The Bad Daughter(32)
“I’m sorry, no. He’s tied up in meetings all day. Is this Robin?”
Robin was so surprised to hear her name on the younger woman’s lips that for a second she was speechless.
“Robin?” Kelly asked again.
“Yes, this is Robin.”
“Blake told me what happened. I just wanted to say how sorry I am.”
“Thank you.”
“Is anything new? Have they caught who did it?”
“Nothing’s new,” Robin said, answering both questions. “Would you please tell Blake that I called?”
“Of course. And Robin…”
“Yes?”
“Our prayers are with you.”
Our prayers? “Thank you.” Robin disconnected the call and tossed her phone back into her purse. “Our prayers?”
There was a knock on her side window.
Robin’s head snapped toward the sound.
A man’s face appeared against the glass, his sly smile filling the frame.
She knew him immediately, even though it had been more than a decade since their last meeting. He was even more attractive than she remembered. “You’ve been following me,” she said, lowering the window and staring into his sea-green eyes with their impossibly long, girlish lashes. She shut off the ignition and stepped out of the car into the sauna-like heat.
“That I have,” Tara’s ex-husband, Dylan, acknowledged, his bad-boy grin widening. “Do I get a hug?” He stretched his arms toward her, well-defined muscles evident beneath his navy T-shirt.
Guess you had lots of time to exercise in prison, Robin thought, recoiling from his proffered embrace. “Do you want to tell me why you’ve been following me?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time?” He lowered his arms, clearly enjoying her discomfort.
“Goodbye, Dylan.”
“Okay, okay,” he said. “Truth is, I didn’t set out to follow you. But when I spotted you in Starbucks, I figured I might as well see what you were up to.”
“Okay, well, now you’ve seen me.”
“Now I’ve seen you.”
“Now you can go.”
“And not see my daughter?”
Robin froze. “Are you kidding me?”
“Not really the best time for joking around.”
“You haven’t seen Cassidy in…how many years?”
“Yeah, well, I’ve been kind of busy.”
“You’ve been in jail,” Robin corrected.
“Picky, picky.” His grin spread, causing deep dimples to form on either side of his mouth. “Anyway, what difference does it make where I’ve been? The important thing is that Dylan Campbell is here now.”
Robin looked toward her feet, trying not to picture Tara’s beautiful face battered by Dylan’s fists. “What were you in for this time?”
“This time,” he repeated. “Ouch. Oh, well. Guess I deserved that. Assault. No big deal. Served two years.”
“And you’ve been out how long?”
“Three months. Perfect timing, wouldn’t you say?”
“Perfect timing for what?”
“My little girl needs me.”
“You’re the last thing she needs.”
“She just lost her mother.”
“You wouldn’t have had anything to do with that, would you?” Robin surprised them both by asking. She heard the quiver in her voice and looked toward the hospital entrance. Now would be a really good time for Sheriff Prescott to make an appearance.
“Me? Of course not. How could you think such a horrible thing?”
Robin shook her head. “I’m sure the sheriff will be eager to talk to you about your whereabouts that night.”
“More than happy to speak to the man.” Dylan laughed. “Do you really think I’d be foolish enough to show my handsome face around here if I’d had anything at all to do with what happened?”
“I would never underestimate how foolish you might be.”
He smiled. “Okay, maybe I deserved that, too. But why the hell would I shoot my own kid? I mean, shooting Tara and your dad, that’s one thing. But my own flesh and blood? I’d have to be some kind of monster.”
“You are some kind of monster.”
“Not anymore. I’ve changed, Robin. I’m ready to be a real father to that little girl.”
“How noble. The fact that Cassidy could come into a lot of money if my father dies has absolutely nothing to do with this sudden urge to be a parent?”
“Absolutely nothing,” he repeated. “The thought never entered my mind.”
“Thoughts rarely do.”
The smile toying with the corners of his lips froze. “Shall we go inside?”
“I’m going inside,” Robin said. “You can go to hell.” With that, she pushed him aside and marched toward the hospital doors.
“See you around,” he called after her.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Robin alerted the deputy outside Cassidy’s room to Dylan’s presence and asked him not to allow the man anywhere near his daughter. Then she spoke to Cassidy’s doctor, who informed her that the child had shown a marked improvement during the night and that her condition had been downgraded from critical to serious, although she was by no means out of the woods.