I Married the Don for the Debt, and My Husband Walked In Alive novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: A Year and a Day
Christmas morning came up grey and soft over the bayou, and Rafe was already at the piano.
I came down the stairs in his white shirt, barefoot, with my hair in a knot, and stopped in the doorway of the music room.
He was not playing the slow thing he played when he could not sleep.
He was playing something bright and plain, with a tune I could follow.
The tune went up at the end of every line.
He heard me and stopped.
"I wrote that," he said. "In the night. I don't know what it's called."
"Play it again."
He played it again, and I sat down beside him on the long bench with my bare feet on the pedal.
When he finished he put his hands in his lap.
"I told you I would ask you after the Benefit," Rafe said. "I'd like to do it now, if you'll let me."
"Ask."
He took a small box out of his pocket, black velvet, worn at the corners.
Inside lay a gold band, plain and heavy, old.
"My father's mother's," he said. "She wore it through two wars and a flood. My mother gave it to me this morning at six, in the kitchen, and made me promise to ask you in good light."
My throat closed.
"Camille. Marry me, properly. In front of the priest and the Society and anyone who wants to come. Not for a year."
"Rafe," I said.
"Not for a debt. For no reason except that I can't stand the thought of you in any house but this one."
I took the ring out of the box and held it.
It was warm from his pocket.
"I have to tell you something first," I said.
"Tell me."
"You said a year. You said it in the front hall that first night, and I said yes, and you said out loud in this room that you were not counting." I closed my fist around the band. "The year is mine. You don't get to end it, and you don't get to extend it. I get to decide, and I decide every morning."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of I Married the Don for the Debt, and My Husband Walked In Alive are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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