As they walked towards the corn dog stand, she slowed then stopped. There was something about the man ahead of them. He was walking towards them, watching her intently.
His dark hair was sprinkled liberally with gray. He had a handsome face. One of those men that got better looking as they aged. He wore a neatly pressed shirt and slacks. His clothes seemed too formal for a fair. And yet, he wasn’t exactly out of place.
As he drew closer, she gasped then looked up at Linc.
“I wasn’t sure whether to tell you,” Linc said quietly to her. “Don’t be mad at me.”
“You found him?”
“Yeah, baby. I didn’t want to let you know until I’d talked to him.”
He meant he’d wanted to make sure that Harry wasn’t going to hurt Marisol.
“He wants to see me,” she stated.
“Baby, as soon as I told him everything Rosalind revealed to us, he wanted to be on the first plane to Montana. Then when I told him about your life with her, well, he thought that you wouldn’t want to see him.”
Harry had stopped by now, he was watching them, obviously waiting for her to come to him.
“What?” she gasped. “Of course I want to see him.”
“He thinks you might be upset with him. Angry that he didn’t fight harder for you. That he took Rosalind’s word that you wanted nothing to do with him.”
“She told him that?” Pain lashed at her insides.
“Yep. She did her best to keep the two of you apart. But you have the opportunity to be together now. Go to him, baby. He’s hurting as much as you. If not more. He has a lot of guilt.”
She stepped forward, shaky at first but then as she grew closer to Harry, she gathered up speed and threw herself at him. He opened his arms, catching her, pulling her tight against him and rocking her gently.
“Oh, my girl. My darling girl.”
He even smelled the same. Sounded the same. He still had that accent.
She pulled back and looked up at him, tears dripping down her cheeks. “Harry.”
He ran his hand over her hair. “Look how beautiful you are. My precious girl. I’m so sorry. So sorry I left you with that viper.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“It was,” he insisted. “I listened to her lies. I shouldn’t have. I thought about finding you so many times. I sent investigators to check on you, but they always said you were fine.”
“She never did anything to me in public.”
He closed his eyes in pain. “I’m so sorry, banana. So sorry.”
She giggled at the old nickname, given to her because she’d gone through a stage of only wanting to eat bananas and nothing else. Harry had had their housekeeper make her all sorts of banana concoctions.
“I should have checked in on you myself. But it hurt too much to see you. I love you so much, banana.”
“Love you too, Harry. I’ve missed you.”
“Well, maybe we can make up for lost time, huh?” he asked.
She smiled, tears streaming down her face. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
Harry looked over and she turned to see Linc approach with a smile. Harry moved her to his side as he reached out his hand. “You must be Linc.”
Linc shook his hand. “Sir.”