Helping Sarah

Chapter 22

Michael

My head swung fully round to stare at Sarah. My mouth opened and closed a few times before I scrambled to temper what had come out sounding almost like an order. "Er, I mean, you're welcome to stay here for a few days, both of you. Until we've dealt with Lenny and you're safe again."

She looked into her coffee and chewed her lip, in the same way as I had seen Charlie do, and I could all but see the battle she fought in her expression. Caution won out.

"We can't," she said. "I can't. I have to work."

"You can do that here." I turned back to Charlie before I gave in to the temptation to grab Sarah's hand and start pleading. I held up a banana and an apple. "Which one do you want with your yoghurt?"

"Banna," he replied, his legs swinging and his heels thumping against the drawers beneath the worktop.

I peeled the fruit as I glanced at Sarah again. I made sure to keep my voice even so she wouldn't hear how badly I wanted this. "You can use my office here to work in. There's plenty of room and that way you can work without worrying about Lenny."

Cutting the banana into slices over the bowl, I then reached into the fridge beside me and took out the yoghurt and juice, and poured both for Charlie.

The kitchen was silent except for the sounds of the fridge opening and closing again, and the drawer when I found a spoon. I looked behind me and found Sarah staring at me with her lips parted and a look in her eyes I had no other word for than fascinated.

"How did you do that?" she asked.

"Do what?"

Her head started moving from side to side as she gestured with her cup to her son who was already eating. "Usually, when I do it, the slices are either too big or too small, and if I pour the yoghurt over them he wants the banana slices on top."

"And if you put the banana on top, he wants them beneath?"

She rolled her eyes.

Charlie only grinned beneath the smear of yoghurt around his mouth and kicked his feet.

"Stay," I told her again. Softer this time. Because we hadn't settled it yet and I really wanted them to. "Here. Please."

The curve of Sarah's lips flattened. "I don't want to disturb you."

She already had.

I picked up my mug again. It was either that or clasp her hands and in her present garb that was not a good idea. I would only want to hug and touch and stroke more of her. More of all that pale skin on display.

It wasn't just the skin on her cheeks that looked so very soft and it wasn't just there she had freckles. A few were scattered over her chest, over the swell of her breasts visible over the thin cotton of her top.

Filling my lungs to the point of pain, I took a sip of the hot coffee and forced my thoughts – and my eyes – in the opposite direction. I wanted Sarah and Charlie to stay. Mainly because they would be safer here, but also because it was right. It felt right.

I was still processing the nightmare that had happened last night. The memory of the fire was enough to make my nostrils flare and my hands clench around my mug. I had double-checked all the smoke detectors in the house when we'd arrived here last night, and had still found it hard to fall asleep. Knowing that Sarah and Charlie were just down the corridor, safe and unharmed, had helped.

I looked at Sarah. "You won't disturb me."

"Charlie will."

"No, he won't. Will you, young man?"