I Slept With a Stranger at the Wedding, and Monday He Was My Boss novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: Her Name on the Lease
I put my name on the house on a Friday, at the kitchen table, in front of his mother.
It was a single page.
The lawyer had drawn it up himself and driven it out to the orchard.
He laid it on the oilcloth beside the sugar bowl with a pen and a look that said he would not discuss it.
It said that Katrina Anneliese Pfluger lived at the Kneupper homestead by right and not by employment.
She had her own key, her own room and her own place at the table, for as long as she chose.
Dane had added one line in his own hand at the bottom.
It said, "And my room, too, if she wants it."
I read it standing up.
"You're not paying me to stay," I said.
"No," he said.
"And I'm not paying rent," I said.
"No," he said.
"What am I, then?" I said.
"You're a woman who lives here," Dane said.
"I'd like you to be more, and I'd like you to say when.
"This is only so nobody can ever tell you that you're a guest."
Marlene sat across the table peeling a peach with a paring knife.
She did not look up.
"Sign it, honey," she said.
"Before he cries."
I signed it.
I wrote my full name under the lawyer's line, slowly, the way I had on the porch.
Then I put the pen down and Dane picked up the page and held it in both hands.
"Lottie's at the Hartmanns' till three," Marlene said, to the peach.
"I would take a long shower, if I were somebody."
I looked at Dane.
His ears were red to the tips.
"Mama."
"I'm just saying," Marlene said.
"The pump's got good pressure on the second floor."
I took him by the hand and led him up the stairs.
The bathroom at the end of the hall was limestone, floor to ceiling, cool and pale and smooth.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of I Slept With a Stranger at the Wedding, and Monday He Was My Boss are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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