Page 60 of Ruff and Tumble

“Because I’m going to give you mine.” He drove his hand into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. In a short space of time, he’d pulled up a full-color video of a very large and very well-lit living room. It was expensively furnished, although the puppy toys scattered around and the corner of a pristine white couch that had been eaten down to the stuffing displayed evidence of wear and tear. “You’ll notice that the person watching Philip this evening is your nanny. She charges inordinate rates, by the way. I had no idea you were so expensive.”

“She’s not.” Regina appeared at the doorway with a tight smile for Cole and a friendly nod for Hailey. “I told Velma to charge you double. She has a master’s degree in child psychology, Cole, and it took me months to find her. I forbid you from turning her into a glorified dog walker.”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Cole replied easily. He made a move as if to enter the hospital room, but Regina barred the door with her body.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice dropped to a low whisper. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Hailey wants to see Dad.”

Regina cast one look at Hailey and shook her head. “She does not. You dragged her here as a pretext.”

“True, but now that she’s come all this way, can you really slam the door in her face?”

Hailey had no qualms about what was expected of her. Cole’s sister was right about her being used as a pretext, and if any other man had pulled this kind of stunt, Hailey would have supported Regina to the end of the world and back again. But Cole had asked her to come because she had experience with this, because he couldn’t face it alone.

She knew that feeling too well to let him down now.

“We won’t stay long,” she promised. “We’ll be in and out before any damage can be done.”

“He’s not supposed to be here.” Regina glanced down at her daughter, who was fully absorbed in the live puppy feed, before crossing her arms and adopting a much firmer tone. “We talked about this, Cole. We agreed.”

“I don’t remember agreeing to anything.” Cole’s stance matched his sister’s. They were a formidable pair, tall and gorgeous and built like twin stone parapets. “He’s my dad, too, Reg. You can’t keep me out forever.”

“It’s not forever. It’s just until all this nonsense about the Kickoff Cup is done.”

“The nonsense about the Kickoff Cup willneverbe done. You know that better than anyone.”

Something about Cole’s tone, which was veering on the edge, caused Hailey to step up. “You might as well give in,” she said. Recalling Garrett’s words from that day in her office, she added, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Cole can be a bit of a drama queen when he doesn’t get his way.”

Next to her, Cole choked on what was either outrage or a laugh.

“Of course, you could leave us standing in the hallway, but I should warn you that there were a whole gaggle of people pretending not to wait for us when we got off the elevator. If you don’t let him in, he’s likely to have the whole hospital shuffling by. They’ll want pictures. Autographs.Conversations.”

She had no idea if it was the mention of Cole’s dramatic tendencies or the adoring fans that worked, but Regina relented with a sigh.

“Fine. You can go in.” She held up a finger in warning. “But make it a short visit, and don’t do anything to increase his blood pressure. I mean it, Cole. He’s not as strong as he looks.”

“Are any of us?” Cole returned.

It must have been a rhetorical question, because he waited just long enough to nudge Hailey before stepping through the door.

The first thing Hailey noticed was that her floral display wasn’t going to be noticeable among the many recovery gifts that had already been sent to Julian Bennett. Flowers, stuffed animals, balloons, and cards covered every bit of available space, turning an ordinarily dull room into what looked like a child’s birthday party. Even the blankets covering the bed were festive, with a colorful quilt that looked to be handmade spread over the top.

Hailey’s heart gave a lurch to see such an affectionate outpouring. Her own father hadn’t survived the ambulance ride, but she had vivid memories of sitting alone in an empty hallway, holding a cup of vending-machine coffee that had long grown cold. Every footstep down that hall had sounded like it echoed from miles away, every fluorescent bulb highlighting the stark white of her surroundings.

This was much better.

“Don’t say it,” Cole said as he stepped in to greet his parents. As if sensing Hailey’s hesitance, he put a hand on the small of her back and propelled her forward. “I know I’m not supposed to be here, but I came anyway. And I brought a present.”

Hailey held out the flowers, thinking it was just like a man to take credit for something he didn’t buy, when his mom opened her arms and pulled her in for a crushing hug.Crushingwas the only way to describe it, since both Hailey and the flowers were pressed so hard against Paula’s chest that neither of them survived the encounter. The flowers, because they lost almost their petals, and Hailey, because she couldn’t remember a time in her life when a woman had held her like that.

Like the room, like this whole family, it felt so warm and so right that it was all Hailey could do not to cry.

“She’s perfect,” Paula said and with such sincerity that Hailey believed her. “We need a fresh face after the parade of gloomy doctors and relatives shuffling through here. We only just got rid of Julian’s mother, and the Wegmores have been haunting us all week. Wouldn’t you know it? They booked a trip to France in April. That’s what we need—all those croissants and cassoulets added to the mix. I swear on everything I love, if Gertie takes to wearing a beret after this, I’m crossing her off next year’s Christmas list.”

Hailey gave a watery giggle, grateful that the older woman’s chatter gave her a moment to compose herself. It was ridiculous for her to be the one bursting into tears—it wasn’t her father lying in that bed, and it wasn’t her life that would forever be changed by his condition—but that didn’t seem to stop her.

“Stop hovering over the poor girl,” Julian called from the bed. Despite the various machines and tubes attached to him, he looked remarkably robust, as though he might jump up and start giving her football pointers at any second. “Come over here and tell me what you thought about Cole attempting to run the ball from the fifty-yard line on Sunday.”