Next of Kin by Sue Welfare Page A

Ryan and a couple of his mates stole a car. Stupid. I wanted to kill him. We’d got enough on our plates without anything else happening, and there he was off joy riding.’
    ‘So you had good reason to suspect that Ryan may have taken the jewellery from Anna’s room? You didn’t have a problem with believing that it was Ryan?’
    ‘I didn’t say I didn’t have a problem with it. I hated it. He’s an adult now, not a child anymore. He’s got no excuse for it. I didn’t want to believe it; I didn’t want him to be a thief and a liar. I felt like he had betrayed me, betrayed us.’
    ‘But you took the jewellery back?’
    ‘Yes. The next day on my way home from work. I told Anna that I’d found it in the garden shed; I told her about my mum’s stuff being in there too. I could see that she didn’t believe me, but you could see that she was glad to get her things back.’
    ‘Okay, and was this around the time that you first met Josh Phillips?’
    ‘Yes, I was working at the nursery, with my friend, Anessa. We were sorting out a delivery of plants when he came in. I can’t remember what he wanted now. He just sort of stopped and looked at me and then he grinned, and Anessa pointed at him and said, ‘I think you’ve got an admirer.’
    ‘You’re smiling, Sarah.’
    ‘I know. I’m sorry, I can’t help it. It felt like rain after a long drought. Josh was a breath of fresh air. I laughed and said maybe he was looking at her, and she said, “No way”. And then he came over and we just started talking. It just seemed so easy. I can’t remember what we talked about now, exactly, and then he told me he was a garden designer, and Anessa said she would leave me to help him – at which point I told him I was rubbish with plants. I think he thought I was joking.’
    ‘And he asked you out?’
    ‘Kind of. I’d only gone in for a half day to help Anessa with the delivery so he said he’d come back when I was finished and take me out for lunch. I said I’d cycled in, so he put my bike in the back of his truck.’
    ‘And you just went with him?’
    ‘I know, I suppose it was crazy but yes, it felt okay. It felt good. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at me.’
    ‘I find that hard to believe, Sarah.’
    ‘Okay, maybe it was a long time since I’d looked at anyone.’
    ‘But you looked at Josh Phillips?’
    ‘Yes I did. I really did.’

Chapter Five
     
    ‘God, this is so nice. What did you say it was again?’
    Josh grinned. ‘I’ve got no idea. Some sort of goulash, I think. You have to take potluck here. It’s always the same. They do three starters, three main courses and three desserts.’
    Sarah spooned the last chunk of meat into her mouth. ‘The same three things?’
    ‘No, always seasonal. And the food’s always been really good every time I’ve been in. I eat here a lot. ’
    ‘I can see why,’ she said, tearing a hunk of bread from the newly baked loaf the waitress had set down in the middle of their table.
    They’d taken the window seat in a little café in an alleyway a stone’s throw from the market square. The cafe was squeezed in between an upmarket dress shop and a place selling second hand books. It was long and narrow and set with bench tables, and it was busy. Most of the tables were full, full with people sharing with strangers, tucked in elbow to elbow. At the table next to them a group of Chinese tourists were busy taking pictures of each other.
    Josh smiled and, leaning in closer, wiped something from her chin. ‘There we go,’ he said. ‘That’s better.’
    ‘Gravy?’
    He nodded.
    Sarah blushed. His touch made her feel hot, and she giggled. ‘Thank you. Sorry, I was ravenous.’
    ‘You’re welcome,’ he said. ‘Do you live locally?’
    ‘Not that far away, in Maudsley Terrace. It’s just off Victoria Road. Other side of the river to Jesus Green?’
    Josh nodded and mopped up the last of the juices from his own bowl. ‘I think I know where you