Page 14 of All Autumn
“What about Connor?”
“What about him?”
“None of this was his fault. You need to let him go.”
Dylan turned his back on me and moved to Connor’s cell. “You want your phone call now?”
Was Dylan whispering something to Connor?
“Nope,” Connor said after a delay in answering the question. “This is the most peace I’ve had all day. I’ll call my brother after I finish my nap.”
“Hey, guys, what’s going on?” I needed a tin cup to bang on the bars.
“Not a thing,” Dylan said. He unlocked my cell door. “You’re free to go.”
“You need to let Connor go, too.” I walked over to his cell. “I’ll bail you out.” He let out a snore, a very fake one. “Fine. Stay here and rot, for all I care.” But I did care. He’d stayed by my side since I’d almost killed him this morning . . . yesterday morning? And what had I done for him? Besides almost killing him? Landed him in jail, that’s what. Some friend I was.
“You could bail us out,” Ted, or maybe Dick, said. I never could keep them straight.
“Maybe next time.” I followed Dylan down the hall to his office.
Jenn jumped up from the chair she was sitting in. “Are you okay?” She pulled me into a tight hug.
“Yeah.” And much to my embarrassment, I burst into tears. Again. I was tired of crying, but the wounds were still raw.
What kind of husband cheated on you, and then had the gall to charge you with breaking and entering when you refused to laugh off hislittlemistake? The rotten kind, just like my father. Not only had he been a rotten husband—still was, actually, since my mother kept taking him back—he hadn’t been the greatest dad in the world, either.
My judgment in the opposite sex can’t be trusted. That’s it. You’re done with men. Do you hear me, Autumn? Done. I wished I were Catholic so I could go be a nun, unless there were rules against joining a convent if you’ve already had sex. I’d have to google that later.
Jenn caressed my back. “Let’s get you out of here, sweetie.”
“I’m all for that.”
“Jenny’s going to take you to our apartment for the rest of the night,” Dylan said. “Oh, and I have your samples.”
“Really?” I lifted my teary face from Jenn’s shoulders. “How’d you manage that?”
He shrugged. “I have my ways.”
“You’re a good man, Dylan Conrad.” And he was. Blue Ridge Valley had lucked out when he’d decided to quit his job as a vice detective in Chicago to come to our little town as police chief. Although after learning his story, I didn’t blame him for wanting to come to a place where he could find peace. And he’d found it in both the valley and Jenn.
Jenn tugged the knit cap from my head. “I don’t think you need this anymore, since your cat burglar days are officially over.”
I snorted. “Yeah, I think I’ll keep my day job. I pretty much suck at cat burglaring.”
“Go on, get out of here, you two.” Dylan put his hand on Jenn’s butt, giving her a push.
“Copping a feel, there, Chief?” she said, then squeezed his butt, copping her own feel.
That was what I wanted, what I thought I’d had with Brian. To be totally in love and loved that way back, to know that there was no other woman in the world for him but me.
Not only did I suck at being a cat burglar, but obviously at choosing who to fall in love with.
8
~ Connor ~
“What’s up?” I asked after taking a seat in Dylan’s office. When he’d mouthedstay behindto me before he freed Autumn, I knew he wanted to talk to me privately.
