AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sorry,” she murmured.
“It’s okay,” Chris said with a smile, and she believed him.
“Why don’t you have a seat, Sarah?” Her father asked. “I’ll go help your mother bring out the food.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Chris asked, rising to his feet.
Her father just waved for him to sit back down. As soon as Jim was in the kitchen, Chris turned back to Sarah.
“Alone at last,” he said with a wink. She blushed.
“Is that what you wanted? To get me all by myself?”
“Of course that’s what I wanted. That’s what I’ve always wanted, ever since the first time we talked.”
“And why’s that, Staff Sergeant Awesome?”
Chris laughed.
“You’re the best, Sarah, and if it’s not too forward, you’re even more beautiful in person.” She smiled and was trying to come up with a reasonable response when her parents reentered the room with the food. They sat down and her father said a quick prayer, then everyone dug in.
“This was my brother’s favorite dinner,” Sarah commented. Chris looked up at her quickly. His eyes suddenly looked haunted.
“He told me,” he said finally. “Whenever we’d be eating our MREs, trying to convince ourselves that they weren’t really that bad, Garrett would tell me all about his mom’s great cooking and how fantastic her sweet potatoes were.”
“Oh,” Rita waved her hand. “They aren’t that great.”
“They are, ma’am,” Chris said, and held up a sweet potato on the end of his fork. “They’re just as good as he promised.”
His eyes met Sarah’s again and for a quick second, she wondered what he meant by that. Chris had always been a sweet guy from what she could tell. A badass, to be sure, but also sweet. In some ways, he was very like her brother. In others, he was the exact opposite.
They ate dinner quietly and quickly, then Sarah and Chris went into the kitchen to do the dishes.
“Did you move back home?” He asked her.
“No, I live downtown,” she said. “I still work at the legal firm. My apartment is close to work.”
“Ah. I just assumed since you were here, that maybe you were living at home again.”
“Nope. I came over just to see you.”
“Well, don’t I feel special.”
“You are special.” She said quickly, but wished she could take the words back. She hadn’t meant to be weird, but she worried maybe she had made things a little awkward between them.
Chris was an airman: a decorated war veteran. She was just…her. Sarah spent her days filing paperwork and filling out paperwork and copying paperwork and preparing paperwork. Chris spent his days saving the world. He was a real life superhero.
“I’m nobody,” he said, and she looked up at him quickly.
“Don’t say things like that. You’re important, you know.”
“No,” he shook his head, scrubbing at a pan with the brush. “I’m no hero. Your brother…he was the hero, hon.”
“I miss him,” she said, almost in a whisper, but Chris heard her. He dropped the brush and the pan in the soapy water and turned to her. In silent invitation, he held his arms open, and she ran into them, placing her head against his broad chest.
Chris patted her hair and she cried for just a moment, wishing Garrett hadn’t died, wishing things were still normal and safe and comfortable.
“I know it’s only been a few months,” she said, “but sometimes I feel like the pain will never go away.”
