A Book of Dust and Breath

Chapter Eleven

Max's wife drove him home in her enormous pink and grey truck. Everything about the old house looked entirely different now. Putting himself in her place, he saw not the restored Victorian beauty he had rescued from the wrecking ball, but an old farmhouse, isolated and lacking modern refinements.

Deep pot-holes and washboard lines scarred the gravel road. Across the street, the river ran fast and murky with spring snow-melt. Mud stretched in every direction.

She turned the truck into the brick drive, shut the engine off, and sat staring out the windshield.

"It's... uhm..." He wiped his palms on his jeans. "It's better in the summer. Things dry out, you know? And there are wildflowers in the ditches and blackberries along the riverbank. Not the kind with thorns, either. The house is old, but it's as sturdy as anything ever built and I added three bathrooms and upgraded the kitchen."

"Shhh," she hushed him. "I want to look at it for a minute."

He sat in the passenger seat, thinking about what an awkward thing hands are. They felt limp and useless if he put them in his lap. He chewed on his nail. A sign of nervousness, weakness. He rested them on his knees like a child in the principal's office.

Finally, Lily turned to him. "Are there hardwood floors with beautiful rugs and an enormous fireplace?"

"There are," he said.

"I love it."

He closed his eyes and let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Are you sure?"

She arched a brow at him "Will you carry me inside and make love to me on the rug?"

His body responded at once. "If that's what it takes to make you happy, I'm your servant." He carried her over the threshold and his house became theirs.

Later, lying next to her on the floor, naked and warmed by the crackling fire, one hand drawing lazy circles on the tight muscles of her stomach he realized he had never been more perfectly content.

The peacefulness made transitioning into the void unusually jarring.

Harriet gazed at him over her glasses. "You forgot your pants."

"Your timing sucks," he growled.

She held out a pink slip. "Welcome home. Glad you're back." Her flat, nasal voice made it impossible to take her statement at face value.

He snatched the paper from her and looked at the address. He'd been to the nursing home on the northwest side of town more than once. "A local?"

"Thought you'd be happy. Shouldn't take too long."

With that, he was back.

Lily blinked up at him, the movement of her eyes slow and languid.

He brushed his lips across hers. Allowed himself the pleasure of gliding his left hand over her full, bare breast. "I have to go for a few minutes," he said.

"Now?"

"Yeah. I..." what? He had just slipped out of space and time to get a message regarding an impending death and he needed to go watch over the transition of the soul? "Why don't you move to the couch? There's a great quilt. You can curl up and take a nap. I'll be back in no time."

"Are you going anywhere dangerous?"

He laughed. "Does this seem like a town full of danger?"

"OK."

He gazed down at her for a moment longer. "You trust me so completely."

"You're my husband. I chose you. I chose to put my trust you. I'll get to know you, and you'll prove my every instinct right. I'm certain of it."

He pressed his forehead against hers. "You're amazing. You know that, right?" Without waiting for an answer, he kissed her one more time and pushed himself to his feet to dress.

Rather than resting on the sofa as he'd suggested, she wrapped the quilt around herself and followed him through the kitchen, into the attached two-car garage.

"This is what you drive?" She asked.

"Yup."

She came down the steps to examine his bike more closely. "You drive this in Michigan?"

"Yeah." He shoved his hands in his pockets.

With one slender finger, she reached out caressed the grip of the handlebar. "All year around?"

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I don't mind the cold so much."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You drive a slammed, blacked out, vintage soft tail deluxe?"

His jaw dropped open. "You know this bike?"

"Well, yeah. It's amazing!"

He took her face in both of his hands. "I am madly in love with you."

She blushed deep crimson and he realized it was the first time either of them had admitted to love.

"Good thing," she said, grinning at him.

He kissed her one last time before climbing ontothe bike and roaring out onto the street, leaving his naked wife in the garage,wrapped in a blanket, alone in a strange place.

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Keep turning pages - in the next chapter you'll get to glimpse the world through Lily's eyes for the first time!

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