"So you think a living person is doing this?"
Darcy relaxed back on the couch in her own living room as Jon stretched out in the recliner. It was after seven o'clock now. Darcy had made sandwiches for dinner, and she and Jon and her mother had chatted and ate together. Her mom had only met Jon a few times before. It gave them a lot to talk about, much to Darcy's embarrassment.
"Yes," she answered his question. "I don't think this is a ghost anymore. I think someone is sneaking into Belinda's house, looking for this money she's supposed to have."
"So, a burglar."
"Looks that way." Darcy would almost prefer that it was a ghost. She knew how to deal with ghosts. Living criminals were Jon's specialty. "How about the burglaries in Oak Hollow? Are you any closer to finding the bad guys in your town?"
She grimaced as she said it. She hadn't meant to call Oak Hollow Jon's town, as if he didn't have a place here with her anymore. It had just slipped out.
He shrugged, either ignoring her comment or missing it. "I checked in on the case when I called to find out about Handyman Express. There's nothing new. Still no idea who's doing those crimes."
"Looks like they can't get along without you," Darcy said jokingly.
Immediately she wanted to stuff her foot in her mouth to keep herself from talking. It was like she just couldn't stop saying things that made it sound like she wanted him to leave again, even though nothing could be further from the truth.
He regarded her, then edged forward on the chair and steepled his hands on his knees. "We never really finished our discussion from lunch."
"No, we didn't." She held her breath. "I remember you said something about wanting to come back, though."
"It's…well, it's complicated."
Her heart sank. She folded her knees up to her chest defensively and waited for him to tear down the hope she had built up.
"I mean, how I feel about you isn't complicated," he tried to explain. "I feel like the worst mistake I've made, in a long line of bad mistakes, was leaving you. I was hurting at the time. I had just sent my sister to prison. I didn't know which way was up and it seemed like the best thing I could do was give myself some breathing space."
"Can you breathe again?" she asked, trying not to sound sarcastic.
"You might say that. Anyway. I know I should have stayed with you. That would have helped me a lot more than uprooting myself from you and Misty Hollow and the life I had started to build here."
Darcy nodded. She felt like a huge weight was about to drop. There was a lot more he hadn't said yet.
"The thing of it is," he said, rolling his hands so that the fingers interlocked, "I can't just quit my job out there. I wouldn't be able to support myself, let alone you, if I ended up quitting that position without a job to come back to here, or being able to find something else to do."
"Jon, I don't need you to support me. I own this house. I have a business that's doing very well. We're even selling books on the internet now. Did I tell you that? There's a couple of people right here in town who have an amazing talent for writing and I've put some of their stories out for sale. One of them has really taken off. You remember Pete Underwood? Him. Anyway. I don't need your money. And," she added quickly so that she wouldn't lose her nerve, "if you came back to live with me here I could support you."
He smiled, but she could see he wasn't sold on the idea of having his girlfriend be his main source of income. "We'll figure it out," he promised. "Just, give me some time with it."
She didn't want to give him time. She wanted him to fix this, right now, so that she would know everything would be all right between them. That's what she wanted. Instead, she did the mature thing and gave him his space.
Sometimes, she really hated being an adult.
"So what did your new police department know about this Handyman Express?" she said, unable to keep herself from being just a little bitter when she mentioned his new department.
"They confirmed that it's a business over in Oak Hollow," he answered, his eyes studying hers. "Run by a husband and wife team, Cassidy and Angela Whedon, out of their house. They didn't know much more than that. I have the phone number. I'll call tomorrow and set up an interview with them. I'll need to go into the police department for a while, anyway."
Darcy swallowed back the hot lump at the back of her throat. "I thought you might stay for a few days."
His smile was sweet and frustrating all at the same time. "You have to work tomorrow anyway, don't you? I promise I'll come back tomorrow night. After I've interviewed the Whedons."
Darcy decided that was the best offer she was going to get from him. For now, at least, and perhaps for a long time yet.
A black and white shape sauntered out from around the leg of Jon's chair and then jumped up onto his lap. Smudge the cat rubbed his head against Jon's chest, then curled up into his lap, purring loudly.
It was hard to say who was more surprised, Jon or Darcy. Ever since they had started dating, Smudge had tolerated Jon being in Darcy's house. At best, he avoided Jon, or regarded him with that steely indifference that cats managed so well.
Now, Smudge was cozying up to Jon, as if to say "Hey. This is where you belong. Trust the cat."
"He's never done this before," Jon said, echoing Darcy's thoughts.
"Maybe you should take it as a sign you belong here," Darcy said hopefully.
"Yeah," he conceded, "Maybe." But that was all he said about it.
They sat in silence for a long moment. Jon stroked Smudge's fur and the cat purred louder, looking at Darcy with lazy, half-closed eyes. She could read his feline expression like a book. "He's not so bad," Smudge was saying. "If you want to keep him, I suppose I'll let you."
She was going to give Smudge an extra big saucer of milk before bed. He deserved it.