He held her gaze and waited.
“This isn’t what you think. It’s a coincidence. Or, I like to think, a nudge from Ryan. I didn’t know she was your grandmother when I took the job, and she didn’t know about us until after she’d interviewed me. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Spencer said in a tight voice.
“Well, do you believe me?” She put a hand on one hip.
“Yes, but that’s more of a reason for you to leave with me now.” His arm was protectively back around her waist. “You see the good in everyone, but this time it’s not there. She duped you. Tell her, Delinda. Look her right in the eye and tell her the truth, if someone like you even knows how to.”
Delinda’s eyes narrowed, and she looked down.
No. Hailey shook her head vehemently and went to kneel beside Delinda’s chair. “I’m the one who found the ad. I’m the one who called you. Tell him.”
Delinda refused to meet her gaze.
Hailey took Delinda’s hand in hers. “I know why you blocked me from getting the SmartKart job. You were afraid I would leave you. What you need to see, Delinda, is that what you do to keep people with you is actually what drives them away. I’ve seen the good in you. No one could change our lives as much as you have and not be a good person. Don’t shut Spencer out. He won’t ever see the loving side of you if you let your pride stop you from showing it to him. Tell him you missed him. Tell him you’re sorry. Show him the real you.”
Delinda’s lips pressed together in a straight line, then she said, “Ask him why you were offered that job in the first place. Are you as honest as you think everyone around you should be, Spencer? Are you?”
Hailey stood and slowly turned toward Spencer. It was his turn to look guilty. “Did you get me the job at SmartKart?”
Confusion and anger blazed in Spencer’s eyes. “You said you felt trapped in your job. I wanted to help you.”
Hailey’s emotions roller-coastered. She looked down at Delinda. “I did feel trapped but taking the job at SmartKart would have changed that. We weren’t going anywhere. Skye and I were still going to be here with you. Did you know about us before the interview? How? You need to be honest with me, Delinda.”
Looking like a child who was cornered into admitting a wrongdoing, Delinda said, “I might have learned your name from his mother. She told me you were the only woman Spencer ever loved.” She glared at both of them. “Was it so wrong to give you a chance to get it right?”
“But I found the ad. It was on the seat next to me on the bus.” Hailey’s chest constricted painfully. “Did you have someone put it there?”
“I only did what I thought was the best for both of you.”
Hailey swayed on her feet. “I feel so stupid. I knew it was too easy, too convenient, but I wanted to believe Ryan was somehow looking out for us. All this time, I felt like I was being guided, and I was.”
Spencer put a hand on her lower back. “You were manipulated, Hailey—that’s what she does. I wish I could spare you from the truth, but you need to see her for who she really is.”
Delinda rose to her feet. “If you weren’t so stubborn, Spencer, I wouldn’t have had to—”
“Don’t put this on me,” Spencer growled.
“It is your fault. You won’t forgive me for being the one who told you that Dereck wasn’t your biological father. I’ve said I’m sorry. I’m eighty-one. Are you waiting for me to die before you forgive me?”
“Enough,” Hailey said in a tone that shocked Spencer and Delinda into silence. “You’re both right, and you’re both so wrong I can’t begin to sort it out. Delinda, I’m grateful for all you’ve done for Skye, but I am so disappointed in you right now I can hardly look at you. You’re being childish and spiteful when you should be apologetic and comforting. Spencer, the way you’re attacking Delinda is just wrong. She’s old and scared she might die without you in her life. Is there no compassion in you? She didn’t make your mother have an affair. She’s not the one who lied to you about who your father was. You’re both hurting, but this is wrong.”
They each took a step toward Hailey, but she raised her hands in the air. “I don’t want to leave here, Delinda. We both know how hard Skye will take it, but if the two of you can’t resolve this, I will. It’s unhealthy. Spencer, I would love to say that your problems with Delinda are none of my business, but I refuse to bring this hate into my life—or Skye’s. You’re better than this. Or you’re not and you’re right—I see good where there is none. I’m going back to the guesthouse. Don’t follow me. Either of you.”
Hailey walked out of the solarium with her head held high but her heart breaking. Tears freely flowed down her cheeks. She didn’t try to conceal them from Michael when he came to open the door for her.
“No matter what happens next, you said what they needed to hear and you said it from a place of love. It’s up to them now.”
Hailey nodded and wiped at her cheeks. “I don’t want to leave, Michael, but even if it hurts Skye in the short run, it might be better for her in the long run. What I saw in there wasn’t love.”
Michael stood with the door open. “Don’t give up hope just yet.”
His words echoed in her as she walked back to the guesthouse. Thankfully, Mrs. Holihen had already left with Skye, which meant it was perfectly okay for Hailey to flop down on her bed and have a good cry. She was just about to do that when a whimper from the other room caught her attention.
Hope beckoned.
Hailey opened the crate, let her out the back door to relieve herself, then picked her up for a snuggle. “How do you feel about moving?”
Hope buried her face in the nook of Hailey’s arm.
“Yeah, me, too. But you know what, Hope? You’re a Tiverton now, and we’re survivors. Every decision we make teaches Skye something. I could have left with Spencer. I love him . . . I do. Even when he makes me so angry, I could slap him. He’s upset, and he has a reason to be, but guess what? Life sucks sometimes. Look at you: you just lost your whole damn family because we thought you were cute. But what are you going to do? Bite me? Bite everyone around you? Would that bring them back? No.”
Hope looked up at Hailey with big sad eyes.
“See, it’s depressing when you look at life that way, isn’t it? It’s why I can’t go there with them. I don’t want their anger. A drowning person pulls others down with them. I’m a swimmer, Hope.”
Pawing at Hailey’s chest, Hope whimpered again.
“Of course we may end up alone at the end of this, but I refuse to let that decide my path. Skye and I will make a life for ourselves—here or somewhere else. And we’ll be okay. Tivertons don’t give up. We don’t let fear win.”
Hope twirled in a circle on Hailey’s lap and yapped happily.
“Exactly.”