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“Come out, come out, wherever you are”

Millie stifled a giggle “I’ a bath,” she yelled, and then held her breath as footfalls stopped outside the door Just knowing he was in the hall had her skin tingling

“Need any help?” he asked through the wood

He’d started teasing her lately, in a way no one had ever done before, and the delight lingered long after the , while increasing it at the sa until she’d come to understand it Mrs Ketchu with her as she drew one day The woman said a wife’s role was to relieve her husband of the worries he constantly carried, and how teasing brought out the child within andshe did that for Seth, and welcomed his bouts of playfulness

“No,” she said, while wondering what he’d do if she said yes “What do you need?” She slid the bar of soap up and down her ar to complete her bath and join his Afterward he’d walk her up the stairs and wish her good-night, at which point her longing to cross the hall and lie next to him would keep her awake for hours

The doorknob rattled “If I tell you what I really want, will you give it to me?”

The bar of soap shot out of her hand, landed on the floor with a thud

“Is that a yes?” he asked

Splashing to quickly rinse the last of the suds from her arms before her heart exploded, she searched for an answer to keep hi the tone that made her stomach simmer like a pot about to boil, and when he sounded like that the glow in his eyesout of the tub, she answered, “I’ll save my bathwater for you”

“You always save me your water”

She lifted a towel off the stool “There’s no sense wasting it”