The Billionaire Janitor Is Back! novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Household Inspection

Baskin and his lawyer inspect the one-bedroom lodge at nine at night; Malachi plays the husband a little too well, and the parent group chat lights up.

At eight fifty-five, Mal's duffel bag was on my bedroom floor and his boots were by my front door.

I had never seen a man's boots by my front door in three years.

They looked enormous, and they looked like a lie, and I was proud of them.

"Pillow," he said, from the sofa.

"Which side do you sleep on?"

"The left."

"Then I'm the right."

"You're the sofa."

"Tonight I'm the right," he said, and set a second toothbrush in my bathroom glass.

The knock came at nine exactly.

Wendell walked in without waiting to be asked, with his lawyer behind him and a man from the board holding a clipboard.

The lodge was stone, with low ceilings and a woodstove, and it had never felt small until three men filled it.

"Cozy," Wendell said.

He ran one finger along my mantel and checked it for dust.

Mal stood at my stove in a clean shirt with a spatula in his hand.

He did not look at them.

"I'm making grilled cheese," he said. "There's enough for five if anyone's hungry."

"We ate," the lawyer said.

"Your loss."

Wendell wandered into the bedroom.

I followed him, because I wasn't going to let him touch my things alone.

He opened the closet and found Mal's three flannel shirts hanging beside my cardigans.

He picked up one sleeve and let it drop.

"Still sleep on the left, Edie?"

"Don't."

"I only ask because you used to take the whole bed." He smiled at the clipboard man. "Five years, and I got the edge."

The clipboard man looked at his shoes.

I felt my face go hot, but I did not say a word, because a hand slid around my waist from behind.

"She takes about two-thirds," Mal said, behind me, easily. "I don't mind. I like the edge."

His hand was wide and warm and sat just above my hip.

He pressed his mouth to my temple, right where the white streak starts.

It was nothing, only for show.

My knees stopped working anyway.

"How sweet," Wendell said.

"Isn't it?" said Mal.

We went back to the kitchen, and his hand stayed on my back the whole way.

Wendell sat in my chair at my table.

He looked around at the tin of tea and the crooked photo of my parents, and a little cruelty leaked out of his smile.

"I want to be clear for the record, Mister...?" he said, and waited.

"Malachi."

"Malachi. Nobody marries the help for love."

I opened my mouth.

Mal put a plate down in front of Wendell, a golden sandwich, cut corner to corner.

"She didn't marry the help," he said. "She married the first man in this building who fixed her radiator before she asked."

"Is that what it takes?"

"With her it does. Eat."

Wendell did not eat.

He turned to the clipboard man.

"Put it down as an arrangement. A janitor, a lodge and a convenient clause. The board can draw its own conclusions at the dinner."

"What dinner?" I said.

"Ask Ruthanne tomorrow." He stood and tugged his cuffs. "Good night, Edie. Don't get too fond of the stove."

They left.

The door shut, and the three men's voices faded down the path, and the lodge was suddenly too quiet.

My shoulders finally dropped after an hour of tension.

"Thank you," I said. "For the radiator. That was good."

"It was true." Mal set the spatula down. "You did ask for the radiator in September. I just got there first."

"I didn't know you noticed."

"I notice everything in this building."

He wiped his hands on the dish towel and turned toward me, and the room got smaller.

His face was lit by the lamp, and I could see a small white line through his left eyebrow I had never noticed.

I could see the scar on his hand, where the towel had slipped.

It was the pink of old burned skin, and it ran from his knuckles to his wrist.

I was staring.

"You kept your hand on my back the whole time," I said.

"I know."

"I felt it."

"You didn't have to."

"No."

He didn't move.

I didn't move.

Between us there was a plate of cold grilled cheese and one rule, written in my own handwriting, that said nothing in it was owed.

My own breathing was very loud.

I took half a step toward him.

My phone buzzed against the counter.

It buzzed again, and again, and then it started to skitter across the wood.

I picked it up.

The parent group chat had forty-one new messages.

The first one, from a mother I'd known for six years, said, Did anyone else hear the Head married the janitor?

The ones below it were worse.

I scrolled until my thumb stopped.

Eleven families had written that they were withdrawing their children by Friday.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

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