Chapter 19: The Lake House

The lake house sat at the end of a gravel road, with a screened porch and a dock.

It had no neighbors for half a mile.

The Pell bridge had reopened that week.

I crossed it on Friday night with Mustard yowling in his carrier on the passenger seat.

Elias was waiting on the porch steps with a lantern.

"You found it," he said.

"The GPS gave up at the second mailbox."

"It does that."

Mustard stepped out of the carrier, looked at the lake, and stalked off the porch.

I laughed, and then my face went hot, and I put my hand over my mouth.

"What?" Elias said.

"I have eleven dollars in my pocket." My voice cracked. "That's what Colleen left me. Eleven dollars and a cat."

He came down the steps and took the carrier out of my hand and set it on the boards.

Then he pulled me against his chest.

"You have a lot more than that," he said into my hair.

"Name one thing."

"A town that watched you read a ledger out loud. A best friend with a truck. A screen the size of a barn door."

He pulled back and looked down at me.

"And me, if you want me."

"I want you."

"Then that's four."

I kissed him on the porch with the lantern swinging, and the whole lake was quiet.

We didn't make it past the kitchen.

He lifted me onto the counter beside the old enamel sink.

I wrapped my legs around his waist and tore at the buttons of his shirt.

He pulled my sweater off over my head, and then my T-shirt under it, and the lantern light turned his hands gold.

"You smell like the library," he said against my neck. "Paper and dust and something sweet."

"That's the hand lotion."

"I'm going to taste it."

He kissed down my throat and across my collarbone, and I gripped the edge of the counter.

He unhooked my bra and dropped it behind him, and his mouth closed on my breast.

I gasped and arched, and the cabinets rattled behind my head.

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