Page 26 of Lawson & Jill

Chapter 8

Jill bit her nail as she read over Law’s shoulder. He made her entire workspace look small as he sat at her desk. Darn it, there had been more to the report than she’d realized. Law pushed back from the desk, looked at her, and frowned.

She sighed. “In my defense, after living in downtown Houston, it just never entered my head that there would be any real issues living in a gated community here in Perfectville.”

“You want to run that by me again?”

“Seriously, Lawson. Lorraine lived here in this little corner of Laguna Niguel for ten years, I never once heard of anything more serious than mail being stolen and that was just some high school kids. This place is locked up tighter than a drum.”

She felt energy pumping off him in waves. It wasn’t the type of energy that she’d had in mind when she’d changed her sheets earlier in the day.

“Combine this with the guy who was casing the place, and you have a problem.”

Jill sat down on the other chair in the room she’d turned into her office. “But why this house? It’s not the most expensive one here. Heck, it’s not even the most expensive one on the block. This makes no sense.”

The only thing that seemed to be going right was that she remembered to turn off the oven. She hated the idea that she was being targeted.

“It’s going to be all right,” Law assured her as he got up from his chair and held out his hand.

“What?”

“I’m hungry. You promised me food. You promised me beer,” he cajoled. “We’ll get this taken care of, don’t worry.”

She let him pull her up and followed him into the kitchen.

“Something smells good in here.”

“Potato skins with cheese and bacon. But because you’re also health-conscious, I have a platter of veggies to offset it. Of course, the lime offsets the calories in the Corona’s.”

“A woman after my own heart,” he smiled.

She went about serving up the food and the beer.

“How about I take you out tonight after we watch the show?” he said.

“Actually, I have a couple of steaks I thought we could grill.”

He gave her a long look. “I could be up for that.”

She sighed as she put her beer down and pushed her plate away from her. “I think there’s another problem besides the guy who came to my door and the alarm going off.”

Law set his beer down and looked at her.

“Okay, hit me.”

“Remember Lesley from the Grief Sessions at the rec center?”

He nodded.

“She called today. She wanted me to write a testimonial and then she mentioned a man trying to get ahold of me. He’s the husband of a former member of the group, so she gave him my name and contact info.”

Law sat up straighter.

“She told him where you lived?” His voice was sharp.

“No. At least I don’t think so. She didn’t mention that. I’m pretty sure she just gave him my name and number. Anyway, I think that I might have deleted his messages.”

“I don’t understand.”