“Don’t think about what could have happened, just think about what did—and build on that,” Hailey advised with an encouraging smile.
He looked reluctant for a moment—because it left him open to disappointment—but then he gave in.
“You’re right,” Dillon agreed, his mind already considering possibilities. “When this project is finally finished and behind me, I’m finally going to be able to start spending quality time with Julie.”
And less time with me.
Well, what had she expected was going to happen? she asked herself. This was what Dillon had wanted, and in her own way, she had helped to bring about this scenario and make it happen.
While she was really glad for Dillon, Hailey couldn’t help feeling sorry for herself.
And that was when it hit her.
She had fallen in love with Dillon.
There was no other reason why she wanted him to be happy in a situation that didn’t include her. In order for him to be happy, he needed to spend time with Julie. What it boiled down to, she thought with a sinking heart, was that Dillon was going to be moving back to Fort Lauderdale when his jobs in Rambling Rose were finally wrapped up. Or maybe even before then.
He hadn’t said anything about her moving there with him, but even if he had, Hailey thought, it was a hell of a chance for her to take, uprooting her whole life and resettling in Fort Lauderdale on the slim chance that Dillon might eventually propose to her.
What if he said he only wanted her to live with him, not marry him? Could she settle for that? Would she be happy with just that?
The empty feeling in the pit of her stomach was her answer.
No, she wouldn’t.
Dillon looked at her. “You’re being awfully quiet,” he commented after ten minutes had passed.
She wasn’t about to ruin this for Dillon by doing what she had told him not to do: focusing only on the negative side.
So she said brightly, “I’m just happy for you with how things turned out.”
Dillon wasn’t really buying that, but for now he nodded. “That’s mostly thanks to your doing,” he acknowledged. “If you hadn’t told me to just hang in there...”
Hailey laughed, shaking her head. “Like someone could have actually bullied you into doing something,” she told Dillon, stressing how inconceivable that was given the situation. “Accept the credit where it’s due, Dillon. You did this. Maura saw how much this meant to you, and, more importantly, how much it meant to Julie. Maura is no dummy. She had to have known that if she stood in your way, she’d be the loser in more ways than one. She would have alienated Julie and, more than likely, by taking a stand against you, she would have lost her daughter.”
What Hailey was saying was all true, but there was something in her tone that Dillon found troubling. Something that said while she was happy for him, she wasn’t happy in the absolute sense. Something was bothering her.
But he had never been the type to push, to try to burrow deeply beneath the surface. If something was bothering Hailey and she wanted him to know, she would tell him. It was strictly her choice. So he left it—and her—alone.
It wasn’t as if he didn’t have a lot to occupy his mind. He and his brothers still had the hotel to build, not to mention that the restaurant was in its final stages and some things needed to be reviewed. That would be Ashley, Nicole and Megan’s department, he thought. He had taken precious time away from all that to bring his daughter back to Fort Lauderdale. The round trip there and back had eaten up more than a day and he knew he was going to have to explain that. While he was thrilled to have finally met Julie face to face, he couldn’t help wondering how his family was going to react about his having kept his daughter a secret from them. He just hoped that they’d understand and ultimately welcome this new member of the family.
“What’s wrong?” Hailey asked, looking at the perplexed expression on Dillon’s face.
They’d finally landed back in Texas and, since they didn’t have the added inconvenience of having to wait for their luggage, they were able to make their way to the parking lot with relative speed. Dillon had driven his own car to the airport and had left it parked there when they began their odyssey back to Fort Lauderdale.
Having gotten into the vehicle, Dillon hadn’t started the car. Instead, he had placed a call to Callum to let him know he was back. When his call went to voice mail, he called Steven—with the same results. So he tried calling Stephanie. When that call went to voice mail, as well, he began to feel frustrated. It showed all over his face—and that had prompted Hailey’s question.
“What’s wrong is all the calls I just made aren’t going through. Instead they’re all going to voice mail,” he complained. “Something’s up.”
He wondered if it had something to do with the restaurant project.
“Are you sure you’re getting a busy signal?” Hailey asked. “Maybe there’s a tower that’s gone down for some reason. Service has really improved in the last year in Rambling Rose, but sometimes...”
“No,” he said, holding his phone up just in case she was right. But he could see that he had most of the bars on his cell phone. That wasn’t the problem. “I’ve got four out of five bars, so there’s definitely a signal.”
“But nobody’s answering?” she guessed.
Dillon frowned, putting his cell phone on the console tray.
“No,” he confirmed. “Nobody’s answering. Something must be up,” he repeated, adding, “Something that appears to be involving my whole family.”
“Like what?” she asked. So far, she wasn’t able to connect the dots and wondered what was running through Dillon’s mind.
“Beats me. Look, I can drop you off at your place—” His
