be happy for him because she loved him. Her heart hurt as she forced herself to walk away. This was love, the real thing. It wasn’t selfish. It wasn’t the mad passion of her youth. It was a quiet belief in another person, a prayer that her love could protect him whether or not he could return the feeling.
“Could you finish up the session for me?” she asked Tanya. She knew she should stay there to make sure Noelle got back in her chair and to talk to her about some exercises she could do at home, but she couldn’t face them right now. They would likely reach out for her but it would be out of gratitude. Next time she would be more emotionally prepared to deal with it, but for now she needed to go to the clinic, grab her stuff, and head out to Guidry’s, where she would cry on her sister’s shoulder for a while.
Tanya nodded, her eyes bright with tears, too. “Of course. Lila, you did something great today.”
Lila thanked her and moved from the cool air of the building to the heat of the Louisiana summer. Night had descended and Mabel would have already closed up the clinic. She hurried down the street because lately she got stopped by anyone walking along the block that connected the clinic to the therapy gym. They asked her about whatever ailed them or gave her the latest gossip. Seraphina would talk about her son, Luc, or Dixie would pop her head out of the café’s doors to ask how she’d liked the soup of the day.
Papillon was home.
Funny how that had happened.
She used her key card to open the clinic doors, a bit surprised it hadn’t been manually locked.
“Mabel? Are you still here?” She wanted to clear out before Armie showed up. He would absolutely walk in at some point and want to have a long talk. He would say all the right things but, again, they would be about gratitude.
They needed a good long time to figure out what they wanted free of the turbulence of breaking out of the places they’d been stuck in.
The smell of gasoline hit her nose. Where was that coming from? The gas station was over a block away. She’d never smelled it here.
“What the hell are we supposed to do now?” a deep voice said.
They didn’t have any patients. Not any with appointments, but there could have been an emergency. She wondered why Mabel hadn’t paged her. She strode through the waiting area toward the exam rooms. The smell got worse. Hopefully they hadn’t had some kind of accident with gasoline.
Except it smelled like it was coming from reception.
The computer was wet.
“How was I supposed to know the bitch would still be here?”
Her whole body went cold because she was in trouble again.* * *• • •
Armie could barely see his daughter through the tears that clouded his eyes. She’d moved her legs. It hadn’t been much of a movement and it had sent her straight to the ground, but hope was an amazing thing.
Lila had given that to them. She’d been a fountain of strength, unwavering in her belief. He’d walked in and seen her, and his first instinct had been to drop to his knees and beg her forgiveness. He hadn’t been shocked by the fact that Lila had shown up for Noelle’s session. She’d ignored his calls and texts for days, but she hadn’t given up on his daughter.
“Sweetie, I’m so proud of you.”
Noelle’s face was flushed with emotion as she pushed up to a sitting position. “I’m sorry I wouldn’t try. I didn’t want to fail.”
“The only way to fail is by not trying.” He understood that. He always had, but the lesson he’d learned when he was a child had gotten lost in his pain and worry for her. “Was that the only reason? Sweetie, you need to talk to me. We’ve both been holding back. You haven’t wanted to learn any of the things Lila’s been trying to teach you. Why are you afraid of being more independent?”