The Secret That Broke Us novel · Chapter 28 of 32

Chapter 28: Thanksgiving

June's POV

"Stay," I said.

Ben stood in my kitchen in his boots with snow on his shoulders, and he looked at me as if I'd spoken another language.

"Stay," I said again. "Not the spare room. I read it three times."

"The handwriting's bad."

"The handwriting's terrible. I got the part that mattered."

He crossed the floor in two strides.

He picked me up under the arms and set me on the counter, and the coffee mug rocked and went over.

Neither of us looked at it.

His mouth came down on mine, cold from outside and then not.

I pulled him in by the front of his jacket, and I wrapped my legs around his hips and felt how much he wanted this.

"You're freezing," I said into his mouth.

"You're not."

His hands went under the sweatshirt and spread across my back, slow, and I arched into them.

I said his name.

He said mine like a man who had just been given something back.

Upstairs the monitor crackled.

We both stopped, foreheads together, breathing hard.

"Your son," he said.

"My son has the worst timing in the county."

"He gets that from his father."

"Don't," I said, laughing, and he kissed the laugh off my mouth.

Then I went to get the baby, and Ben went to find a rag for the coffee, and the morning started.

Thanksgiving was at my house because Lena had decided so.

She arrived at noon with a roasting pan and an opinion about my oven.

Ben carved.

He did it badly and with great seriousness, with Anders asleep in the bouncer by his foot.

The table was too small and had a leaf in it.

Lena sat at one end, Ben at the other, and I put myself in the middle, where I could reach the gravy and the baby.

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