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Quaid’s jaw was tight as he turned around. “I have to go down to the station. I’ll be back in a little while. Take the room closest to the bathroom. You should get some sleep.”
“I can come with you.” If he was meeting with the sheriff, it was likely because someone had been thrown in jail. She could help with the paperwork that came with bailing someone out.
He shook his head, all warmth gone. “No. You stay here. I’ll talk to you in the morning. Does Luna have food?”
“She already ate but I’ll have to get more in the morning.” She’d left a lot behind that she would have to deal with.
“I’ll get some from the station house.” He reached for his jacket. “They always have extra. Roxie and Armie bringtheir dogs in all the time. Feel free to use anything you need. There’s toiletries in the bathroom and snacks in the kitchen. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Is everything okay?” She hated him leaving like this. Something was obviously wrong.
“Everything is perfectly normal. Exactly the way I thought it would be,” he said, and walked out.
Well, it wasn’t normal for her. Not at all. She was supposed to be focused on herself, on fixing her problems, not taking on his.
And still she moved to the window and watched him get into his car, watched him pull away as the rain beat down softly on the windows.
Luna moved beside her, resting her head down on the windowsill as if she, too, was disappointed Quaid had left.
Jayna took a deep breath. It would be damn near impossible to sleep after the day she’d had. Despite the deep weariness she felt, her mind was still going over and over the fight she’d had with her mom. She would sit up all night thinking about what she was going to say to Sienna in the morning. The last thing she was going to do was give up on her sister. No matter what her mom said.
Her best—and worst—distraction was gone now, and she seriously doubted he would show up anytime soon and want to pick up where they left off.
But he had a lot of books. There were bookshelves on either side of the window, and unlike the shelves downstairs, these weren’t lined with scholarly legal tomes. She glanced through the titles. There were classics and then there was row after row of mysteries and thrillers.
Quaid Havery liked to read. She wouldn’t have guessed it. He hadn’t been interested in school when they were kids. He’d been into sports, and she’d been the kid with her nosein a book. But she would bet these were his books since she recognized some recent bestsellers.
She ran her fingers over the spines of books by Agatha Christie and David Baldacci and Gillian Flynn. He seemed to love Grisham. He had all of his books in hardcover.
And then there were several bound books, but these didn’t have names on the spine. They were bound in plain black, like the legal papers she used to have assistants bind together.
Jayna pulled one out, expecting to find Quaid’s legal papers bound into a couple of volumes.
The Man in the Black Hat
An Armand Landry Mystery
By Q. A. Havery
She stopped, holding the book in her hand.
Did Quaid Havery write mystery novels?
She pulled out the others and it appeared that Q. A. Havery had written at least five Armand Landry novels.
Oh, she should put that sucker back and walk away.
Except he had put them on the bookshelf. He’d also told her to use anything she needed, and she suddenly needed to read this book.
She picked upThe Man in the Black Hatand made her way back to her room, Luna following behind.
At least she had something to distract her. She climbed into bed with her dog and a book.
Life wasn’t so bad.
•••
He should have turned his phone off. Better yet, he should have thrown the sucker away because if he had, he could bein bed with Jayna Cardet instead of walking into the Papillon Sheriff’s Department in the middle of the damn night.
