Fiona’s mouth gave a little twitch before she let her hand drop, her eyes searching Sara’s face, waiting.

Sara cleared her throat, forced herself to speak. ‘We’re just trying to sort through our contingency plan, and I wondered if I could work more hours at the community centre. Just for a little while, until Matt gets back on his feet.’

Fiona was silent for a moment, her steady gaze making Sara uneasy, part of her wishing she hadn’t asked. It was a horrible feeling, being needy.

‘Look, I can’t think now,’ she said after what felt like an entire week. ‘My brain’s fuddled with all the school stuff I’ve been through at the meeting tonight. I need to switch gears, go into community centre mode.’ She put her hand back on Sara’s arm, reassurance that she wasn’t dismissing her request. ‘Why don’t we have a good chat about it tomorrow, when we’re fresh? You’re in early, aren’t you?’

Sara nodded. ‘Yeah. I should be there at half eight.’

‘And James is in tomorrow as well, isn’t he?’

‘He said he would be, just to sort out priorities for the next few days.’

James was the manager of the community centre, but after his father had suddenly been taken ill, he’d had to drastically cut his hours in order to keep an eye on the family sportswear business. Sara was covering for him while he was away, doing three half-days a week, but she was aware that some aspects of the work weren’t being kept up to date and felt sure she could persuade Fiona to give her more hours, if only for a short while.

Fiona smiled. ‘Perfect. I need to have a word with him anyway, just to see if he knows what his long-term plans are now that his dad’s obviously not well enough to carry on running the family firm. Let’s kill two birds with one stone and have a proper planning meeting. We can have a look at the finances and identify all the jobs we’ve had to drop since James has been on reduced hours. See exactly what needs doing and what we can afford.’

Sara leant against the wall, her body sagging with relief. ‘It would be such a help. I honestly don’t know how we’re going to manage.’

Fiona pulled out her phone and swiped and tapped. ‘There we are. It’s in the schedule and I’ve sent that to James, just so he knows.’ She gave Sara a quick smile. ‘We’ll sort something out, don’t you worry.’ She glanced at the stairs, car keys rattling in her hand. ‘Right, um… Shall I go and get Chelsea?’