Second Time's the Charm

“It won’t take me long,” Lillie assured him. “I know what I like.”

Was she talking about him?

“You’re sounding better.” He hadn’t really meant to say that out loud, but it was better than telling her that his body was seriously feeling her. Which was the thought at the forefront of his mind at the moment.

Get control of yourself, man.

“I am feeling better. Thank you.”

Loosening the drawstring at the waist of his thin cotton pajama bottoms, Jon looked at the garish cartoon faces splashed in all directions across his legs. Abe had grabbed at the tacky pajamas with chocolate-smeared hands when they’d been at the big-box store, and Jon had felt he had to buy them.

“I didn’t do anything,” he told her. And if she knew what he wanted to do, she’d probably be calling her sheriff friend instead of thanking Jon.

“Yeah, you did. I can’t really explain it, but...I’m in a better mood now than before you called.”

The damned waistband across his hips got tighter.

“I’m sorry.” Lillie’s voice faded a bit. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

He couldn’t go backward. He should. But he couldn’t.

“I’m not sorry,” he said, giving up on pretending that Lillie Henderson only mattered because of Abe. “It’s the same way with me. Pretty much every time we talk.”

“It is?”

“Yes.”

“So what does this mean?”

“That we’re friends,” he said. And then added, “I hope.”

“I hope so, too.”

“Good.” Closing his laptop he settled back into his pillows and grinned at the ceiling. “So, now that we’re officially friends, can you tell me what had you so down earlier?”

Her silence stretched long enough to risk ruining the moment.

“I’m not asking you to compromise client privilege or anything,” he assured her. “I just...care...if you’ve had a bad day.”

“I’m mostly just tired,” she said. “And tonight I found myself dealing with a situation that took me back down memory lane.”

“A good lane or a bad one?”

“I’m not sure,” she said, sounding far away. “Maybe both. Crazy, huh?”

“Not at all.”

“You ever feel that way? Like you miss what once was, but don’t ever want to go back? And then you find yourself wondering if this or that had been different, if you’d feel differently about going back?”

&

nbsp; “It’s natural to feel nostalgic about things.” There wasn’t much about his past that he missed. But she was obviously feeling nostalgic and this wasn’t about him. “Tell me one thing you’d go back to if something had been different.”

The request met with total silence.

Because he was beginning to suspect that, with Lillie, reticence didn’t necessarily mean that her reply was none of his business, Jon said, “Okay, tell me something you miss.”

“Spending time with my parents.” Her response was immediate. And reality bore down on him again.