I Joined My Dead Sister's Curling Team, and Her Widower Joined Me novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Night Before
The rug in Gunnar's living room was wool, wide enough for five, and the stove threw orange light across all of us.
"Lie down," Dale said.
"In the middle."
I lay down on my side on the warm rug, in nothing, with four men kneeling around me in a ring.
Tomorrow was the banquet.
Tonight nobody said the word.
They had put the lamps out themselves, one by one, and Gunnar had laid a quilt over the wool.
It was the quilt from the guest room, the one I had slept under for a week before I ever slept in his bed.
"Tonight is yours," Gunnar said.
"We go slow. You tell us what you want, and we do it, and nobody hurries."
"And each of us says one true thing," Leif said.
"Nobody has to be funny. I'm going first, and I'll try."
He leaned down and kissed my hip.
His sandy hair was gray in the firelight.
"I'm the man who'll be awake with you at three in the morning," he said.
"I'll make you laugh when you want to throw the baby out the window."
"I'll make the baby laugh before it knows what a joke is."
"That's a good one," I said, and my throat ached.
"I know," Leif said, surprised.
"I've been saving it."
Nils moved to my feet.
He lifted my right foot in both huge hands and kissed the arch of it, then the ankle.
"I'm the man who'll be at every appointment," Nils said.
"I'll carry your bags and the car seat and anything. You'll never have to lift a thing."
He kissed the inside of my knee.
My breath caught.
Dale took my hair in one hand and lifted it off my neck.
He pressed his mouth just under my ear.
"I'm the man who stands in the door," he said, against my skin.
"Whoever comes for you comes through me. Your mother. The town. All of it."
A shiver ran from my neck to my thighs.
"And I'm the man who builds," Gunnar said.
He lay down behind me, long and warm against my back, and he fitted his hand over my belly.
"A crib. A gate. A room with morning in it. Whatever you want, Britt, I'll make it with my hands."
My eyes filled.
"I'm the sister," I said, "who held the cake knife."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of I Joined My Dead Sister's Curling Team, and Her Widower Joined Me are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 19 · All chapters · Chapter 21 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend