"Please," I correct him.
"Can I *please* have a cheeseburger?"
Murphy grins. "One cheeseburger coming right up. And for you, Claire?"
"The same. Thank you."
"Tom, your usual?"
"Yes, please."
Murphy heads back to the kitchen, and suddenly it's just the three of us in the booth. Jackson is already opening one of his library books, making Rex walk across the pages, pointing out different dinosaurs.
Tom watches him with a small smile, then looks at me. "You okay?"
"I don't know," I admit. "This is all... a lot."
"I know. But you're doing great."
"Am I?" The words come out harsher than I intended. "Because from where I'm sitting, I'm completely dependent on the charity of strangers, and I still don't understand what any of you want from me."
Tom's expression doesn't change. "We don't want anything, Claire."
"Everyone wants something."
"Not everyone." He leans forward slightly. "Look, I know it's hard to trust. I get that. But sometimes people just help because it's the right thing to do. No strings. No hidden agenda. Just... helping."
I want to argue. Want to push back, to find the angle, to protect myself from whatever trap this must be. But Jackson chooses that moment to hold up his book, showing Tom a picture of a T-Rex.
"Look! This one has really big teeth!"
"Wow," Tom says, his attention shifting immediately to my son. "Those are some serious teeth. What does the book say about them?"
Jackson does his best to read a few words, slowly, sounding out the words. Tom listens like it's the most important thing in the world.
And something in me breaks.
Not in a bad way. In a way that feels like ice cracking, like something frozen finally starting to thaw. These people don't want anything from me. They're just... kind. That's all. Just genuinely, inexplicably kind.
I don't know how to accept that. Don't know how to let people in after so many years of isolation and control, but watching Tom listen to my son read about dinosaurs, watching Murphy bring us food and refuse payment, watching this whole town open up and welcome us without question...
Maybe I can learn.
Maybe, just maybe, we're finally safe.
Chapter 5 - Tom
What the hell am I doing?
The question loops through my mind as I watch Jackson take another bite of his burger, ketchup smearing across his chin. Claire reaches over with a napkin, wiping his face with the efficiency of a mother who's done this a thousand times. It's such a simple gesture, so ordinary, but something about it makes my chest ache.
I'm sitting in Murphy's at noon on a Wednesday, eating lunch with a woman I met yesterday and her four-year-old son, instead of doing any of the dozen things I should be doing. There's paperwork back at the office. One of the deputies texted me twice asking about the incident report from last week's bar fight. Someone called about teenagers loitering behind the hardware store again.
None of it seems important right now.
That's the problem. That's what I should be worried about.
I'm the sheriff of Blackwater Falls. This town depends on me to be focused, present, doing my job. Instead, I'm here, making job introductions and library visits, helping a stranger get settled like I have nothing better to do.
