My Stepmother Sold the Farm, So I Married the Man Who Left novel · Chapter 5 of 32
Chapter 5: The Pillow Line
The hall bedroom was downstairs, off the kitchen, and it shared a wall with nothing and a door with everything.
That left one bedroom upstairs, with one bed in it.
I had planned on a couch for Nels and a closed door for me.
But the couch sat in the front room directly under the staircase.
Delores had arranged her suitcases so she could see it from the hall.
"I'll be up late with my crossword," she said, and she set a kitchen chair in the hall doorway and sat down in it.
"I'll sleep on the porch," Nels said, in a tone so mild that I almost laughed.
"In October, with the sheriff's cousin driving by every night?" Delores said. "Husbands and wives sleep in the marriage bed, dear. Everyone knows that."
So we climbed the back stair, with her chair creaking below us, and shut the bedroom door.
It was my room.
My father had hung my high school ribbons on the wall by the window.
My brother's baseball glove still sat on the dresser, because I couldn't move it.
Nels stood in the middle of the floor and looked at the bed for a long time.
"I'll take the floor," he said.
"She'll hear you take the floor."
"She'll hear a floor?" Nels said.
"The boards under this room run right over the kitchen. Lie down on them and she'll hear you breathe."
Nels let out a long, tired sigh and took off his boots.
I made a line down the middle of the bed from every pillow I owned and the extra quilt.
Keep reading free with an account. Start My Stepmother Sold the Farm, So I Married the Man Who Left from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 4 · All chapters · Chapter 6 →
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