Widowed a Year, I Masked Up and Took Both of His Brothers novel · Chapter 12 of 24
Chapter 12: Ash Wednesday
The camp stood on stilts over the black water of Lake Pontchartrain's north shore, a cypress shack with a tin roof and a long dock.
We reached it at first light, with fog lying on the lake and herons standing in the shallows.
Tommy had stopped at a church on the way.
Now he stood in the doorway of the camp's one bedroom with a twist of paper in his hand.
"Come here," he said.
I went.
He unfolded the paper.
Inside was a pinch of gray ash.
He wet his thumb, touched the ash, and drew a cross on my forehead.
"Remember you are dust," Tommy said, very low.
"And to dust you shall return."
Vince took the paper from his brother's hand, dipped his thumb, and marked Tommy.
Then Vince bent his head to me, and I marked him.
Three people stood in a camp on the lake with ash on their foreheads, breathing hard.
"Lent," Vince said, hoarse. "We're supposed to give something up."
"Not this," I said.
"No," Tommy said. "Not this."
The bed was an old iron bed with a quilt and a mosquito net tied back.
Light came in through the screen in long pale bars.
I lay down on my side in the middle of it, in my slip, with my back to Tommy.
He lay down behind me, and Vince lay down in front of me, and for a moment none of us moved.
It was the stillest we had been since the ball.
"I'm tired," I said, against Vince's chest.
"I know," Vince said. "Me too."
"Don't you dare get up."
"I wouldn't dream of it."
His hand came up and drew the hair back from my face.
He kissed the ash on my forehead, and then my mouth.
It was a slow kiss, a lazy one, and tasted of sleep.
Behind me, Tommy's hand slid under my slip and rested on my hip.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of Widowed a Year, I Masked Up and Took Both of His Brothers are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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