Mack pushed away from the counter and approached Flora slowly. She took her hand and held it lightly. “Because since the first moment we met, and it was only for a few minutes, I’ve never been able to forget you. When I was lying in jail with the lights off, your face, your beautiful but scared face, used to be here in my head. I won’t talk about that night until you’re ready, but I need to explain. I tried to find out if you had made a police report, and nobody could find anything. Then through sheer luck I turn up next door, and you are everything I thought you’d be—kind, sweet—but I don’t want you to be alone any more. I want you to have people to lean on.”

Flora could hardly take in a breath. Mack had thought about her that whole time they were apart?

Mack took a step closer and caressed Flora’s cheek again. “When you are friends with a Sharkey, then you have a family of friends to look out for you.”

Was it wrong to feel safe if that safety came from a person, a whole family of people, that others saw as criminal? Because she didn’t. For the first time in her life, Flora didn’t feel alone.

Her grandpa was a great man and loved her, but he didn’t understand her mental issues, and certainly didn’t have the same commanding persona that gave out a bubble of safety.

Flora leaned into Mack’s hand before pulling away quickly, confused by feelings she was experiencing. Now that she’d experienced the intense feeling of Mack’s touch while she was cutting her hair and giving her a massage, she was on one hand greedy for more, but on the other scared of how it felt.

“I better get the food in the oven,” Flora said as she hurried to the fridge.

“Can I help with anything?” Mack said.

Flora lifted the lasagne out of the fridge. “Um…you could put the glasses and cutlery out on the table.”

“No problem.” Mack stopped speaking and stared at the uncooked lasagne. “Wait, you made it from scratch?”

“Of course. Why?”

“When you asked me my favourite food, I didn’t expect you to go to a lot of trouble.”

Flora placed the dish on top of the cooker. “I like to cook—besides, look at all you’ve done for me. It’ll be the first time someone apart from my own family has tasted my cooking.”

“I can’t wait.” Mack smiled. “Where are the glasses kept?”

Flora pointed across the kitchen. “That one over there.”