Chapter 7: The Lake

The lake did not look like water.

It looked like the edge of the world, flat and pewter-gray, with a line of pink laid along the far rim.

Jasper's grandfather had built a cabin above the rocks north of Two Harbors, and we reached it at a quarter to six.

I was still in the green dress, with his coat on top and a pair of his wool socks pulled up to my knees.

I stood on the stones with my hem in my fist and my bare calves stinging in the wind.

"It's thirty-eight degrees," Jasper said from the porch.

"I know."

"The water is colder."

"I know," I said, and walked in.

The first wave hit my shins and took my breath clean out of me.

I laughed, because I couldn't do anything else.

The second wave came to my knees, and the cold went straight up through my spine and into my teeth.

Behind me the sky tore open.

A thin gold edge slid over the water, and the pink turned to orange, and then the whole lake caught fire.

I stood in it with my arms out, and I thought, I'm here, I am here, I am actually here.

When I finally looked back, Jasper was at the water's edge with his shoes in his hand.

He had rolled his trousers to the knee.

He waded in beside me, swore softly at the cold, and stood there shoulder to shoulder with me.

We watched the sun clear the horizon.

"Item five," he said.

"Item five."

My teeth were chattering.

He picked me up without asking, one arm under my knees, and carried me up the beach.

I didn't protest.

The cabin had a wood stove, a quilt on a low iron bed, and one window facing the lake.

He set me down in front of the stove and knelt to light it, and I watched his broad back flex under the wet shirt.

The fire caught.

The room went gold.

I peeled off his coat and dropped it, and then stood there in the soaked green silk, shaking.

"Take that off," he said, without turning around. "You'll freeze."

"Come here."

He stood up slowly.

He saw my face, and the look on his went still and careful.

"Dinah."

"Item six," I said.

I reached into my wallet-sized bag and took out the card, and it was a crumpled soft thing.

I held it up so he could read my handwriting.

Take one thing I want and not apologize.

"This one isn't the deal," I said. "It's not in the contract, and you didn't pay for it. It's mine."

"I know that."

"I want you."

He didn't move.

"I've wanted you since the elevator," I said. "I've wanted you since you read it and didn't make a face."

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