Page 3 of Lawson & Jill

“Good. I hate glitter.”

As they stopped outside a room, the man nodded at Law. “Thanks for finding my wayward student. Your room is on the left up ahead. They’re good people. Hope it helps. If not, you can come play with glitter.” He smiled and ushered Kenny inside.

Law wondered if the woman he’d noticed liked playing with glitter. Anything was better than thinking about the upcoming disembowelment.

Cut it out, Thorne, you agreed to this, God knows nothing else is working.

* * *

Jill looked up from her normal seat next to the window and saw the hot guy who’d been talking to one of the little boys from the art class. He had a presence about him, and everybody turned to look at him as he stepped inside the room.

Is he lost?

“Are you here for the Grief Support Group?” Lesley, the group coordinator, asked kindly.

He gave a stoic nod, but not before Jill saw an almost imperceptible wince. Damn. He belonged here—some way or somehow, he’d been through something. But Jill would bet herself a Coke that he wouldn’t last more than one session.

She stared at him from under her bangs, hiding her gaze. He was wearing a black t-shirt that wasn’t too tight but showed off muscled forearms and wide shoulders. His brown hair was cut short, accenting his sharp jaw. Add in the sturdy work boots and the way he dominated the room, she guessed that he was a first responder or military.

“Why don’t you take a seat next to the window?” Lesley suggested. “If you don’t feel like talking right away, don’t worry, that’s normal. We’ll get to introductions after our session. Right now, we’re listening to Beth tell us some good news.”

The hot guy took a seat next to Jill and gave her a brief smile. It might have been fast, but it was potent. Then his focus switched to Beth.

Jill liked Beth. She was glad that something good was happening for her finally. It had been a year since her fiancé had died.

Jill frowned when she felt the vibration coming from inside her purse where it rested against her calf. If it was the office coordinator again, she was going to come unglued. If it was her boss, she was going to throttle her. Seriously, everything was handled and they both knew it.

She mentally ran through her work checklist and was almost at the end when people started clapping. She looked around and saw Beth smiling brightly. Darn-it, once again she’d spaced on what was going on in the session, same as the last four times she’d come.

“Caught you,” the man next to her whispered.

Jill turned her head and locked eyes with a knowing blue gaze. She felt the blood rushing to her cheeks, but she didn’t know if it was because he obviously knew that she’d zoned out, or because she was the focus of such intensity.

Can I bluff my way out of this?

“You tuned out when your phone vibrated.” His voice wafted over her like smoke. He didn’t quite smile, but a dimple showed to the left of his mouth. Jill shivered and thought But it’s eighty degrees in here!

“I want to share,” Ned Rangle spoke up.

“What can I expect?” Hot Guy asked. His lips barely moved.

Jill turned so she could brush something off the windowsill while whispering a reply so quietly nobody but the man next to her could hear. “Buckle up,” she warned softly.

Ned was a sweet older gentleman, whose ninety-year-old mom had passed just over two years ago. He was very open about the fact that his friends and family would no longer listen to him talk about ‘Precious Mama’, so that’s why he came here. Every time he came to a group session, Lesley would let him have the floor for ten minutes to tell everyone about PM’s final meal, the clothes she’d picked out to be buried in, the color of the flowers on top of her coffin, and the exact words that he’d said at her memorial service. Everyone had tried to coax him to remember things about her life and take joy in that, but he was unable to move on. Jill knew that Lesley had suggested professional help to Ned, but that had gone in one ear and out the other. So, here they were, once again left with Ned’s ten-minute soliloquy known as Precious Mama’s Final Rest.

Halfway through, Jill felt her purse vibrate again. If she’d had a life other than work, this might’ve been someone else, someone she actually wanted to talk to. Heck, maybe it’s a telemarketer she thought hopefully. Maybe they were trying to sell her a vacation timeshare in Tahiti—that sounded nice. She’d had a layover in Hawaii once on her way to Australia for business, but did that really count as a vacation?

She came out of her trance when she heard Lesley pipe up. “Now would be a good time for you to introduce yourself. You can share as much or as little as you want to,” she addressed the hottie sitting beside Jill.

God, how long did I zone out this time?

She looked at him and he smirked back. Darn, nothing she seemed to do got past him.

“My name is Lawson Thorne, and I’m in the United States Marine Corps.”

There was an awkward pause as Lesley clearly expected him to say more. Jill jumped in.

“I’m Jill Keiler. I’m a transplant from Florida by way of Texas, and don’t believe everything they tell you about my birth state.”