Chapter 45

Jeff was deep in thought. Sarah had been there a little more than an hour, but he wasn't in a good mood despite her presence. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I don't know," he said honestly. "It's just one of those days. I'm not sure why, but I've been trying to sort things out."

"What sort of things?" Sarah asked nervously.

"Don't worry," he said, trying to reassure her. "It's about me." He thought carefully before continuing. "Sarah, why don't you ever talk about what happened in the alley?"

Sarah was caught off guard. She stammered a reply, "I . . . I just thought you'd talk about it if you wanted to."

"Okay, let's say I want to. Do you buy into all this 'hero' nonsense?"

"What you did for Paige was the most unselfish thing I've ever seen," she said firmly. "You were lucky to come out of it alive. If that's not being a hero, I don't know what is."

"I want to say something, but I don't want you to get the wrong idea." He paused, trying to collect his thoughts, "I don't think I'm