Getting Lucky (39 page)

“You missed out,” she said simply.

He met her eyes. “I know.”

She sighed. “So now we’re going to have a big happy family reunion? Jo is going to love me? Peyton’s going to straighten up? You’re going to get to assuage your guilt over not being there for me for twenty-five years?”

He shook his head. “I’m here to make an offer on your car and camper.”

She stared at him. “Excuse me?”

“I want to buy the Fiat and camper.”

She frowned. Maybe the crazy thing was genetic. On both sides of her family. “
Why
?”

He leaned in on the tabletop with his forearms. “Peyton and I checked Jo into a rehab facility yesterday. It’s a thirty-day program. We can’t visit or see her. She’s totally immersed in the program. I’ve decided to take some time to myself and do some camping and reminiscing and soul searching. Thought it might be easier if I’m off by myself.”

Hope wasn’t sure how to process all of that. Jo being in rehab seemed like a great thing. Dan having some time to think about the past and his choices would also probably be good. But she wasn’t sure what it had to do with her exactly.

“And mine is the only camper you want to buy?”

“Yours is the only camper that belonged to Melody.”

“This is…strange,” Hope finally said. “You tracked me down to buy my camper?”

“I tracked you down because the last time I let a beautiful blond walk out of my life, I spent the next twenty-six years regretting it. I’m hoping to learn from a few mistakes.”

Hope swallowed hard. “So you do want to be in my life?”

“As friends. As the sort of clueless father of a new friend of yours. As some guy who lives in town and you see at the grocery store once in a while. Whatever you want it to be.”

“But not my father? Because of Jo.”

He leaned in closer. “Hope, I will gladly tell the
world
that you’re my daughter. If you will let me try to be some kind of father to you, I will be grateful for the second chance. But I’ll warn you, I’m not that good at it.”

She gave him a small smile. “Well, I’ve never had one before, so I might not know the difference.”

He smiled back and she could see that he was touched.

“How did you find me?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I headed west for Sedona. TJ told me that you made a habit of stopping at truck stops to eat.”

TJ. Just hearing his name was enough to make her heart throb painfully.

“I drove past this one and saw the yellow car—hard to miss—pulling the camper.”

“You would have gone all the way to Sedona?” she asked.

“This time, absolutely.”

So he wanted a second chance to get it right with her. It was twenty-six years late, but…

“I don’t know a lot about it, but I’m guessing families give each other second chances,” she said.

Dan nodded. “And third and fourth and tenth.” He picked up his coffee and sipped. “If you need to know anything about families, there’s no one better than TJ.”

Hope had to swallow hard again. “He gives second chances?”

“TJ lets people try until they get it right.”

The tears were
right there
. “What if they never get it right?”

Dan looked completely sincere when he said, “That’s kind of his specialty.”

Hope felt her heart thump and one tear finally escaped.

“If you take my Fiat, how will I get back to Sapphire Falls?” she asked.

Dan smiled and pushed his keys across the table. “Just so happens my truck knows the way.”

Four hours later, Hope pulled up in front of TJ’s house.

He was on the porch by the time she’d turned off the ignition, and by the time her feet hit the dirt, he was down the steps and standing on the front walk, feet braced apart, hands on his hips, waiting for her.

He didn’t look surprised to see her. In fact, he looked impatient even as she made her way across the grass and came to stand in front of him

“I want it noted that I didn’t call you, text you, call the cops or come after you,” he said.

“Noted.”

“But these were the longest three days of my life.”

Her heart tripped. “And you had your phone fully charged, on and with you every minute, didn’t you?”

He nodded, and she was astounded by how good it felt to know that he had been there. She could have called at any time, for any reason, and he would have done anything she asked.

She wasn’t going to have to call him very often, but there really was something about knowing she could that made her feel…loved.

Yep, she totally got where Michelle was coming from.

“I’m going to need to have a talk with Michelle,” she said. “We need some boundaries.”

“Agreed.”

“But sometimes she’s going to call you to pick her up and
sometimes
that will be okay.”

He smiled. “We’ll see.”

She spread her arms out. “So the thing is, I don’t know how to do this. How to not just want to slap some oil on a problem and be done with it.”

“I know. But I can show you.”

Her heart started pounding. She was going to do this. Her mom had been good at a lot of things. But she’d made some mistakes as well. The biggest in Hope’s opinion was when she’d driven away from Sapphire Falls.

It looked as if she was still learning things from Melody.

“I’ve learned about healing from the things my mom did right. And I’ve learned about love from the things she did wrong.”

TJ stepped close and cupped her cheek. “I love you, Sunshine.”

“I love you too,” she said past the tightness in her throat. “So, I’m here and I’m willing to try.”

“That’s all I need,” TJ said sincerely. “
Here
is what I do best.”

She laughed lightly at that. “That’s an understatement.”

“And everyone else? They know how to be here too,” he told her.

Even her dad. Kind of. She nodded. “I know.”

TJ shook his head. He looked pained. “I mean, they’ll be here all the time. In everything. All. The. Time.”

She grinned and moved in to wrap her arms around him. “Yeah, I know.”

His arms came around her, his hands stroking up and down her back. “So I was thinking. Maybe we could take the camper somewhere for a while. Alone. Far away. Maybe for a long while.”

She laughed. “You are never going to be able to fit in that camper. And besides, it’s Dan’s now.”

“Not that camper.”

She pulled back and looked up at him. “What do you mean?”

“
That
camper.”

She turned to look. A huge motorhome was rolling up the drive.

“Oh my God.”

“Well, I would never be able to fit in your camper.”

“Yeah,” she agreed distractedly. “But that thing is
huge
, TJ.”

“Oh, we both know that you can handle huge.”

She looked away from the RV and up at him. Her huge, hot farmer. Who was giving her a very wicked grin. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

He laughed and her heart expanded. God, she loved when he laughed.

“That baby has a king-size bed in the back.”

She shook her head in wonder. “You knew for sure I was coming back?” She liked that. She liked that he could sense some things about her too.

“I didn’t know for sure,” he said.

Oh. Okay, maybe she was still the more insightful one.

“I was coming to you.”

His answer was simple and he said it as if she should have known.

She teared up. Again. “I told you not to wait.”

“And I wasn’t. I wasn’t waiting. I gave you a few days to think things through and then I was coming to be with you.”

“To bring me back?”

“To be wherever you were.”

“But—” She was speechless at that. But only for a moment. “This is your home. Your farm. Your family.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like I wouldn’t have been able to ever come back. And there are plenty of people around here who need more to do,” he said dryly. “They’ve all somehow managed to find time to come over here every day since you left to give me a hard time about letting you go. I’m thinking they could put that free time to good use.”

She laughed and hugged him. “But they’re your
family
.”

“Yep. Which means I can’t get rid of them. So if I need a break, I have to be the one to leave.”

“Well, if you want to do some traveling, I’m your girl.”

He tipped her chin up. “You’re my girl no matter what.”

The RV’s horn started blaring and another car came speeding up the drive and pulled to a stop in front of the house, dust flying.

Hailey Conner was driving the car—a red sports car that matched her heels perfectly. She got out and Hope braced for her to head directly over and launch into a spiel about the clinic job.

Instead, she slammed the car door and stomped to the RV.

“Who’s in the RV?” Hope asked.

TJ grimaced. “Everyone.”

“What’s Hailey doing here?”

“Not sure. But my brother Ty is in the camper. Odds are he did something to piss her off.”

“What’s that about?” she asked as the door to the RV swung open and everyone stumbled out, talking and laughing, raving about the amenities and how horrible the gas mileage would be. The party included Delaney, Tucker, Joe, Phoebe and another good-looking guy who was absolutely related to TJ, Tucker and Travis.

“No one really knows,” TJ said as they watched Hailey head directly to Delaney. “They drive each other nuts. Ty constantly pokes at her, Hailey reacts every time.”

“Uh,” Hope said, watching Hailey breeze past Ty as if he didn’t exist and his resultant grin.

“Uh, what?” TJ asked, looking down. “Your amazing magical insights telling you something?”

She rolled her eyes. Her insights
were
kind of amazing sometimes. But in this case… “It’s obvious.”

“It is?”

“They’re sleeping together. Or want to be.”

TJ’s gaze snapped back to the scene in front of them. “No shit,” he muttered.

Hope thought it was all pretty clear.

“Someone is moving in next door to me,” Hailey said to Delaney.

Delaney looked at Tucker, then back to Hailey. “Yes, I know.”

“You sold the house and didn’t tell me?” Hailey demanded.

“The house?” Hope said to TJ.

“Delaney bought and flipped a house in town. Right next door to Hailey,” he explained.

“Okay, got it.” She focused back on the mini-drama.

“The buyer asked me not to say anything to anyone,” Delaney said. “I’m sorry.”

“You agreed to that?” Hailey asked.

Delaney shrugged.

“Well, they moved in in the middle of the night, I guess. I haven’t seen anyone yet, but there was a bunch of racket going on this morning at six a.m. I went over and knocked on the door but no one would answer.”

Delaney shot a look around at the group. “Sorry?” she offered.

“This is a very small town and I’m the mayor. How can I not know these things?” Hailey asked.

“The next time you go over, you should probably take brownies or something, don’t you think?” Ty asked. “Isn’t that the neighborly thing to do?”

“How do you know I didn’t?” Hailey asked him.

He snorted. “You’re not really the sweet, baked-goods kind of neighbor, I’m guessing.”

“And what kind do you think I am?”

“The you’re-making-a-lot-of-racket-at-six-a.m.-and-disturbing-me type,” Ty told her with a grin.

“What are you doing here anyway?” Hailey asked. “Don’t you live in
Denver
?”

“Sapphire Falls will always be home,” he said easily, giving her a charming smile.

Hope was positive that smile had caused lots of swooning.

Hailey Conner didn’t strike her as the swooning type.

“Yes, how could I forget with that huge new sign on the edge of town?” Hailey asked.

“You mean the one that reads
Home of Tyler Bennett, Olympic Silver Medalist
?” Ty asked.

“The one that the city council approved in spite of my protests,” Hailey said. “The one with the huge photo of you with your medals and that obnoxious silver font and the lights for at night. The one that looks like it’s some kind of shrine to you.
That
one.”

Ty nodded. “Oh, the one that the town had a fundraiser to put up. The one that all the kids wanted pictures in front of.”

Hailey turned away from him with an exasperated sigh to focus on Delaney instead. “I’m going to get it out of you.”

Delaney pressed her lips together and shook her head.

“He paid her extra not to tell anyone,” Tucker said.

Hailey narrowed her eyes. “He? It’s a he? Not a family?”