My Stepbrother Came Home for the Anniversary, and I Didn't Know Him novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The Kitchen Chair

Kaisa's POV

"You're paying seven hundred dollars a month for a mattress you don't sleep on," I said.

Matti sat at my kitchen table in his socks with a union newsletter open in front of him.

A bowl of my mojakka was going cold at his elbow.

It was Saturday night, and I was standing at the stove with a wooden spoon, being unreasonable.

"I sleep on it Tuesdays."

"You slept on it one Tuesday."

"Somebody's got to keep the lease honest," he said.

"You've had your boots by my door for six nights."

"You wanted me to stay out of your way," he said. "I'm staying out of your way."

"I never said that."

"You said, 'Come in, not up.'"

"I was making a point," I said.

"Was it a good one?"

I put the spoon down.

He turned a page of the newsletter and didn't look up, and the corner of his mouth was doing the thing it did.

"Stand up," I said.

"I'm reading."

"I'm not asking, Kangas."

"Then it's hardly my fault." He looked at me over the paper. "What happens if I don't?"

I crossed the kitchen, took the paper out of his hand and threw it on the floor.

Then I put my palm in the middle of his chest and shoved.

The chair rocked back on two legs and came down again with a bang.

He grinned up at me with his hands loose on his thighs.

"Hands on the chair," I said. "Behind your head. Hold the back."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I hate that you like that."

"No, you don't," he said.

I didn't, which was worse.

He reached up and took hold of the top rail of the kitchen chair behind his own head.

That put his chest out and his stomach flat.

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