Jules couldn’t even be mad about it. Vivian looked exhausted, nearly faint on her feet. She also didn’t want Jules to get distracted, so there was no point in asking if she was okay. Better just to call the car and ride in silence to the townhouse.

The silence was oddly tense tonight. She wasn’t sure why. She and Vivian hadn’t had a disagreement; Jules had done everything right all day long. But the air in the back seat felt suffocating with all kinds of things unsaid.

Jules was probably imagining it. What was wrong with her? She was tired too, had endured a long couple of weeks, and she was still wrung out with inappropriate jealousy over an interest Vivian might not even have in some guy. And even if she did, it wasn’t Jules’s business to be jealous in the first place, as she’d told herself a million times already.

All of this tension was just in Jules’s head. She was projecting it onto everything. So what if they weren’t talking to each other in the car? Vivian didn’t have anything to say. That was all. She had to be far more tired than Jules was.

Jimmy stopped the car at the curb, and Jules and Vivian headed into the townhouse.

Vivian’s shoulders were as straight and proudly set as ever, but she was moving more slowly.

They both stepped into the darkened hallway. Jules turned on the hall light and helped Vivian out of her coat. Vivian didn’t say anything, but she did give Jules a long look. Her own face was expressionless.

Jules normally would have fumbled for something to say. Not now. Now, for some reason, after that quiet car ride and in this quiet house, no words would come to her. She just looked right back at Vivian and thought about that peachy ring around her mouth, then her brain shut down in self-defense.

“You look tired,” Vivian said quietly. “Get some sleep. I…need you rested.”

That would be an easy need to fill. Jules had no idea how much longer she could stand upright. “Of course.”

For a moment, something flickered in Vivian’s eyes. Jules couldn’t identify it, but whatever it was, it seemed to make Vivian open her mouth again.

Then Vivian snapped her mouth shut, turned around, and headed for the stairway without another word.

Jules removed her own coat and hung it in the hall closet, deliberately taking her time. When she reached the foot of the stairs, Vivian had already ascended them. By the time Jules got to the second floor, Vivian had shut her bedroom door.

Well…good. Jules needed rest too. Her shoulders alone seemed to weigh two hundred pounds.