“All this time? Didn’t you hear us calling you?”
“Yes. But I didn’t answer. I didn’t want you to find me. I didn’t want to come back here to you. I wanted to die.”
Her words were spoken with such venom that Tyler’s hasty footsteps toward her were checked. He stared at his daughter uncomprehendingly. He seemed at a complete loss. His arms hung loosely at his sides. Wanting to rush to his child and hug her tight to reassure himself that she was really home safe, he was stunned by her antipathy. He turned back toward Hailey for help. She met his baffled eyes with the same sense of puzzlement.
“We’ve been very worried about you, Faith,” she said to the girl. “Your father was sick with worry. We thought something terrible had happened to you.”
“You wouldn’t care!” she shouted. “No one would have cared if I’d died. No one likes me. My mother didn’t. She was always telling me how stupid and ugly I am. She wanted to be with her friends all the time, never with me.”
She rounded on her father. “You didn’t want me to come live with you, either. You hate me, too. All you think about is work and making telephone calls and going off to meetings. You wish you didn’t have me.”
She was sobbing now, her small chest heaving with the emotions that ripped through her. Hailey’s heart went out to her, but she didn’t have a chance to soothe her before Faith turned to Hailey with unleashed wrath.
“You pretended to like me, but you don’t. I was hoping that maybe you could live with us, be my mother, but you don’t treat my daddy nice. If you’d hug and kiss him instead of always being stiff and shaky and mad when he touches you, then maybe he’d ask you to live with us. Last night I pretended with the Harpers that you were my mom. They kept telling me how pretty my mom was. I wanted you to be my mom so bad.”
Convulsive sobs caused her to tremble convulsively. “But now I don’t because you’re not beautiful. I think you’re ugly. If you were beautiful and nice to my daddy then he wouldn’t have been kissing that other ol’ girl. I hate you.” She glowered at Tyler. “I hate you, too. I hate everybody.” On that last wail she ran to her room and slammed the door behind her.
Tyler didn’t even wait a full second before he went after her. Hailey ran to him, grabbing his arm. “No, Tyler, let her cry it out for a while.”
“Un-uh. She’s not going to talk to you and me like that and get away with it. Nor is she going to get by with my nearly going insane with worry. It’s time she learned that she has some responsibilities in this world. For running off and hiding all day, she deserves to be punished.”
Hailey’s lips were rubbery, but she forced the words out. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to spank her.”
“No,” she cried insistently, pulling on his arm. “No, Tyler. She’s upset—”
/> “So am I.”
“But you’re an adult. She’s been put through a traumatic experience. Please. Wait a while. She doesn’t understand—”
“Then it’s time she did.” He shook his arm free.
Hailey waited until she heard the door of Faith’s bedroom close behind him, then she ran out the front door. The night air was cool as she ran down to the lakeshore, but she didn’t notice it. The water was still, but no moon was reflected on its calm surface tonight. Clouds obliterated it. The magic had been for one night only.
How could everything have gone so wrong in such a short span of time? Or had she been deluding herself? Had it always been wrong for her to love Tyler? She had fallen in love with the man and had come to love the daughter. Now these two people whom she loved most in the world were suffering because of her interference in their life.
She had accused Tyler of using Faith to get close to her. But hadn’t she done the same thing? Hadn’t she used Faith to get to her father? She had been so subtle that she hadn’t even realized what she had done until Faith’s tirade against all the injustices in her young life pointed it out.
Realizing the disastrous effect of her presence in their lives, Hailey sank down on the pebbly shore and pressed her forehead against her raised knees. Unwittingly, she had driven a wedge into the tenuous relationship Tyler was carefully constructing with his daughter. Faith blamed her father for not marrying Hailey when the thought had probably never entered his mind. Faith blamed Hailey for not being good enough for him. Everyone lost.
During the long, passion-laden hours of the night before, Tyler had whispered love words in her ear. They had been poetically tender and shockingly bold. They had stirred her to ecstasy and lulled her to sleep. But he had never said, “I love you,” plainly and simply. His reaction to her speaking the words would forever remain a mystery, for she intended to leave first thing in the morning. She couldn’t pursue a love affair with Tyler when Faith’s happiness was at stake. Tyler couldn’t either.
Hauling herself to her feet, she trudged back to the house. The door to Faith’s bedroom was still closed, but she could hear faint murmurs of conversation. Going into her bedroom, she closed the door behind her. She was surrounded by a cold, dark loneliness. It was no stranger to her. She had lived with it for years. Only it was more noticeable now that she had had a glimpse of the other side.
Lethargically she prepared for bed, her mind and body exhausted. Knowing she should stay up and think about what she would do about her job at Serendipity—could she continue working for Tyler?—what she should do about Ellen, what she should do with the rest of her life without Tyler Scott in it, she couldn’t resist collapsing onto the soft linens. She tried to tackle the problems tumbling through her brain, but her mind refused to cooperate. Within a few minutes after her head touched the pillow, she was asleep.
The first thing she saw when she sleepily opened her eyes the following morning was a denim-clad knee inches from the edge of the mattress. Following the length of sinewy thigh to its apex, she confirmed her lazy observation that the possessor of the knee was male. The sheer masculinity …
She sat bolt upright in bed, clutching the sheet against her “Serendipity sizzles!” T-shirt. “What are you doing in here?” she demanded.
“Sitting in a chair watching you sleep,” Tyler said. His posture was little more than a slouch. He looked as disheveled as Hailey felt. His eyes were brooding under the broad slash of dark brow across his forehead.
“That’s not funny,” she said.
“It wasn’t meant to be. You asked me what I was doing in here and I told you.”
“How did you get in this room? I locked the door last night.”