Pack Law Made Him My Brother, So I Made Him My Mate novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Cedar Tub

The tub stood behind the cabin on a slab of rock, a round cedar barrel with a firebox bolted to one side.

He had stoked it all afternoon.

Now the water was hot enough to hurt, and snow fell on my hair and melted before it reached my shoulders.

I sat between his knees with my back against his chest and my head on his collarbone.

My mother's rosary lay on the rim, black beads in the firelight.

His arms were around my waist, and his mouth was in my wet hair.

"You've been quiet since the cooler," he said.

"I know," I said.

"You don't have to talk."

"I want to," I said.

He waited.

The water lapped at my breasts, and steam rolled off the surface and up into the dark.

"The night after my father's funeral, a notice came on our door," I said.

"What kind?"

"Eviction. His truck loan and the rent were both behind. He never told her."

His arms tightened.

"Mami packed the Corolla at ten that night," I said. "She didn't cry. She put me in the back seat with a pillow."

"Where did you go?"

"Six hours in the dark to my aunt's trailer in Las Vegas. I woke up at every curve."

I turned the rosary over with my fingertip.

"My tía had kept the woodstove lit all night. We came through the door at four in the morning, and the whole trailer was warm."

"And your mother?" he said.

"She knelt in front of that stove with her hands out, and she stayed there an hour, and she never said a thing."

I felt him breathe.

"I understood it, even then," I said. "She had driven all night to get to a fire."

"So she'd do anything for one," he said.

"She'd do anything for one. That doesn't make her right."

"No," he said.

"But I can't hate her cleanly," I said. "I want to, and I can't."

He kissed the side of my head.

"You don't have to forgive her tonight," he said.

"I know."

"You don't have to do anything tonight."

I turned my face up and found his mouth.

It was a long kiss, wet and slow, with the heat of the water in it.

His hand slid up my stomach and cupped my breast under the surface.

He rolled the nipple between two fingers, and I breathed in sharply against his lips.

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