Suddenly, the belligerent preteen vanished, replaced by a hopeful little girl who looked at her with wide eyes. “He has?”
Hailey nodded. There wasn’t so much as a hint of a smile on her lips. “The last I heard, he was trying to hire a reputable private detective to look for you.”
“But I’m here,” Julie protested, spreading her hands wide.
Hailey took her cell phone out. “And that’s what I’m going to tell him the second I reach your father,” she said, beginning to input Dillon’s phone number. She paused a second to smile at Julie, relieved that the girl had turned up unharmed. “He’s going to really be thrilled to see you.”
For a moment, Julie looked undecided and torn, as if she really wanted to believe what Hailey was telling her, but at the same time, she didn’t know if she could.
“If that’s true, then why didn’t he come to see me? I must have asked him to more than a dozen times,” Julie told her.
From the tone she used, Hailey could tell that the girl had a giant chip on her shoulder. She knew that if she sounded as if she was lecturing Julie, that would just exacerbate the situation, not alleviate it. She chose her words carefully, watching Julie’s face.
“Because your mother told him she didn’t want your dad coming to see you. She was afraid that would wind up disrupting your life.”
Julie shook her head, looking as if she didn’t understand. “But he’s my dad,” she cried. “He should have come anyway, no matter what my mother said. Didn’t he want to see me?”
Hailey looked into the girl’s eyes. Empathy ran all through her. Julie was hurting and she did what she could to reassure her.
“You know the answer to that,” she told Julie. “More than anything. But sometimes, it’s better to go slowly than just barge straight in. Trust me,” she assured the girl.
“But—”
After dialing and redialing several times, just to have her calls go to voice mail, Hailey finally heard the phone being picked up on the other end.
Dillon started talking immediately without giving her a chance to say a word.
“Look, Hailey, I know I said I’d be over, but I can’t right now. Something’s come up and—”
“Dillon,” Hailey blurted, cutting him off. “She’s here. Julie’s here.”
“What?” Dillon asked. What was she telling him? It was as if the words weren’t registering in his brain. All he knew was that he was waiting for a call he had placed to a detective agency to come through.
“Julie’s here,” Hailey told him again, not bothering to curb her excitement. After having him go through hell, worried sick about his daughter, she was thrilled to be able to give him some good news. The best news, really, she thought.
Numb, Dillon was almost afraid of jumping to a conclusion that might lead to disappointment. “Where’s here?” he asked uncertainly.
“My house,” Hailey answered. “Julie’s here at my house.”
Stunned, Dillon could only ask, “When?”
“Just now,” she answered happily. “Why don’t you—” the call suddenly went dead “—come over?” Hailey concluded, even though she knew Dillon couldn’t hear her anymore.
Putting her cell phone away, she looked at Julie.
“He’s on his way,” she told the girl, then felt that in all likelihood, a warning was in order. “Your dad might be kind of angry and he might yell when he gets here, but you need to keep in mind that he really doesn’t mean it. You gave him quite a scare by running off like that. Remember, your dad really loves you.”
Julie looked at her uncertainly, clearly torn again. “He said that?”
This wasn’t the time to qualify her statement by saying that Dillon hadn’t said those exact words, but that was what he meant. If she said that, Julie would discount anything she would have to say after that. No, now was the time for reassurances, Hailey silently told herself.
With that, she told the girl, “Yes. Yes, he did.”
For her trouble, she saw an incredibly wide smile bloom on the girl’s face.
“Really?” Julie asked again, her eyes shining as she waited to get the same answer.
“Really,” Hailey repeated.
Julie paused for a moment, as if she was digesting everything very slowly and with relish. And then she looked at Hailey, curious.
“How did you meet my father?” she wanted to know.
That one was easy to field. “He renovated the spa that I manage.”
“When did he—”
Whatever the girl was about to ask was going to have to wait because just then the doorbell rang. Julie’s head practically spun as she looked toward her front door.
“That’s probably your father now,” Hailey told her as she headed for the door.
Julie was right behind her, her eyes never leaving the entrance.
A sudden surge of nerves had her looking toward Hailey for guidance.
“What do I say?” Julie asked, fighting back a wave of panic.
“Hi, Dad would be a good start,” Hailey said as she opened the door.
Any other exchanges or warnings were all put on hold because Dillon suddenly hurried inside. The second he saw her, he swept his daughter into his arms, hugging her to him as relief overwhelmed him. It was also the very first time he had ever been able to hug her and he wasn’t about to let go, not for a while.
He spun her around and then, finally, before he was completely overcome with emotion, he set her back down again.
“Are you all right?” he asked anxiously.
“I’m okay,” Julie cried, her own young voice filled with emotion.
Dillon took a deep breath, attempting to distance himself from all the emotions that were swirling through him right now. “What were you thinking, running away like that?”
“I was thinking that I wanted to see you and Mom wouldn’t let me. She wouldn’t even let me talk to her about it,” Julie cried.
Her eyes were shining with tears and it was obvious that she expected him to understand.
He struggled to be the father she needed and made another attempt to try to discipline her. “But—”
This was a
