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‘Leave it, Mitch. They’re just kids. It’s not worth it. Just take us home.’
*
Mitch had been busy during my absence. There was a plate piled high with buttered toast on my kitchen table, but I was more interested in the mug of steaming hot coffee.
‘How is she?’ he asked, sinking his teeth into a slice of toast.
‘Still asleep,’ I confirmed. ‘I’ve placed two bottles of water by her bed with “Drink Me” post-its stuck on, and a bucket on the floor that probably doesn’t need to have any instructions.’
Mitch smiled grimly.
I’d climbed into the back of the Chevrolet to sit beside Hope on our journey home, keeping my arms securely fastened around her slight frame, not entirely sure if that was for her comfort or mine. Her head was already drooping with exhaustion, but before I could allow her to sleep, I had to make sure that Ryan and Chloe knew she was safe. I held out my phone to her and was rewarded with a look of pure terror.
‘Youhaveto phone them, Hope. They need to know you’re safe.’
She began plucking obsessively at a loose thread on her fashionably ripped jeans. ‘They already think I am,’ she mumbled.
‘Where exactly do they think you’re spending the night, Hope?’ I pressed, already sure I’d worked out the answer to that one.
‘With you,’ Hope admitted miserably, lifting eyes that were awash with tears to meet mine. ‘I told them Cathy’s mum was dropping me off at yours after the cinema,’ she confessed woefully. ‘I’m sorry I lied, Maddie. I’m sorry about everything.’
‘We’ll talk about this tomorrow,’ I said, which was more to give me time to work out what the hell I was supposed to say, than giving her a reprieve.
I met Mitch’s gaze in the Chevy’s rear-view mirror and caught his look of sympathy. I very much doubted that Sam would ever have got himself into this kind of a scrape. He seemed much too sensible.
I tightened my hold around her, and Hope had laid her head on my shoulder. She was fast asleep before we were even halfway home. Although she murmured softly, she didn’t stir, not even when Mitch had gently lifted her from the back seat and carried her into the second bedroom, setting her down on the bed as though she weighed nothing more than a child.
The coffee Mitch made was potent. I could smell it in the air before I lifted the mug to my lips, and the kick it gave confirmed he had found the bottle of Cognac tucked away at the back of the cupboard.
I reached mindlessly for one of the slices of toast, realising with surprise that I was suddenly ravenous, which was an odd discovery to make at three o’clock in the morning.
‘You must be absolutely exhausted,’ I apologised, as I watched him attempt to stifle a yawn. ‘Why don’t you crash here for the rest of the night instead of driving home?’
As the owner of the flat, Mitch obviously knew exactly how many bedrooms there were in the property, and that staying here would mean sharing one of them. Presumably mine.
‘I’m going to spend the night in with Hope,’ I added on a rush, ‘in case she wakes up and needs me.’ I felt foolish that I needed to qualify my offer to make sure he realised I hadn’t just asked him to share my bed.
‘No, I really should get back,’ he said, reaching for another piece of toast and showing no signs of wanting to leave.
‘I can’t thank you enough for everything you did tonight, Mitch. You were incredible.’
He smiled gently and shook his head. Neither of us had turned on the overhead lamp, so the kitchen was lit only by the soft glow from the cupboard lights. It gave the room an unexpected intimacy.
‘I didn’t do anything except drive the car. The rest was all you.’ His words warmed me even more than the Cognac had done. ‘It was like watching an Attenborough documentary, where the tigress fiercely defends her cub. You didn’t even let me bust down the bathroom door, and you should know that’s number two on my bucket list.’
I laughed. ‘What’s number one?’
He paused for a second before replying, and I knew with absolute certainty that he’d changed his mind about what he was going to say at the last moment.
‘Having someone yell at me to “follow that car” of course,’ he grinned.
I laughed softly, anxious not to wake Hope, which was probably highly unlikely unless I sounded a klaxon right beside her.
Mitch got to his feet and I was still trying to think of a way of adequately thanking him when his phone rang. I glanced at the kitchen clock; it was an unlikely time of day for anyone to be calling for a chat.
I busied myself by collecting up our mugs and dirty plates and slotting them into the dishwasher, trying very hard not to listen in to his side of the conversation, but as he was only on the other side of the kitchen, it was practically impossible.
‘No,’ he said, his voice warm. ‘Everything’s okay. We’re back at Maddie’s now. I’ll be leaving soon. Try and get back to sleep.’
