Helping Sarah

Chapter 24

Michael

"What?"

Sarah stared at me with her mouth open, but for once my mind didn't need to scramble to catch up with my words. The idea might have formed in the same moment I'd spoken it, but I liked the idea.

Probably more than I should.

"A boyfriend's house, I mean." I walked back and halted right before her, looked into her wide coffee eyes. "You could tell them you've temporarily moved into your boyfriend's house while you consider if your flat is safe enough for you and Charlie, or if you want to find someplace else to live."

She blinked at me, and didn't look entirely sold on the idea.

All right, she didn't look at all sold on it. Her cheeks were pale and her lips were still parted, and I quickly continued before she could flat out refuse.

"I could pretend to be your boyfriend. In public, I mean. It might even make Lenny back off too. I don't mind doing it."

Okay, those last words, those my mind would most likely have told me to dial back the begging in if it had been given a chance to consider them.

Even if I wanted to not just be Sarah's friend, there was no need to let her know exactly how much I wanted to be more to her. But the role of her boyfriend was one I would dearly like to try out, and if, along the way, Sarah thought I fit in the role, no one would hear a peep of a complaint from me.

The more time I spent with her, the more I liked her. The more attracted to her I became. She was amazing. Beautiful. Kind. A wonderful mother. I wanted to kiss her and hold her and make her laugh and talk to her and just be with her.

Even if I feared what getting to know her better would do to me and to my attraction. So far we had spoken mostly about difficult things; Lenny, her husband, the fire, and those were bad enough. Once we moved onto more mundane topics and I learnt what she liked, what made her laugh and what made her eyes dance, I would be in serious trouble. It would be – more than it already was – a struggle to step back from her.

And I still had no idea if Sarah would ever look at me with a romantic interest.

There had been that moment in my kitchen this morning, when Sarah's eyes had been darker than usual and her lips parted as she had stared at me, the moment I was still thinking about. Just as I was still thinking about Sarah in her skimpy sleep attire and all that creamy skin exposed.

But it had been just that, a moment, and I dared not do anything that would ruin whatever attraction Sarah still wasn't entirely aware off and risk scaring her away.

"Boyfriend?" she repeated, a deep frown on her forehead. She sounded almost as if the word was foreign to her.

I shrugged and didn't reach for her hands. "Yeah, I'm not a bad catch."

"Michael–"

"Mummy, you want to play?"

Sarah looked down at Charlie between us. Neither of us had heard him leave the office or come back. He was struggling to hold up the largest box of Duplo I had been able to find.

She stared at it, blinked a few times before her eyes narrowed, and then looked at me again. "What is that?"

Bollocks. "Er. Duplo."

"And cars!" Charlie exclaimed, spilling the beans before I could think of the right words to explain, and then ran from the room.

"Where have you been?" Sarah asked.

"Er, to get a car seat," I told her. Then smiled. "We did, and the guy at the shop helped me install it, so all's good now."

One of her eyebrows lifted. A gesture that had to be some sort of secret code only expectant mothers were taught because both my mother and my sister had perfected that gesture too. It worked just as well now.