No One But You (Silver Springs #2)(52)

“What’s going on?” she asked when she found him standing in the living room, gazing out the large picture window.

All the lights were off in the house. Obviously, he wanted to be able to see what might be happening in the front yard and, possibly, the highway beyond.

“Nothing,” he replied.

“Then why are you still up? You’ve got to be even more tired than I am.”

“The night’s not over yet.”

“What do you mean?”

“The police will be coming. They’ll need to get a statement from you.”

“I already told Sly what I saw and heard.”

Dawson grimaced. “You don’t think he’ll be the investigating officer, do you?”

“Who can say? If he’s the one who set the fire, he’ll certainly lobby for the job. He’d be stupid not to.”

“If that happens, you’ll have to complain, try to get someone else. You can’t let him investigate.”

Raising any sort of question about his integrity would piss Sly off so badly she doubted they’d ever be able to have a civil word with each other again. But what did he expect? He’d gone way too far, had forced her into a corner. She had to fight back. It wasn’t as if he’d been allowing their divorce to proceed, anyway.

“I will.” Even though it would make her life more difficult. For sure he’d seek custody of Jayden at that point. “I’m just hoping whoever will be investigating will wait until morning to question me. I’m not sure I’m up for it right now.”

“Even if that happens, Sly will come by tonight—if only to see whether you’re here instead of at a motel or somewhere else.”

Of course he would. Had she not been so frantic, so shocked and upset, she would’ve been expecting him, too. “That’s what you’re waiting for,” she said.

“Aren’t you?” he asked in surprise.

She sighed. “I’ve been too distraught to even think about it. But now that you mention it... I can see him coming over. He wouldn’t miss an opportunity to make my life difficult—and I’m sure you’re now on the same short list I am.”

He shoved a hand through his hair, which was sticking up as if he’d done the same thing many times already tonight. “You haven’t heard from him?”

She hadn’t checked her phone. She’d been so grateful to get away from the melee and have some quiet time in which to recover that she’d shoved her phone in her purse and left it there. She was dying to know if any of her stuff could be saved, but, at the same time, she was afraid she’d hear the opposite—that the firefighters hadn’t been able to salvage anything.

She wasn’t sure she could take that kind of news right now. “One sec.”

She went into the kitchen, where she’d set her purse on the counter. “Nothing,” she called back when she’d pulled out her phone. No missed calls. No texts. Did that mean the blaze had grown out of control? Was Sly and everyone still there, caught up in the emergency? Was Maude’s house in danger?

“This is a bad sign,” she said as she returned to the living room with her phone in hand.

Dawson turned to face her. “What’s a bad sign?”

“That he hasn’t tried to reach me. That makes me wonder if my entire house is burning to the ground—with everything I own inside it.”

“It’s natural to be worried, but try not to jump to any conclusions.”

How could she not? “I feel bad for...for interrupting your life,” she said. “I know you’re under a lot of pressure to move Angela out of that facility, and to get the farm up and running—”

“This won’t stop me,” he interrupted.

“I don’t even want it to delay you. I’ll help in the fields tomorrow.”

“Don’t you work at the diner?”

“No. Saturday’s my day off, remember?”

“How can they spare you? Isn’t that a busy day for the restaurant?”

“The busiest, but Petra can’t watch Jayden. She volunteers at her church on Saturdays, so they always give me Saturday off.”

“Why can’t his father watch him? I mean, not tomorrow. Sly’s working late tonight. But he should be available some Saturdays.”

She nibbled at her bottom lip while trying to decide how much to say about her ex’s parenting. “You’d think so.”

“Have you ever tried to arrange it with him?”

“No.”

“Because you don’t want to deal with him?”

“Not only that. He’s not very good with Jayden,” she admitted.

A car passed on the highway. Dawson fell silent as he watched it but returned to the conversation the moment it went by without turning in. “Jayden’s Sly’s son, right? He’s not from another relationship.”

“I’ve never been with anyone else.”

“How old is Sly? Your age?”

“No, he’s your age. Two years older than me.”

He leaned one shoulder against the wall, still keeping a vigilant watch on the drive while he spoke. “Why didn’t you go off to college? Give yourself some time before settling down?”