Page 31 of Unlikely Guardian

“Only that I’d become a workaholic those weeks before the coma.” Pressing her cane against the floor, she took a step inside and pulled in a deep breath. The place smelled like dust and lemon air freshener.

Probably a sicko metaphor for her life.

She went to her desk and opened the bottom file drawer. The folders were still there. Right where she’d left them. She pulled out the one that was marked Urgent and sat so she could study it. Or rather, study what was left in it. The file had once been huge, at least two inches thick, and now it contained less than a dozen pages. Someone had obviously removed the majority of the documents; after thumbing through the file, she decided the missing pages pertained to the investigation into her father’s activities.

Jason turned on the computer, pulled up one of the leather chairs and got to work, as well. “Should I remind you that the police have already been through all of this?” he quipped.

“Should I remind you that people, even cops, miss really obvious things when they look for evidence?” Lilly countered.

He gave her a flat look. “There’s a fine line between the lost art of sarcasm and being a smart-ass.” But the corner of his mouth lifted into a semismile when he said it. A smile that warmed her in places it shouldn’t have. Especially her heart.

Oh, sheez.

The man had dimples. What kind of defense could a woman have against those? Her twenty-nine-year-old brain had obviously regressed to that of a hormonally pumped teenager.

It was obviously time for a change of subject. And a change of attitude. Lilly knew just what it would take to do that. “By the way, I want to thank you for helping Megan adjust to being around me.”

Just like that, Jason’s semismile faded, and she watched by degrees as he closed down. Now he wasn’t just a cop, but the hard-nosed officer she’d come to know. Kissing and becoming aroused were okay. Ditto for light flirting. But talking about Megan was still touchy territory. Lilly wanted it to stay that way for a while. Until she got over her lust-fest for Jason. She needed that to make sure she kept her hands, and the rest of herself, off him.

“I think Megan’s getting used to me,” Lilly added.

“Yes.” Just a yes. It was practically a roadblock.

“Not Erica, though.” Lilly tested the waters. In fact, this was the first time she’d been able to discuss Erica with Jason, since the woman always seemed to be around. “She doesn’t like me.”

He shook his head. “It’s not that—”

“She’s possessive, I know,” Lilly interrupted.

“And she’s jealous.”

Okay, so Jason hadn’t closed down as much as she thought. Nor was he oblivious or blind to Erica’s feelings for him. “Just how much influence does Erica have over you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he snapped.

The water testing was over and she’d apparently jumped in headfirst. “Nothing sexual.” Lilly knew that now that she had seen the two of them together. That didn’t mean Erica was powerless in this weird quadrangle of a relationship. “It’s just when the time comes to work out Megan’s custody, I don’t want Erica to interfere.”

“She won’t,” he said gruffly. He didn’t add more. In fact, he didn’t even maintain eye contact. Instead he checked his watch. “I told the officers in the parking lot that we’d only be here an hour at the most.”

In others words, cut the custody chat, the flirting and any residual lusting and get down to the business at hand. She did. Lilly skimmed over a copy of the initial report that she’d sent to the police. The report that detailed some of her father’s shady dealings. There was nothing surprising about it. She remembered writing it, remembered the effect it had. In short, it had led to an investigation that had in turn led to Wayne Sandling and Raymond Klein’s disbarments. She’d crossed all the t’s. Dotted all the i’s.

So what if anything was missing?

“Have I overlooked something so obvious that it’s staring me right in the face?” she mumbled. “What if this isn’t connected to my father’s business?” The question was meant more for herself than Jason.

“You have another theory?” He moved closer. Probably to see what she was reading that had prompted her comment. But he also must have remembered what’d happened the last time they’d gotten close.

Jason moved back.

Lilly sighed.

“Road rage, perhaps?” she suggested. “Maybe I was in some kind of driver-to-driver altercation that night, and it turned bad.”

He made a sound of disagreement. “And this person is carrying a grudge after nineteen months?”

She turned toward him and lifted her eyebrow, a reminder of the grudge he’d carried all this time.

“Sarcasm,” he complained. “I’ve heard it’s a lost art form.”

---