He was sprawled on the couch, in yesterday’s clothes, and seemed to be sleeping, his mouth hanging open and his breath noisy. His prosthesis lay on the floor next to the couch, near an empty bottle. There was an empty glass on the coffee table, and the ashtray was full of cigarette butts again. At least he didn’t appear to have broken anything this time. She took a tiny step; the floor creaked under her weight.

His eyes flew open; panicked, he struggled to sit up. But then he recognized her, and eased back down again. He gave her a bleary smile, and raised his hand to rub his temples. “My little housekeeper,” he said. “Come to set everything right.”

She eased into the room. The smell would have been horrible had he not left the side window open a crack; the sound of the rain was gentle in here. “It’s two-thirty in the afternoon,” she told him, taking on a forceful air despite her nerves. The sight of him waking was distressingly intimate. “I told you I was coming.”

“So you did,” he said, closing his eyes. “But I was having so damn much fun last night I didn’t stop till this morning.”

She stood still, arms folded, holding her breath to see what he would do. As she watched, he creaked up into a sitting position, then leaned against the sofa’s back, tilting his head back over the top of it.

“Christ,” he muttered.

Seeing him like this made her stomach ache. “Why are you doing this to yourself?” she blurted.

JJ looked at her then, and the sadness in his blue eyes made her heart stop for an instant. He creaked forward to pluck his cigarettes and lighter from the table. He lit one, inhaled, blew out smoke, then dropped the pack and lighter back onto the table. “I bet you don’t know what pretty legs you have,” he said.

Her eyes opened wide.

“I’m serious,” he said. “Did you ever just appreciate them? I hope you don’t mind me noticing.”

Dolly shook her head finally. “That’s all right,” she said. “It only makes sense you would notice things like that.”

He took a puff of his cigarette. “Look, just don’t tell your husband I said so. I didn’t mean anything by it.” But when he met her eyes, his look again belied his words.

Or was that just her unruly imagination talking? Stop it, she told herself. “Are you hungry?” she said. “I didn’t have a chance to get to the store yet, but I can go if you’d like.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, leaning back again. “I’m not hungry. I’ve got some of that ham and stuff you brought yesterday, anyway.”

“All right.”

“So you’re going to make me up one of the upstairs bedrooms today?”