Page 36 of Obsession

“Maybe just this one time?”

Grudgingly Jace settled down in the bed, and Sam tucked the Dutch Boy quilt his mom had made under the boy’s chin. “Good night, sleep tight, buddy.”

“And don’t let the bedbugs bite,” Jace said with a giggle.

“See you in the morning.” Sam ruffled his hair and walked back to the living room. “You have a good kid there,” he said to his sister.

“Yeah. His dad is missing out on a lot.”

He studied his sister. She’d lost weight since the divorce, and fatigue in her slim face intensified the gauntness. “Are you sleeping okay?”

Her answer was a shrug as she stood. “As well as ever.”

Jenny picked up the folded towels and crossed the room. Tonight the limp she’d had since childhood was more pronounced. Another regret filled him with guilt. Standing all day in a classroom couldn’t be good for her, but teaching kindergarteners wasn’t a sit-down job. “Anything I can do to help?” he asked.

“You can put these away.” She handed him the towels. “And go see Dad.”

He flinched, her words hammering him. “Not happening,” he said, and took the towels to the linen closet. When he returned from the bathroom, she was waiting for him with arms crossed.

“Why not?”

“How can you ask after the way he treated Mom ... and us?”

“He’s changed, Sam. Big-time. He owns a real estate brokerage firm now, and he’s helping Mom out with her bills. Me too when I need it.”

“If he hadn’t been the way he was, you wouldn’t be worried about money in the first place. You would’ve found a decent sort to marry instead of—”

“And I wouldn’t have Jace, would I?”

She had him there, but when she started to say something else, he held up his hand. “I don’t want to talk about dear old Dad tonight. Or ever.”

“All right already. But he’s a good man now.” Like always, Jenny had to get in the last word. She tilted her head. “Why were you at Emma Winters’s apartment?”

This subject was no better. “Someone took a shot at her last night, and I’ve been assigned to make sure she gets back and forth to Mount Locust safely.”

“Why you?”

“She’s a ranger. The shooting happened on park service land. And—”

“Wait. When you called you said there’d been a shooting—was that different than the shooting last night?”

“Yes.”

“Two nights in a row?” Her eyes widened. “I’m assuming she wasn’t hit last night, but how about tonight?”

“No. We’d both stooped to pick up the key she dropped, and the bullet crashed into the doorframe.”

“You could’ve been hit. You need to hand her off to someone else.”

“I wasn’t, and I’m not. Right now she’s my responsibility,” he said.

“Why were you so late getting her home?”

“We’d stopped to get something to eat after getting her hand wrapped at the clinic.”

“Wait. You took her out to eat?” She shook her head. “I can’t believe you’ve forgiven Emma Winters for the way she treated you.”

“I forgave her a long time ago. Doesn’t mean I’m opening my heart to her again.” He didn’t understand why Jenny had it in for Emma the way she did. Well, he did, but it’d been ten years since Emma had given his ring back.

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