Second Time's the Charm

“Home.”

Papa and Gayle had said he still lived in Scottsdale.

“Are you drinking?”

He’d never been a particularly heavy drinker.

“No. Though it would probably be better if I was. Help take the edge off.”

“What edge?”

“Tell me about him.”

Jon? How had he found out?

Jumping up from her chair, Lillie held the phone to her ear with one hand and packed up the last of her things with the other. It was time to go home. She could finish charting in the morning.

“Please, Lil. I know I’m scum for asking, but I have to know.”

Jon was the first man she’d been seriously interested in since the divorce. Had her failure to replace Kirk kept him secure? Was that what his recent change of heart was all about? Not an internal struggle, a coming to terms with who he was as a person, but a need to know that Lillie hadn’t replaced him?

“What do you want to know?” She wanted to know how Kirk had found out about Jon.

If he was spying on her, having her followed...

“Everything. I wasn’t there for any of our baby’s short life. It’s gotten to the point where I can’t even spend time with Ely because he’s such an acute reminder.”

Outside, alone in the dark, Lillie walked briskly toward her car.

Noticing a movement in the shadows, Lillie said, “Keep talking, Kirk. Just until I get to the car.”

There was movement again. Maybe just a tree, its branches rustling in the breeze.

There’d been another break-in the night before.

“Where are you?”

“Leaving work.”

“Is anyone else there?”

“Just the nurses and technicians on the night shift. No patients so far tonight, so no docs.” She was only a few yards from her car. And she knew that Kirk would call 9-1-1 immediately if?

“You shouldn’t be out alone this late. Especially not with those break-ins. It’s pitch-black outside. I heard there was just another one. They still haven’t caught the guy.”

Had the latest break-in made the Phoenix news? Or did he have an “in’” in Shelter Valley?

Her key fob in hand, Lillie pushed the automatic unlock and dived for the car handle. “I’m alone at night all the time,” she said, sliding onto her front seat, pulling the door shut behind her and hitting the automatic lock.

She was safe.

“If that was a barb aimed at me, it hit its mark.” Kirk’s voice had dropped another octave. “And was well deserved.”

That hadn’t been her intention. She didn’t have the energy to blast him.

“Okay, we’ve had a conversation. Are we done now?” Lillie asked, ready to put the car in gear and head... She hadn’t decided where yet. Probably home. Maybe to stop someplace for a salad. Or to deliver the zipper-and-button toddler pillow she’d asked Bonnie to order for her and that had come in that day.

“I need to know about him. Please, Lil.” His voice broke.