Here With You (A Laurel Heights Novel) - By Kate Perry Page 0,53

Rachel's mouth dropped open.

Nicole hid her amusement. "I hear you might be planning to rob Romantic Notions."

"Aaron said the same thing," the girl mumbled, slumping in her seat. "But I'm not."

Something was very wrong. Rachel had seemed sad each occasion they'd interacted, but something was different now. She seemed beaten—not physically, but emotionally.

Not sure how to proceed, Nicole decided to start off light. "You mean you don't like your new underwear enough to rob the store?"

The girl blinked, then she pushed her shirt's collar aside to bare a polka-dotted strap. Leaning forward, she said, "I really am a lingerie girl. I think my mom was, too, because she had drawers full of underwear."

"Lingerie girls are the best." Nicole smiled.

"My mom was the best."

The way she said it, Nicole knew the girl had lost her mother. She imagined not having her mom around, and she had to swallow the sudden sadness. "How long has it been?" she asked somberly.

"A year and a half." Rachel looked up at her with eyes stark with pain. "They say it gets better, but I think they lie."

She nodded. "If my mom died, I'd be devastated."

"I know, right?" The teenager leaned forward. "No one gets it. They keep telling me I'll get over it, but that's stupid."

"At the same time, you have to learn to live with it," Nicole said delicately. "Your mom wouldn't want you to have a crappy life because you missed her. Think about it."

Rachel frowned, toying with the corner of a page in a blank notebook. "She wouldn't like me torturing my dad either, but he's not being nice to me either. He's dating someone."

Nicole tried to picture her dad dating someone else, and her stomach clenched painfully. "But you don't want him to be miserable and loveless for the rest of his life, do you? Does he deserve that?"

"No," came the grudging answer. The girl looked up with blazing eyes. "She won't be my mom though."

"If she's smart, I bet she'll just want to be your friend, and it's always nice to have more friends."

Rachel didn't look convinced but she nodded.

"So." Nicole tipped her head. "Why have you been sitting here, watching the store?"

The girl hesitated, but then she visibly gave up. "I was waiting for Griffin Chase."

Weren't they all? Nicole shook her head ruefully. "He left."

Rachel looked so crestfallen that she wished she could take her words back, even though they were true.

"Is he coming back?"

Nicole shrugged. "Did you want his autograph?"

"I wanted to give him this." She pulled out a mangled piece of paper from her pocket. Spreading it open, she pushed it across the table.

Nicole picked it up. A poem. She read it quickly, surprised that it was actually good if heartbreaking. "Did you write this?"

"For my mom." She girl swallowed audibly. "She loved Griffin Chase, and I thought if I could get him to sing a song for her..."

Nicole heart broke. "Can I take this?"

Rachel shrugged. "He's gone. It's not like it matters."

"I'll make sure he gets it."

The teenager gaped at her.

"I mean it," Nicole said. "I can't promise he'll put it in a song, but he'll get it. At the very least, I'll make sure he signs it and sends it back to you."

The girl continued to just stare at her. Then she jumped up and grabbed Nicole in a hug.

She hugged Rachel back, sad for her, but optimistic. "You're lovely, Rachel. I didn't know your mom, but I bet she'd be sad if you just gave up on life because she was gone. She wouldn't want that."

Rachel buried her head in Nicole's shoulder, holding her tight, her body shaking. Then she stood upright, wiping her face and nodding. "You're right. She'd be totally angry at me for how things are."

"Then fix them." Nicole smiled. "At the core, we lingerie girls believe in dreams coming true."

"Okay," Rachel said tentatively. Then she straightened her spine and said more firmly, "Yes. I'll fix it all."

"Good."

She looked at Nicole hopefully. "Did you really mean it about Griffin Chase?"

"Yes." She sighed. "But I'm not on his list of preferred people, so I can't guarantee much."

"You're a lingerie girl," Rachel said. "You just said we make our dreams happen."

"You're right." Nicole smiled, sitting up straighter, too. "I should listen to myself more often."

Chapter Twenty-three

Rachel ended up spending the day at Romantic Notions. Nicole told her she could help with displays as long as she promised that she wouldn't cut any more school.

It was an easy promise to make.

Nicole's boss, Olivia, came