Sanctuary(118)

"I suppose." she opened a cupboard.

Silence stretched between them, long and complete. The trickle of coffee as Jo poured it from pot to cup was loud as a waterfall. Sam shifted, his khakis hissing against the polished wood of the bench.

"Kate told me ... she told me."

"I imagined she would."

"Urn. You're feeling some better now."

"I'm feeling a great deal better."

"And the police, they're doing what they can do."

"Yes, what they can."

"I was thinking about it. It seems to me you should stay here for the next little while. Until it's settled and done, you shouldn't plan on going back to Charlotte and traveling like you do."

"I'd planned to stay, work here, for the next few weeks anyway."

"You should stay here, Jo Ellen, until it's settled and done."

Surprised at the firm tone, as close to an order as she could remember receiving from him since childhood, she turned, lifted her brows. "I don't live here. I live in Charlotte."

"You don't live in Charlotte," Sam said slowly, "until this is settled and done."

Her back went up, an automatic response. "I'm not having some wacko dictate my life. When I'm ready to go back, I'll go back."

"You won't leave Sanctuary until I say you can leave."

This time her mouth dropped open. "I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me right enough, Jo Ellen. Your cars have always been sharp and your understanding keen. You'll stay here until you're well enough, and it's safe enough for you to leave and go about your business."

"If I want to go tomorrow-"

"You won't," Sam interrupted. "I've got my mind set on it."

"You've got your mind set?" Stunned, she strode over to the table and scowled down at him. "You think you can just set your mind on something that has to do with me after all this time, and I'll just fall in leNo . I reckon you'll have to be planted in line and held there, like always. That's all I have to say." He wanted to escape, he wanted the quiet, but when he started to slide down the bench to get up, Jo slapped a hand onto the table to block him.

"It's not all I have to say. Apparently you've lost track of some time here. I'm twenty-seven years old."

"You'll be twenty-eight come November," he said mildly. "I know the ages of my children."

"And that makes you a sterling example of fatherhood?"

"No." His eyes stayed level with hers. "But there's no changing the fact that I'm yours just the same. You've done well enough for yourself, by yourself, up to now. But things have taken a turn. So you'll stay here, where there are those who can look out for you, for the next little while."

"Really?" Her eyes narrowed to slits. "Well, let me tell you just what I'm going to continue to do for myself, by myself."

"Good morning." Kate breezed in, all smiles. she'd had lier ear to the door for the last two minutes and calculated it was time to make an entrance. It pleased her to enter a room in that house and not find apathy or bitterness. Temper, at least, was clean.

"That coffee smells wonderful. I'm just dying for some."

In a calculated move, she brought a cup and the pot to the table, sliding in beside Sam before he could wriggle away. "just let me top this off for you, Sam. Jo, bring your cup on over here. I swear I don't know the last time we sat down for a quiet cup of coffee in the morning. Lord knows, after that chaos in the dining room last night, we need it."

"I was on my way out," Jo said stiffly.

"Well, honey, sit down and finish your coffee first. Brian'll be coming in soon enough to tell us all to seat. You look like you got a good night's sleep." Kate smiled brilliantly. "Your daddy and I were worried you'd be restless."

"There's no need to worry." Grudgingly, Jo got her coffee and brought it to the table. "Everything that can be done's being done. In fact, I'm feeling so much calmer about it all, I'm thinking about going back to Charlotte." she shot a challenging look at Sam. "Soon."

"That's fine, Jo, if you want to send the lot of us to an early grave with worry." Kate spoke mildly as she spooned sugar into her coffee.

"I don't see-"

"Of course you see," Kate interrupted. "You're just angry, and you have a right to be. But you don't have the right to take that anger out on those who love you. It's natural to do just that," Kate added with a smile, "but it's not right."

"That's not what I'm doing."

"Good." Kate patted her hand, as if the matter were settled. "You're planning to take some pictures today, I see." she glanced over at the camera bag Jo had set on the counter. "I got out that book that Nathan's father did on the island. Put it in the public parlor after I'd looked through it again. My, there are some pretty photographs in there."