Free Never Alone by Elizabeth Haynes

lad.’
    ‘Would you like a drink?’ Sarah asks. ‘Tea?’
    ‘That’d be great, thanks. If you were making one.’
    He pulls out a chair and sits at the dining table.
    ‘I thought you were house-sitting?’ she asks, because it’s patently obvious from the bag that he isn’t.
    ‘Ah,’ he says, ‘I got the dates wrong. Really awkward – it’s next weekend, not this weekend.’
    ‘And they can’t put you up in the meantime?’
    He pulls a face. ‘It seems they can’t, no.’
    She puts a mug on the table in front of him, and he wraps his hands around it. Already Sarah knows where this is heading, and at the same time as trying to fend it off, think of an excuse, she’s already feeling sorry for him. He’s only a little bit older than Louis, for God’s sake. She can’t turn him out, can she?
    ‘Have you got nowhere else to go?’
    He looks down into his tea forlornly. Doesn’t speak.
    ‘Will,’ Sarah says, ‘look at me.’
    He shakes his head, and doesn’t look up.
    A second later he covers his face with his hands.
    ‘Hey,’ she says. ‘It’s okay.’
    Sarah places a comforting hand on his upper arm, waits for him to recover. It takes some minutes. He doesn’t make a sound, doesn’t look up, but his shoulders tremble. Even through the hoodie he feels cold to the touch.
    Eventually he wipes his eyes roughly on his sleeve, breathes in, and presents her with a smile. ‘Sorry,’ he says. ‘Sorry about that.’
    ‘It’s okay,’ she says again.
    ‘Yeah,’ he goes on, brightly, ‘so I was wondering whether I could be really cheeky and sleep on your sofa for a couple of nights.’
    He doesn’t look at her while he asks, as if he is already expecting her to say no.
    ‘I don’t have anyone else I can ask,’ he says, ‘and I know it’s a big deal but I know you’ve got that separate cottage, and I wondered if you might need someone to – you know – keep an eye on it for you?’
    She goes to speak, but he hasn’t finished.
    ‘I’m good at fixing things, you know – I can do painting, decorating; I can wire up electrics. Whatever you need doing.’
    ‘I know you’re good at fixing things,’ Sarah says; ‘you helped me with the guttering when you stayed here before, remember?’
    ‘Aye, I did,’ he says, proudly, as if he’d forgotten.
    ‘But the thing is, Will, I’ve got a friend staying in the cottage at the moment. You met him, last weekend at the Royal Oak. So it’s not free. I’m sorry.’
    ‘Oh, right, I see,’ he says, but looks as if he doesn’t. A second later he drinks some of his tea and goes to stand up. ‘I’ll be on my way, then. I don’t want to trouble you, Sarah. You know you were always very kind to me.’
    ‘Hang on!’ Sarah says. ‘You don’t need to rush off.’
    She doesn’t particularly want him staying in the house with her, on her own, but she can’t imagine sending him out into thedarkness again with nowhere to go. But then, she’s not on her own, is she? Aiden is there. He is just a few yards away.
    ‘I can sleep in the workshop,’ he suggests. ‘I don’t mind. I won’t disturb anything.’
    ‘Don’t be daft,’ she says. ‘It’s not exactly warm out there.’
    ‘I’ve got my sleeping bag,’ he says. ‘Seriously, don’t worry – anything’s better than the bus shelter.’
    He says that as though he’s done it before. The thought of it makes Sarah want to weep.
    ‘Look,’ she says, ‘you can have the spare room tonight…’
    He looks up, overjoyed, his bright blue eyes shining, ‘Serious? Are you serious? Thank you, thank you so much…’
    ‘… but tomorrow we need to find you somewhere better, okay?’
    ‘Aye,’ he says, but looks doubtful again.
    ‘We’ll worry about that in the morning. Are you hungry?’
    He is, of course he is. And he needs a bath. While the oven’s warming up, Sarah goes upstairs to put clean sheets on the bed in the spare room, the one at the back of the house. She turns the radiator up