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A sob built inside her, but she pushed through it.
“Lilac? It will be all right.” Ryleigh wrapped her free arm around her shoulders, giving her an optimistic smile. That was Ryleigh. She always found something good even when it was all bad.
Lilac took in her tired, pale face. She looked drained. Though even with dark marks under her eyes and messy hair, Ryleigh was a knock-out.
Unlike Lilac who knew she was just okay looking. Kind of plain. Opal and Ryleigh were the ones who drew looks. And Lilac was good with that. Although it meant that she was often the one who had to deal with people because she blended in the easiest.
“I know. Of course it will be.” She gave Ryleigh a wobbly smile. “I mean . . . what else could possibly go wrong? We must have had all of our bad luck.”
“I was born with bad luck,” Opal said wryly.
“Not helping, Opal,” Ryleigh said.
“Right.” Lilac had to keep them on track. This is what she did. She problem solved. “It’s Sunday and it’s getting dark. We can’t do anything tonight. I’m going to try and figure out what is wrong, and tomorrow, I’ll walk into town and find what I need.”
Easy-peasy.
Right?
* * *
Later that evening, Lilac was still feeling stressed. Tears blinded her, making everything turn blurry. She’d searched on the internet for information. She thought she had an idea of what was going on, but she could be wrong.
She could get it all wrong and then what?
What if she made things worse?
Grabbing her phone again, she brought up another search.
“No!” she groaned. She was out of data. Fuck. That meant more money.
That they didn’t have.
And Kye needed diapers. Opal and Ryleigh had to eat.
Everything was too much . . . it was too much.
“Lilac?” Ryleigh called out from the bus. “You okay?”
She took a deep, steadying breath. “Uh-huh. I think I know what we need.”
“Hey, that’s great! See? I knew you could do it.”
Yep. Totally. She could do anything.
“Why don’t you come eat some dinner?” Ryleigh asked.
Dinner. Right. Food. She should probably eat something. She was shaking. Her blood sugar was likely low. But she couldn’t do it. If she ate, she’d likely just vomit it straight back up. And that was food that someone else needed.
“Um, actually. I think I’m going to go for a walk. I have all this energy,” she lied.
There was a beat of silence. She could feel Ryleigh’s worry beating down on her.
Please don’t argue with me. Please.
“All right. But be careful. We don’t know this place and it’s dark.”
Well, hopefully Tanner hadn’t been lying about the way that people in Haven looked out for women.
