Read One Tiny Miracle... for Free Online Page A

asked, boldly striding in where no one else really dared to go, but Ben just ignored her question and, glad of the diversion, opened the gates to the units, but Celeste stood patiently waiting.
    ‘Are you?’ she asked.
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘Comparing them?’
    She was a persistent little thing, like a little woodpecker, peck, peck pecking away—
    ‘I used to,’ Ben admitted. ‘But not now—that’s not fair on anyone.’
    ‘Especially as she sounds like Superwoman,’ Celeste grumbled, and her response was so refreshing Ben actually smiled. ‘So,’ she pushed, ‘are you ready now?’
    ‘Perhaps, though not anything serious.’
    ‘Ooh, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of takers.’ Celeste grinned. After all, she’d heard the giggles and gossip in the staffroom—Ben could take his pick!
    ‘What about you?’ They were sitting on her steps now, the conversation, and the friendship, too new, too fragile to snap it by asking him in. And anyway the power was still off, so they sat on the steps and got to know each other just a little bit better.
    ‘I’m hardly in a position to date.’ Celeste rolled her eyes. ‘Can you imagine me out clubbing?’
    ‘I guess not!’
    ‘And I’m still in that “all men are snakes” place.’
    ‘It’s probably a very wise place to be right now,’ Ben agreed. ‘I’ve been a bit of a snake myself lately.’
    ‘Do tell!’ She did make him laugh, she was so eager for gossip, and so easy to talk to, that somehow he did.
    ‘I went out with someone for a while—she was great, but even though I told her from the start—’
    ‘She didn’t listen?’ she finished for him.
    ‘She did at first, said she wanted the same thing—then, well, it got a bit more serious. She started to hint at wanting different things.’ He looked into her smiling amber eyes. ‘Like moving in.’
    ‘Not for you?’ she said wisely.
    ‘Maybe one day, but she also started talking about children. And one thing I do know is that I don’t want kids.’
    ‘Never?’
    ‘Never,’ he said emphatically.
    She got the message and was actually rather grateful for it. Oh, they hardly knew each other, had barely scratched the surface, but there was certainly if not an immediate attraction then at the very least an acute awareness. Which was something she hadn’t felt in the longest time—had been sure, after the way Dean had treated her, that she’d never feel it again. But sitting here, looking into Ben’s green eyes, hearing his words, Celeste suddenly realised that he felt it too. That he was carefully reading out the rules of any potential relationship should they choose to pursue one.
    ‘We couldn’t be less suited really,’ Celeste said after a moment’s pause. ‘I’m not looking at all, you’re not looking for serious and…’ she patted her large stomach ‘…this isn’t a hernia!’
    ‘I had worked that out!’ Ben smiled. ‘So how about we just be friends?’
    She stared into his green eyes and this time she didn’t blush. Oh, she had a teeny crush on him—what heterosexual woman wouldn’t?—but her heart was way too bruised and her ego far too raw and her soul just too tender to even fathom going there again. It was simply nice to have an adult to talk to. Her world had changed so much, and with her family not talking to her and her struggle to fit in on her new course, it was just nice, very nice to have Ben in her life, to talk to a person instead of staring at the television. ‘A friend would be lovely.’
    And still he stayed. Celeste went in and brought out two glasses of water, and then picked at daisies as they chatted, shredding them with her fingers, joining themup, and when she wasn’t looking at him, somehow it made it easier for Ben to talk.
    ‘You see, I had it all with Jen…’ He pushed his fingers through his hair, tried to sum up how he was feeling, because she was so easy to talk to. Maybe because she hadn’t known Jen, maybe because her eyes didn’t well