Maren pressed her fingers to her mouth and didn’t try to stop the tears this time.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For telling me. She can stay the night,” she added softly. “As long as Camo needs.”
TWENTY-TWO
Juni was still soundasleep after they’d had dinner, and Maren didn’t want to disturb her—or Camo. Arden had promised to bring Juni back after breakfast, so Colin and Maren returned to the safehouse alone.
If walking into the house after their day in Lyons seemed quiet, coming back to the empty house at night felt even quieter. The two of them stood in the living room after the best evening he could remember in years, and Colin was acutely aware that Juni was not down the hall, Mac was not on duty, and there was absolutely no operational reason for either of them to be awake right now.
“I should probably get to bed,” Maren said, not quite meeting Colin’s gaze.
“Yeah.” Colin glanced toward the hall. “Me too.”
Neither of them moved.
After a moment, Maren sat down on the couch. Colin looked at the couch, looked at the hall, then sat down beside her.
They both stared at the middle distance for a second.
“That was a good evening,” Maren said.
“It was.”
“Arden’s a good cook.”
“Kyle grilled.”
Maren’s lips twitched. “Then Kyle’s a good cook.”
“He is.”
Maren tucked her feet up under her and looked at the dark window. Colin looked at his hands. Outside, an owl called once and went quiet.
“So,” Colin said. “You learned a lot about Sean tonight.”
“I did.”
“I noticed you didn’t talk much about Mira.”
Her jaw tightened for a fraction of a second. “That’s because I feel like I don’t know her anymore. I still don’t know how she met Sean. How long they were together. It could have been a single night or it could have been years. Though, I doubt it. After listening to Arden talk about him, he seemed like the kind of guy who would have told his friends about her if it was long-term or serious. Don’t you agree?”
“I do. Maybe he was protecting her.”
“Maybe.”
“So. What about you?”
Maren glanced at him. “Me?”
“Yeah. You didn’t leave anyone behind. When you left San Diego.” He kept his voice easy. Conversational. “You told your boss you were leaving town. No one else wondering where you went besides her?”
Maren smiled softly. “You mean like a boyfriend?”
“I wasn’t going to be that specific.”
“Hell no,” she said. “No boyfriend.”
“I’m surprised.”
