Now I Watch Her Love Him novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Sawdust

Hannah's POV

On Saturday I drove his jacket back to him.

I told myself that was the reason.

Jonas's shop is a long cinderblock building behind a lumberyard in Oakwood, with a roll-up door and a yellow light over the entrance.

I parked beside his truck and sat with the jacket on my lap for two minutes.

Then I got out.

The door stood open about three feet.

Inside, the air smelled of cut cedar and warm machine oil.

A radio played low, old country, something about a river.

He was at the far end with his back to me, running a board through a planer, and every muscle in his shoulders moved when the blade bit.

I waited until the machine stopped.

"I still have your jacket," I said.

He turned, and he looked at me for a long time without saying anything.

"I figured you'd keep it," he said.

"It's your jacket."

"It's a jacket."

He took it from me and hung it on a nail.

Then he held out his hand, palm up.

"You've got a splinter," he said.

I looked down.

I had picked up a loose board from the stack by the door without thinking, and a dark sliver was lodged at the base of my thumb.

"It's nothing."

"Come here."

He pulled a stool under the work lamp and sat me on it.

He found a pair of tweezers in a drawer, wiped them on his shirt, and took my hand.

His palm was twice as rough as mine and very warm.

He bent over it, and the lamp lit the side of his face.

I could feel his breath on my wrist.

It was a thing I had forgotten could happen, a person's breath on you, slow and careful and entirely on purpose.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Now I Watch Her Love Him from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.