Tumble (Dogwood Lane, #1)(77)

“Are you sad, Dad?”

“Yeah,” I say, my voice husky. “I’m pretty sad.”

“How sad are you?”

“I don’t know.” I chuckle. “How do you measure how sad you are?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever been this sad before.”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I kick myself for opening us up to this. Was it worth it? Were a few days of fun worth this?

“I liked having her here,” she says. “I liked knowing she was downstairs with you when I went to sleep. It felt like you were happy then. Like I didn’t need to worry about you anymore because she was worrying too.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, Mia. I’m a grown-up.”

“Sometimes you have to worry about grown-ups too. You clearly don’t have it all figured out.”

My chest shakes as I laugh. I pull Mia closer. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

She pries herself from my arms and crawls across her bed. Sitting with her knees pulled to her chest, she wrinkles her nose. “If it helps, I’m not as sad as you,” she says.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“Wanna know why?”

“I’d love to know why,” I say, twisting around to face her.

“I know she’ll come home.”

“She isn’t a puppy, Mia. And I do love your optimism, but I really want you to understand that she’s not coming back.” I stand up. “I know it’s hard to accept that. It’s hard for me too. But we have to.”

“She won’t come back with that attitude.” Haley’s voice rings out behind me.

Mia giggles as I roll my eyes and turn to face our nanny.

“Please, Haley, join our conversation,” I mutter.

“I don’t mind if I do.” She trots over to the bed and sits by Mia. “Just so you know, I agree with the kid.”

“Because you are a kid,” I say.

“No. Because I told you, this is the perfect moment for you to go find the girl.” She clutches her chest and looks at Mia. “Every good love story has a moment that makes you swoon.”

Mia wrinkles her nose. “I just want Neely back.”

“How do we do that?” Haley asks. “What do we need to do?”

“Face reality,” I tell them, getting annoyed. “We can’t make her come back.”

“No, but we can try to persuade her to.” Haley kisses my daughter on the top of her head and then stands. “Do you love her?” she asks me.

“Yes.”

“Do you want her to come back?”

“Yes.”

“Do you feel like your life will never be the same if she doesn’t?”

“Yes.” I sigh.

“Then go get the damn girl. At least try. Have you ever even tried before?”

It’s the last question that sparks something deep inside me. It’s the question that resonates through my mind, plants a seed that maybe, just maybe, Haley and her antics are onto something.

“Just try, Dad. If she doesn’t come back, at least we know you tried.” Mia waits for me to respond. “Try for me.”

I feel my resignation waning. It slips through my fingers despite how hard I try to keep a grip on it.

What can it hurt? All she can do is say no.

“Is your schedule clear for a few days?” I ask Haley.

Mia jumps to her feet on her bed and cheers. Haley picks her up, and they do a little dance around the room, making me laugh. But when they dance over to me and I wrap my arms around the two crazy girls, I think they might be onto something.

“I’m going to check flights,” I say, a bubble of panic erupting in my core. “What else do I need?”

“Give me your credit card, and I’ll take care of the logistics,” Haley says, setting Mia on the bed. “You go pack your stuff and figure out what award-winning speech you’re going to use to win her back.”

“My wallet is in the kitchen,” I call out over my shoulder. “It’ll take me an hour and a half to get to the airport.”

“Go, Dad, go!” Mia shouts.

This is probably a ridiculous idea. But as I grab my travel bag out of the closet and imagine seeing Neely on her turf, I realize that, ridiculous or not, this has to happen.

She’s family, whether she knows it or not.





CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

NEELY

Another night of no sleep. Another morning of perfectly frustrating coffee. Another day of keeping my phone in my hand just in case Dane calls.

He won’t. There’s no chance and I don’t blame him.

The thing I love about him most, something I was able to identify somewhere between the thirtieth and fiftieth siren last night, is how much he loves Mia. Everything he does centers around her. How many men do that? Not many.

That being said, I hit him right where it hurt. Whether I meant to doesn’t matter. His greatest fear was having someone come into their lives and leave, and I did that. I didn’t even tell Frank to let me think about it. I didn’t even ask for a couple of weeks to help break the news to Mia. I just left, and that’s really what’s keeping me up at night, not the sirens.