Swallow Me Whole novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Rule One

By Thursday, my sister's water heater had died.

I found out at five in the morning, standing in her shower in the dark with ice water hitting my head.

I shrieked loud enough to wake the whole block.

Keeva's text came back from Phoenix before I had finished my coffee.

"Landlord says Monday. Use Ash's. He won't care."

He did not care.

He cared a great deal.

"My bathroom is downstairs," he said at the back door that evening, with flour still caked on my forearms. "Technically it's allowed."

"Technically."

"Go. Towels are on the shelf."

I went.

His shower had gray slate tiles and a wide rain head, and he had put in a bench along one wall.

I stood under the hot water with my eyes closed and let it beat the bakery out of my back.

I had been thinking all week.

I had gone downstairs every night since the workbench.

He kissed my forehead, my shoulders, my wrists, the inside of my knee.

He never once kissed my mouth.

I had noticed.

I opened my eyes, and the bathroom door was open a crack.

"Ashton."

"I'm leaving."

"Come here."

"Sadie."

"Come here. I'm washing my hair and I can't reach the back."

That was a lie, and he knew it.

He stood in the doorway for five full seconds.

Then he came in, with his shirt already half over his head.

He stepped into the shower in his jeans.

He did not even look surprised at himself.

"Hold still," he said, and the water ran down his beard and plastered his hair to his forehead, and I started laughing.

"You're wearing pants."

"I'm showing restraint."

"It's not working."

"I'm aware."

He poured shampoo into his palm and worked it into my hair with both hands, slow and thorough.

His fingertips massaged my scalp, and my knees went loose.

"Mmm," I said. "That's not fair."

"It's a lesson. How to be taken care of."

"Is that a real lesson?"

"It is today."

I turned around under his hands.

I put my palms on his wet chest and slid them up to his shoulders.

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