Jon studied her, found it curious that she wouldn’t meet his gaze.
Maybe she was just afraid of him now that he was the main suspect in a string of burglaries.
“I’d have thought you’d have been ready to get out of here as quickly as possible,” he told her.
She shook her head. “I need an explanation and now’s as good a time as any.”
He shrugged. It wasn’t as if he was going to sleep. “I need one, too.”
He saw her shocked look, as if she found it incredulous that he figured he deserved something from her, and he turned away. “You planning to stay the night?” Because he wasn’t going to be trapped there without a vehicle.
“I didn’t know when you’d be back so I stopped at my place for some things. I can sleep on the couch.”
He glanced over at her. She looked away.
Had the sheriff asked her to stay to keep an eye on him?
He knew full well that Sheriff Richards would have a volunteer posse keeping an eye on his every move until those prints came back from Phoenix. Jon was certain of that.
And considering that he thought Jon guilty, he would not have recommended that a woman spend the night in his home with him.
“I’m going to check on Abe.” He had to see his son. Dressed in his favorite pair of race-car pajamas, the little boy was on his side, two fingers hanging out of his mouth.
“I’ve got the monitor going,” Lillie whispered beside him, handing him his tablet. “I’ve been carrying it with me.”
He’d shown her how to turn on the software the first night she’d stayed with him.
He wanted to stay in the quiet room, listening to his son breathe. The small night-light under the crib gave the room an ethereal glow.
Nothing bad was going to happen in that room.
Unless he woke Abraham. He could have a tantrum like Lillie said. Or Abe might not want to go back to sleep.
Jon could go to bed, too. Wish Lillie good-night and lock himself in his room. It was clear he wasn’t going anywhere that night. He’d have to make his move early in the morning—when it would be safer to wake Abe.
But he wanted answers. Had she known all along he was a convict? Was that why she’d hidden her fortune from him?
Was she another Kate, toying with him?
Try as he might, he couldn’t make the puzzle piece fit.
He went to the kitchen. He still had more than half a bottle of the sparkling wine he’d bought a few days ago. It seemed like a lifetime had passed since then.
The stuff was flat. Jon didn’t really care. “You want a glass?” he asked Lillie, who was leaning against the corner of the wall leading into the kitchen, watching him.
“I guess,” she said.
Her hair was down but she hadn’t changed out of her scrubs. She always changed after work.
Was she still considering herself on the job, then? Was that what Abe had become to her?
Or was she just that upset?
For a second, he saw Lillie as he’d seen her in the wait
ing room that afternoon. Saw a woman who was hurt and shy and needing someone to do things for her, instead of always being the one who was taking care of others.
He took a seat at the small kitchen table. “I’m an ex-con.”