My Own People Betrayed Me at My Engagement Barbecue, So I Took the Hill Back novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: The Big House
Hilde's rocking chair no longer stood on the porch of the big house.
The hands had carried it down the steps and set it at the end of the drive, facing the road.
A card was tied to its arm that said Walter Stieler house, Main Street.
The front door stood open.
I walked through it at seven on Easter morning with soot in my hair and a garnet ring on my hand.
Cade was a step behind me.
The hall smelled of coffee and beeswax.
My father's gray Stetson went on the hook by the door, the same hook, in the same place.
The hook beside it was empty.
I walked into the dining room.
The long table was laid with the good plates.
A covered ham sat at the foot of it, with a basket of Easter eggs and a bowl of boiled potatoes.
Someone had made coffee.
My father's chair stood at the head, the high oak chair with the arms.
Nobody had sat in it since April except my aunt, for show.
Cade stopped in the doorway.
"I can't sit in that," he said.
"You can."
"Tilly. It's your father's."
"It's mine," I said. "And it's yours. Sit."
He crossed the room.
He set his hat on the table.
He pulled out the chair and sat in it with his hands on the arms.
He was six foot five, and the great carved oak seat held him.
He sat in it, and the old oak did not creak.
I walked behind him and put my hands on his shoulders.
"It fits," I said.
"It's too small."
"It fits."
He tipped his head back against my stomach.
I bent and kissed his forehead upside down.
"Eat later," I said. "Come upstairs."
The big bedroom faced east.
It had been my parents' room, and then my father's alone, and for six months my aunt had kept the door locked.
The key was in the lock when I tried it.
I opened the windows, and the morning came in, gold and cool, across a high white bed.
I stripped off my smoky shirt and my jeans and my boots.
Cade took off his own clothes and stood naked in the sun.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Own People Betrayed Me at My Engagement Barbecue, So I Took the Hill Back are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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