My Stepbrother Came Home for the Anniversary, and I Didn't Know Him novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: First Snow
The first snow came down on the Lester River dock on the twelfth of December, and the last board was already nailed.
We had finished it on Thursday after Matti's shift, by the light of the truck, with Arvid in the lawn chair calling out where the nails were crooked.
Now the planks were white, and the river ran black beside them, and the flakes were big and slow and landing on my braid.
Arvid sat on the bank in his coat with his thermos and a bag of cardamom bread.
He had asked us for lunch, and we had eaten it, and he had said he wanted to see the dock with snow on it.
Matti stood at the end of the planks with his hands in his pockets, looking at the water.
I walked out to him.
The boards didn't give under my boots, and I heard no creak at all.
In my coat pocket I had a key.
It was a new one, cut on Wednesday, brass, with a length of green ribbon tied through the bow.
The ribbon came off the bakery bag from the Finnish bakery, and I'd kept it in a drawer for a month without knowing why.
"You're quiet," Matti said.
"I'm thinking."
"Is it going to hurt?"
"Probably," I said.
He took his hands out of his pockets.
I held out the key on my flat palm.
The snow landed on the ribbon and went dark.
"It's the door to my apartment," I said. "The inner one. The key I gave you in November only gets you as far as the hall."
He stared at the key and then at my face.
"Give notice on the mattress," I said. "Stop paying seven hundred dollars for a place you sleep in on Tuesdays. Stay."
He didn't move.
"I'm asking," I said. "I said I never would. I told you in the boathouse I'd never ask you for anything again, and I lied. I'm asking in front of your father so I can't take it back."
My voice shook, and I let it.
"Stay. With me, in my bed, in this city, for as long as there's a dock. Stay, Matti."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Stepbrother Came Home for the Anniversary, and I Didn't Know Him are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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