Coming Home

Chapter 9 - I love you

"Cassie, we're here."

I sat up, rubbing my eyes. It was still raining; Logan turned the engine off and yawned.

"I'm sorry, how long have you been driving?"

"Just over two hours," He nodded at the house we were parked outside. "That's Helen's house." Helen lived in a simple two story semi-detached house.

We walked up the gravelled path and rang the bell. There was no answer for a long minute, I looked at Logan.

"Do you think they're out?"He shook his head which I took as a no.

I heard some banging on the other side of the door before it was opened by a small, plump woman with bright red hair, wearing a flowery apron.

"I'm sorry about that dears, I was just putting my meat pie in the oven. Come in, come in. Was the traffic bad? You late!" she bustled us through the door into a small hall way, I turned sideways to give me more room in order to take my coat off. The movement brought my body up against Logan's, I could smell his aftershave and the damp leather of his jacket, and his breath caught my hair. I looked up at him and saw he was looking straight into my eyes and -.

"Here let me take your wet coat, its dripping all over the carpet!" She took my coat then led me through to the kitchen where she had obviously been cooking, the work surfaces was covered in flour and butter and egg. It was a small but cosy room, she had a bookcase filled with cookbooks against the far wall, and I noticed they were in alphabetical order just as I would have had them.

"Sorry about that mess! Come on, sit down." We sat next to each other on the stools as she went about cleaning up the kitchen.

"How did you know we were coming?" I didn't think that Logan had called ahead.

"Ah, so you must be Cassie. Yes, she is beautiful isn't she Logan? I've heard a lot about you" I had a feeling I was missing something here.

"So, your brother's missing? Jack?"I nodded.

"My husband will be back soon, you can tell him all about it." The timer on the oven buzzed.

"Oh, dinners ready!" As she dished out the pie a large man with a dark beard and wearing an expensive suit walked in.

"There you are, Harry! Look who's turned up!" Harry bent to give his wife a kiss on the cheek before facing us.

"Ah yes, we've been expecting you. So, Logan, tell me what's happened."We all stated eating as Logan explained to the couple about the disappearance of my Jack. Well, everyone else started eating, I felt sick with worry at the thought of my baby brother being taken. I needed to find him.

"So he's been missing for three weeks? Hmm, well I'll make a few calls. See what I can find."

I had some things I wanted to ask Logan later, like exactly why he expected this man to be any better at looking for my brother that the police had been.

"Are you not hungry dear?" I heard Helen ask me. I had been staring blankly at my plate as they finished their food. I had barely touched mine.

"Oh no, not really, it was really nice though. Sorry." She gave me a strange look, as if asking herself how anyone could not eat her meat pie.

"Not to worry, dear." She cleared the plates and took them to the sink. "Well, it's getting late. We would offer you to stay the night but we don't have a spare room. Why don't you try the hotel down the road? It busy this time of your but I'm sure they will have a room left."

We said our goodbyes, promising to come back tomorrow got back in Logan's truck.

"She's right; we'll have to try that hotel. It's too late to drive home then back again tomorrow."

The hotel was very old, the sign had letters missing and I noticed one or two broken windows. Helen was right, it was very busy.

"Two rooms please." Logan asked that grumpy looking man at the desk.

"Sorry, only got one room available." I shook my head at Logan when he went to pay for it.

"It's got a sofa in there one of you could sleep on." The man said, winking at me. I shuddered.

We had no other choice. Logan paid and we went up to the room. As we were walking up the stairs I noticed that Logan was lagging behind, which was unusual, it was usually me that couldn't keep up with him. I stopped and waited for him.

"Are you okay?" I asked when he had caught up with me.

"I'm fine, just tired." He was breathing rapidly and sweat glistened on his forehead.

"Logan, you have a fever. How long have you felt like this?" I put my hand against his forehead, which was burning hot.

"Come on." I took his arm and helped him to our room when he didn't answer me.

When we got there I found an old double bed and small red sofa. It was dark now so I turned on the lamp beside the bed.

"You take the bed; I'm fine on the sofa."

"No, we both take the bed."I sighed.

"Look, Logan, let's not fight tonight, you're not well. Just go to bed."

Surprisingly he didn't argue. I took a quick shower in the en-suite bathroom and came out to find Logan fast asleep in the bed. He was sweating and had thrown the blankets off himself in his sleep. I couldn't leave him like that. I wet a cloth from the bathroom and held it on his forehead.

He moaned and opened his eyes enough to see me.

"Cassie..."

"Shh, don't talk, you're not well. I'm worried about you Logan; you should have told me if you didn't feel well. We could have gone home."He laughed weakly.

"Just like you would have told me if you were sick?" He did have a point there; I was very stubborn and would have insisted I was fine if I were in his position.

He didn't say anything for a long time and I thought he had fallen asleep.

"Cassie. I love you."