Katie shifted in the pew and opened her eyes. She took a deep breath and looked around. She liked the feeling she got in church. It was a peacefully one. She didn't always listen to the sermon; most sundays she sat and thought about different things, good and bad. She had just been thinking about yesterday, when she had told Zac about her previous life.
She was glad they had talked about it. She felt as thought a giant weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She looked over at Zac and felt a smile faintly trace her lips. He was sitting across the aisle and up a seat, and she could see him. He was dressed nice; his hair pulled back neatly, and button down shirt, and khakis. His head was bent ever so slightly, and his eyes were closed. He looked almost as peacefull as Katie felt.
After the service was finished and everyone was getting ready to leave, Judy stopped to talk with Diana and Walker, and the rest of the Hanson family.
"Where's Morgan?" Taylor asked Katie.
"Oh, she stayed home. She didn't feel that well last night, so she didn't want to get up and come." Katie explained. "Sandra stayed home too."
"Oh yeah. She told me she wasn't feeling well." Taylor said.
"Yeah." Katie said.
"Thanks." Taylor said. Zac turned to her. He bumped his arm against hers.
"You look better today." He commented.
Katie smiled. "You know, I feel better."
"That was cool, yesterday. Just hangin out." Zac said.
"Yeah. That was cool." Katie said.
Katie looked at all the mingling people out in the lobby of the church. She realized that she knew hardly any of them, and she had lived there almost a year. She watched as Judy and Diana chatted away. Mackie was pulling at his mother's skirt and grinning at Madison, who was giving him nervous looks. She felt a hand take hers. She looked over at Zac, and he pretended not to see that she had noticed him taking her hand.
Katie just grinned and squeezed his hand. Zac squeezed back, as if to say, I'm here...
"We've got tons of stuff to do today." Judy said as she drove home from church.
"Like what?" Madison asked.
"The Hansons are coming for dinner." She said.
"Mackie?" Madison asked.
"Yes, even Mackie." Judy sighed. "I need to make a list of what I need to do."
"Make cookies?"
"Well, I wasn't planning on it." Judy replied, pulling onto their street.
"Mackie likes cookies." The little girl stated, looking out the window.
"I'll try and remember that." Judy said. "I'll need help cleaning guys. The place is a pigsty. At least the kitchen is." She said.
"What the....?" Sandra was the first to notice.
"Oh my gosh." Katie said, her hand covering her mouth.
"What the hell?" Judy said, pulling up in front of the house.
"Judy no bad words!" Madison shouted.
Judy barely heard her. "Sorry honey." She mumbled.
The entire family jumped out of the car and ran up to the four police officers standing on their front lawn.
"What happened here?" Judy asked, running up to the cops.
"M'am, are you the legal owner of this estate?"
"Yes, yes I am." Judy said. "What happened?"
"We had an attempted robbery." He replied.
"Oh my god." Judy said, covering her mouth.
Suddenly the front door flew open and Morgan flew out the door, followed by Sandra.
"Judy!" Morgan yelled.
Judy ran up to Morgan and Sandra, panicked. "What happened?" She asked.
"We were in our rooms, and then we both heart something. It was coming from the basement, and we went down there, and we could hear someone trying to get in! It sounded like they had a crowbar or something really hard, and we could hear them hitting the locks and trying to pick them. We ran upstairs and called 911, and when the police came they ran. We didn't see where." Morgan said quickly.
"Oh my god." Judy said. She turned to a police officer. "Did you catch them?"
"No, we didn't." He said. "They did have a crowbar, and they did drop it. We've sent it in to have a fingerprint test done on it, but the suspect would have to be pretty stupid to not wear some sort of protection." The officer replied. "We're looking around for other evidence."
"How could this have happened?" Judy asked.
"This most likely has something to do with the person giving your second oldest daughter the trouble. That's just a guess, but the two are most likely related."
Katie felt her stomach lurch. "It's okay." Morgan said. She ran over to her sister and gave her a tight hug. Katie immediately started to bawl.
"It's all my fault." She cried.
"No it's not." Judy said. "That's silly. It's not your fault."
"It is too! He's stalking me! not you guys! Me! I'm the reason why someone tried to break into our house." She sniffed and wiped her eyes.
"It was so scary." Sandra said. "Someone was trying to break into our house."
"I know. Oh my goodness. What are we going to do? We aren't safe here."
"No, you're right. Do you have any relatives you could possibly spend the night with?"
"No, we don't really." Judy said. She suddenly had an idea. "But I know of a good group of people who would be willing to do us a favor."
As soon as their suburban pulled into the Hanson driveway late that afternoon, Katie saw Taylor and Zac standing in the driveway. The vehicle came to a stop, and her sibling all started to unload.
"Hey." Zac said, touching her arm slightly.
"Hey." She said. She was still worked up from that morning. Zac and Taylor helped them bring their bags and sleepingbags into the house before Zac and Katie escaped to the garage to be alone.
As soon as he was in there with the door shut, Katie threw her arms around Zac, and he hugged her back tightly. Her tears started again, and she couldn't stop them.
"It's all my fault." She cried. "Everything. It's all my fault."
"Shhh....It's not your fault."
"Yes it is." She said, gripping the sides of his sweatshirt in his hand. "If it weren't for me, no one would have tried to get into our house." She looked up at him. This is going too far. They could have gotten into my house and hurt my family-"
"Katie, you don't even know that it's the same person." He pointed out. "It could have been just some random theif."
"That's bull, Zac, and you know it." She said, wiping her eyes. "God, I feel so shitty!"
"Don't." Zac said, hugging her tighter. Katie laid her head against him.
"The only time I feel safe is when I'm with you." She said, sniffing.
"Then it looks like we'll be spending more time together." He said, brushing a stray curl out of her eye. "You're safew, and you're going to be fine."
She looked up at him, her stormy blue eyes staring into his caramel brown ones. He cupped her face in his hands, stroking her cheeks with his thumbs.
"You're going to be fine. You're safe here." He repeated. He brought her face to his, and pressed his lips against hers, holding them there. He tried to savor the moment as much as possible. Katie sqeezed her teary eyes shut, trying to do the same.