“It’s four thirty in the morning. I’m going to walk you out and I’m going to follow you home.”

Oddly enough, she wanted to touch him again. Already. Put her hand on his warm chest to see if she could feel the thump of his heart. What was that all about? “There’s no need. Really.”

“I’m going to make sure you arrive safely, Harper,” he said as though he couldn’t be talked out of it.

She remembered seeing Carl standing in the shadows when she arrived and felt reassured that she’d have Tobias with her on the way out. She didn’t like Uriah’s son any more than Tobias did, didn’t want to have him standing there, watching her leave. “Okay. Thank you.”

“What’d you drive over?” he asked.

“Terrance’s little car. With all the boxes that held the Christmas decorations out of the attic now, he can’t park in the garage, so it’s the easiest car to take without waking anyone.”

“How’d you get the keys? Don’t tell me he leaves them in the ignition.”

“No. Karoline and Terrance both keep their keys in the kitchen.” Their cars were too new to have an ignition like the kind he meant, anyway. All you had to do was press a button on the fob. But she didn’t say that. She didn’t want the disparity between their lifestyles to be an issue.

“That’s convenient, at least.” He started to go into the bathroom, but she stopped him.

“What’s that from?” she asked, eyeing the scar she’d been able to feel as her hands roved over him in the dark last night. It was so big she thought maybe he’d had a kidney transplant or something.

He turned in surprise. “What’s what from?”

“That scar on your lower back.”

His expression grew shuttered as he touched the raised flesh. “Oh, that. I got it in a fight when I was younger,” he said, sounding somewhat noncommittal.

She managed to find her panties, which had been kicked under the bed. “A fight? Must’ve been a bad one.”

He gave her an enigmatic smile. “Not too bad,” he said and closed the door.

Harper hesitated before she finished dressing. She didn’t want the night to end like this, hated the physical and emotional distance that had come between them, especially after having such a wonderful time together. But one glance at the clock on her phone and she knew she had to forget everything else and get back. Terrance woke up as early as six some mornings. If she didn’t want to be busted, she needed to sneak in before he was even beginning to stir.

Uriah knocked bright and early. After only three hours of sleep, Tobias was bleary-eyed when he let his landlord in.