Coming Home

Chapter 35 - Enchanting Words

Time didn't matter when I was at Logan's house. Jack and I could do what we wanted, when we wanted. One day Jack asked me if I wanted to go out and make a snowman with him. I was about to say no, I had to wash up and try and work out if I could afford to pay the rent this month, when I realised I didn't need to do any of that. I was at Logan's and that was all taken care of. And so I said yes and we played for hours in the snow, building snowmen and making snow angles. In a way I was glad that Logan was ill and that Geoff had called me, otherwise I would have never had a chance to have fun with Jack, without worrying about everything else.

We got up for breakfast every morning, all of us sat around the large dining table, feasting on fresh fruit, toast, and bagels - whatever we wanted. Geoff and Jack sat one side and Logan (when he felt well enough) and I the other. Jack and I would listen intently to another funny story Geoff had suddenly remembered, I watch Jack smile and giggle like the child he was and I sent Geoff a grateful smile. And every morning, Logan would shuffle his chair as close as possible to mine and as I listened to Geoff's tale his nimble fingers would gently trace patterns and words on my back.

At the speed Logan was recovering I knew it was only a matter of time before Jack and I would have to leave this safe haven and go back to the cold, bleak flat that I tried to make our home. To say I didn't dread going back there would be a lie. The thought of being lonely, hungry and freezing cold again often kept me awake at night, I didn't speak of my worries to anyone, although from what Logan had said about his dreams, maybe he knew a little of it already.

It took me almost two weeks before I noticed that Logan's Mum wasn't here. Jack had begged to go to a new adventure park that had recently opened and today Geoff finally took him, saying he was driving right past anyway so it made sense. The house was quiet without them and that evening I found Logan in his study, sat in the armchair by the fire, reading a book.

"What are you reading?"

"Nothing interesting, a book about law that Geoff lent me."

"I don't know how you can read something so boring," I laughed.

He lent back in the chair and set the book aside, "Come here." When I hesitated he held out a hand and said, "Cass, please."

I walked slowly forward and sat in his lap; he pulled me against his chest and rested his head on my shoulder. It felt so intimate, sitting together in the firelight. I tried not to lean against his wound; I knew it still hurt him, although he tried not to show it.

For most of my adult life I had always had Logan. He had always been there for me, and I for him. I knew him better than anyone else in the world, maybe even better than I knew Jack or myself. No matter what Logan said, I knew we could never be only friends. We had been through too much together to be just friends. Any yet, we were not even 'a couple'. Whenever we were together we couldn't help laughing about things that only we would understand, we couldn't help touching or wanting to be close to one other. It was natural for us. So sitting like this with Logan felt normal and I knew for him it meant nothing more than if I was stood in the opposite corner of the room, instead of on his lap.

 

"Logan, where's your Mum? I haven't seen her..." I felt his body tense up against me.