Second Time's the Charm

Lifting one hand, he slid it up inside her scrub top. Cupping her waist, he ran his hand across her midsection, and then up and around to undo her bra.

“No strings attached,” he reminded her. “I’m not going to hold you to any promises you make tonight.” If he went down, he wasn’t taking her with him.

Or Abe, either.

He wasn’t going to run. Not anymore. He was innocent. He had a lawyer who wanted to help him. And he was going to go the course.

Because it was what he’d have Abe do, if his son was ever falsely accused. He couldn’t subject the little guy to a life on the run.

Or teach him that when life got tough, the thing to do was run.

Lillie’s faith in him, her willingness to stay regardless of the consequences, meant more than she’d ever know. She was giving him what he should have given himself.

Faith in himself. He was a good man. He knew it. And he had the right to live like it.

Moreover, so did his son.

He had until morning to live as a free man. After that, who knew? “God help me, if you’re willing, I need you to help me get through the night.”

“I’ve got news for you, Jon.”

He stopped.

“I need you to help me get through the night, too.”

Choked up, and turned on all at once, Jon pulled Lillie up on the couch on top of him, pressing his body upward into hers and covering her mouth at the same time.

Lifting her head, Lillie kissed his lips gently. “You’ve taken a vacant space inside me and filled me with life, Jon. You’ve changed everything about me for the better. Made my eyes see better. My ears hear better. I notice smells and tastes more acutely. That’s why I have to help you through this, no matter what.

“I don’t want tonight to be commitment-free. I want it to be our contract, our promise, to spend the rest of forever together.”

The unfamiliar lump in Jon’s throat made it hard for him to speak.

But he had to.

Because he loved her that much.

“I can’t sign on that line tonight.” He’d known the pain would be unbearable. “Not with the possibility of my being arrested. I can’t do that to you. I won’t do it to you. And if that means I sleep alone tonight, that’s okay. Tonight and every night. Because I will not have you spend your life as the wife of an Arizona state prison inmate.”

It wasn’t going to come to that. He hadn’t done anything wrong.

But life had a way of surprising him. And she was too precious for him to take a chance with her.

He’d waited too long to find her.

“Okay, Jon, you win,” she said, but the finality of her words didn’t match her tone. Or the sexy smile on her lips. “For tonight, it’s just sex. But tomorrow, I’m going to be right here. And the day after that, too. Until our forevers are here and we’re still together.”

Sounded to him like she’d just brought them right back to that contract, couched in different words, but Jon couldn’t afford to be picky.

Tonight he was a beggar. Not a chooser.

CHAPTER THIRTY

LILLIE WENT TO the door when the knock sounded early the next morning. Dressed in the cotton pajama pants and T-shirt she’d brought over with her and thrown on when Abraham woke up, she looked through the peephole, and wanted to bolt.

To grab Jon’s duffel and run out the back door with the two people she loved, who were currently in Abe’s room getting Abe’s diaper changed.

The knock sounded again.