I Faked My Death, and the Alpha at My Grave Has Lost His Wolf novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Porch
The third porch step had been rotten since I was nine, and on the first Saturday in February it was new.
I watched him finish it from the kitchen window with a cup of tea going cold in my hands.
He had come every Saturday after the sale for four weeks.
First he fixed the gate, then the screen door, then the two loose boards by the rail.
He never knocked.
He never came up past the new step.
When Babi put a plate of food on the rail for him he ate it standing, in the yard, with his hat on the post.
He slept in the loft over the sale ring and called the Saturday cattle for a wage.
He had said nothing to me about any of it.
Rule one was my own rule, and he kept it at my grandmother's door as strictly as he had kept it at mine.
Babi had gone to her sister's in Hallettsville for the weekend with a suitcase and an expression.
"I'll be back Sunday supper," she had said. "Don't wait up."
She had said it to the stove, and not to me.
I was twenty-eight weeks along and very round, and I had the whole house to myself.
I put the cup down and opened the front door.
Anton was kneeling on the porch with a hammer, looking at his work.
He heard the hinge, and he turned.
"Step's done," he said. "It'll hold."
"It looks good."
"It's pine. I'll put a coat on it when it warms up."
He stood and wiped his hands on his jeans.
He looked at the door, and at me in it, and he did not move one foot.
"Come in," I said.
He didn't.
"Rule one," Anton said carefully.
"That rule's mine to break."
"You've said so."
"I'm saying it again," I said. "Come in, please. Take off your boots. The floor is clean."
He looked down at his boots for a moment.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of I Faked My Death, and the Alpha at My Grave Has Lost His Wolf are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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