Another Paradise | T Shelby

THIRTY EIGHT - A CHANGE IN THE TIDE

Blair couldn't remember the last time she'd slept as well as she had done when she woke up the following morning.

There was frost on the windows and the cold air froze her skin as she lifted her arms out from underneath the duvet, shivering as she adjusted her eyes to the sunrise peaking through a gap in the curtains.

Despite an unsettling conversation with Tommy the night before, Blair fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She felt at ease in the home, familiarity relaxed her body and her mind, even though there were a thousand and one things she couldn't stop thinking about.

The walls held a scent of tobacco, coffee and home cooking. It reminded her of happier times, days where the sun would shine down beams of love into the eyes of all three of them, while even the rainiest of days showered them in an unbreakable bond.

Still in the spare clothes Tommy had given her last night, Blair quietly made her way downstairs, following the sound of voices in the kitchen. Anxiety held her breath as she walked through the house, wondering how on Earth she was going to navigate the situation in front of her.

"Dad, who's shoes are they? The ones by the front door?"

Blair awkwardly cleared her throat as she stood in the doorway to the kitchen, lingering with a frail, hesitant smile on her lips as she saw Thomas and Charlie sat at the breakfast table together.

"They're mine."

"Miss O'Hara," Charlie smiled warmly, "Would you like some tea?"

Blair nodded shyly, taking a seat at the end of the table. Thomas finished his breakfast in seconds, rising to his feet and dusting crumbs from his shirt before pushing his chair in and grabbing his coat from the hook on the wall by the back door.

"I'll take a look at your car now. Half a mile down the road you said?"

Thanking Charlie with a nod and a smile as he poured Blair a hot cup of tea, she looked over to Tommy who was adjusting his cap in the mirror.

"Yes, the keys are in my coat pocket. Thank you, Thomas."

He said nothing before disappearing out into the morning mist, leaving Blair and Charlie sat alone in the kitchen.

It was silent at first while he ate one of the cookies that Blair had seen on the table when she arrived last night, though there was no awkward tension wrapped around the quietness like there was with Tommy.

"Can you help me with some sums? I was struggling a bit in our lesson the other day."

Blair looked at Charlie who was innocently staring at her, sleep still waving faintly over his eyes, though his lips held a gentle smile.

He had always been an intelligent child, though one that rarely spoke up in class when he needed help. Charlie was quiet and well behaved, he was kind with the other children and picked his friends carefully. It made Blair happy to see him with the nicer boys and girls at school, comforted knowing he wasn't being picked on by anybody.

Considering he was a Shelby, Charlie was the physical embodiment of sunshine. He had a natural warmth to him, a tenderness that Blair was proud to see in him. The same qualities ran deep in his father, though a lifetime of trauma had built walls around the gold inside his chest.

The two of them sat in the room Blair used to teach Charlie in when he was younger. The same books and pencils sat on shelves and in drawers. Paintings and drawings were still pinned up on walls, though the small desk Charlie used to work at had gone.

Blair felt a twinge of pain in her chest when she looked at Charlie sat at the table, remembering a time he sat on a child's desk with hands that looked too small to hold pencils. The guilt had never really gone away, though realising then that she'd missed out on seeing Charlie grow up made the feeling that resided inside her since she'd left the family far, far worse.