If they’d been hosting company with anyone else in the house, he might have played at being a good husband: an arm wrapped around her on the couch, a fond touch of her thigh, massaging her feet after a long day, all the little domestic rituals to keep up appearances. But as Mary takes the seat beside him, Jon reaches out and accepts the glass of vodka and he’s careful to not overstep, not crowd into her space, not demand too much.

His knee bumps against hers where she’s settled. That’s all.

“Uneasy. Why?” he asks, simply. Pressing for more information; he finds it easier to nudge others than to be talkative himself.