I Chose a New Life novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Storm Night

Cliff did not ask me anything on the ride back.

I sat on the bench in the stern with my knees pulled up, and he left me alone and kept the wheel steady.

By the time we reached Bayfield the sky had gone dark gray.

"Storm's coming," he said, tying off the lines. "Trips are canceled. It'll be here in twenty minutes."

"I'm not going back to the inn yet."

"Okay."

"I don't want to be somewhere with people."

He looked at me for a long moment.

"There's a stove in the cabin," he said. "And a bunk. And a door that locks."

"That's the right amount of things."

We went below as the first drops hit the deck.

The cabin of the Grayling was small and warm and smelled of coffee and rope and clean wool.

He lit the little stove and put the kettle on.

I stood in the middle of the floor with my wet hair in my face and told him everything Roxana had said.

When I got to the scar, he put the kettle down.

When I got to the dock at seven, I stopped, because I wasn't ready yet.

"So it wasn't only me," I said. "It was never going to be only me. He needed a new one."

"He's not going to get one."

"I know. It doesn't make me feel better."

"I know that too."

The rain started in earnest, hammering the roof.

Thunder rolled across the bay.

"Cliff," I said. "I'm going to say something and I need you not to be kind about it."

"All right."

"I want one summer."

He went very still.

"I don't want a boyfriend. I don't want promises or a future or a ring.

"I want you, until the end of the season, because you didn't laugh, and because I'm tired of being careful.

"When September comes, we say thank you, and I go find out who I am."

Something moved across his face and was gone.

"That's the whole offer?"

"That's the whole offer."

He crossed the cabin in two steps.

"One summer," he said. "Starting now?"

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