Chapter 14

"Christopher?"

"What, baby."

"Can I wear anything I want to tonight?"

"Of course, my house is your house and you are free to express and explore your wonder as you see fit."

"Can I wear just my panties and top?"

"Of course, baby, whatever you want. I will turn up the heat a little." Christopher says it without even thinking twice about it. And then as an after thought he adds, "But have one of my shirts nearby in case someone knocks on the door."

"Okay," Sarah says, as she flies up the stairs with a divine smile on her pretty face.

Christopher yells to her. "But take a bath first."

"I am," she says, as she comes down with a towel and her clothes for the night.

Christopher is watching the news when she comes out of the bathroom. She is wearing her white with pink trim spaghetti strap three quarters top and her pink with white flowers bikini underwear.

After she steadies her nerves, she walks over and stands in front of Christopher between his legs. He looks at her, grateful that she is sharing such beauty and trust with him, and with a big smile on his face he says, "Do your homework so we can get to our book."

Sarah gets her schoolwork and sits down on the edge of the couch between his legs and hands him the hairbrush. As Sarah is doing her homework and Christopher is brushing her hair and noticing that the news is saying it is going to snow pretty heavily tomorrow, a bond of intimacy is forming and a healing force unlike any they have ever experienced before has begun.

She has had tragedy in her young life, and he saw so much ugliness in the war. However, now they are both surrounded in a beauty that they don't fully understand, but is gracing them in its sweet saffron glow of grandeur nonetheless.

"There. Done." she says, as she puts the last period on her writing homework with emphasis. "I have to go to the bathroom and then we can start our book."

As she is walking towards the bathroom, Christopher turns the television off because he needs silence when he is writing. Just as Sarah shuts the bathroom door there is a knock at the front door. Without thinking about it, Christopher gets up and answers the door.

"Hi, Christopher, remember me from church? My name is Karen Wilson and Nan asked me to stop by to see if you guys needed anything. Is Sarah here?"

"Of course, she is in the bathroom." As he is saying that it dawns on him what she is wearing, and he looks over and sees the black Harley shirt lying across the back of the chair. "She is..."

Sarah hears the knock and opens the bathroom door an inch. As soon as she hears the person at the door she knows who it is. She looks down at herself and says, "Darn it." Then all of a sudden an idea dawns upon her like life unto creation.

"She is, uh..." All of a sudden he hears the water come on. "Taking a bath. Why don't you come on in and wait."

"Thank you."

"Please have a seat. Would you like a drink of soda or water, or maybe a beer?"

But she doesn't take a seat, she walks towards the kitchen taking in all that there is to see. A minute later Sarah comes out with wet hair all wrapped up in a towel. "Oh, Karen, hi. Let me get dressed and I'll be right down."

"Okay, take your time."

Sarah goes flying upstairs. Karen goes walking back into the living room and is doing a circle, being nosey. While she is looking at the fireplace, Christopher walks over to the raised platform before the stairs, and as Sarah comes running down in her pink winter pajamas he puts out his left hand in front of his chest so Karen can't see. As Sarah is walking by she gives him a sly five with a slide, all the while they are looking at each other trying to hide their smiles. The look in Sarah's eyes is one of strength, warmth and intelligence. It is at this point that Christopher decides he would trust Sarah in combat.

"Hi, Karen, what brings you by?" Sarah says, going over and giving her a hug.

"Nan asked me to stop by to see if you two needed anything at all."

"No, we're good. I just finished my homework and took a quick bath, and now we are going to start our book we are going to write together."

"Nan told me. I'm very impressed." She glances up at Christopher and smiles.

"Please have a seat."

"I don't want to stop you guys from getting to your project. I just wanted to check in and to let you know that the school system has called a snow day for tomorrow, so there will be no school tomorrow. It looks like this might be the last big snowstorm of the season so it might even go into Thursday, who knows maybe even Friday."

"I take it you have been to the hospital?"

"Yes, I've been there for the last hour. She is feeling better it, appears."

"Do you know what time we can pick her up tomorrow?"

"They may keep her an extra day. If you want, I can take Sarah for the day if she is too much for you."

"Too much for me? I hope you are kidding! She is the sweetest, politest sweetheart I have ever met, and it is a pleasure having her around, but if she wants to go with you then of course she's welcome to do so." He is not really surprised that Nan has someone checking up on him. If the situation was reversed, he's not sure he would trust Sarah to someone he's only known for not even two months.

Karen looks to Sarah, but Sarah says, "No, I want to stay with Christopher. I'm his little buddy and he's my knight-in-shining-armor." Both Karen and Christopher look at her with smiles on their faces.

"Okay. Well, it has started to snow already so I guess I should be getting home."

"I'm impressed."

"For what, Mister Turner?"

Christopher smiles because he now knows that something is really up, and most likely a background check has been run on him. "That you would come out into a snow storm to make sure Sarah is safe."

"I didn't..."

Christopher holds up his hand and says, "Karen, please, I would do the exact same thing to make sure this darling girl is well."

Karen smiles and shakes his hand. "Okay. Here is my number. Call me if you need anything. Goodnight, sweetheart." Karen says, giving Sarah a hug.

Sarah and Christopher escort her out and are standing on the front porch as Karen gets in her car and drives off. They all give a final wave. Christopher puts his arm around Sarah's shoulder and they walk inside.

Christopher kneels before her with pride and admiration in his brown eyes. "That was some very impressive thinking, young lady."

"Thank you." She smiles with a beaming glory.

"I'm going to start a fire and then we will begin our book."

As Christopher is doing that, Sarah pulls off her pajamas and then walks over to Christopher. "Help me get my shirt off, please." He does it and she has on her adorable three-quarters spaghetti strap top on underneath.