What Stay Cost Her: Aunt Only by Marriage - by Demi Muse

Diane says don’t with the lock already turned and the tap still counting. By morning the word is worthless. She can pour the coffee. She cannot unpour the sink. Russell is in court. The apartment his brother left is taped shut, the motel money gone, and the house is empty enough for three grown nephews who have called her aunt since the wedding because a title was easier than an explanation. Cole kisses her cheek a second too long. Nate’s thigh stays against her hip at the spare-key drawer. Grant keeps the folder and does not look up. Stay, Russell said. Refusal has a price, and the price is a roof. The first crossing is a towel on a rail and a sentence neither of them obeys. After that the house keeps two books. Cole wants the privacy of being first. Nate wants the order corrected, a finish he can point to and still refuse. Grant wants the pretending ended on his terms, the old word said where it costs her.