I Chose a New Life novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: After

At five o'clock, a man in a blue polo came down the dock for the keys.

Cliff was waiting on the office step, with the ring of them in his palm.

The sun was low and orange on the water.

Behind us, the tent had emptied.

All afternoon people had come to say something to Roxana, and to me, and then to Cliff.

The man held out his hand.

Cliff looked at the keys for a moment.

Then he dropped them into the man's open hand.

"Have a nice evening, Captain," the man said, not meeting his eye, and walked up the ramp to where the ferry sat.

I took Cliff's hand.

He gripped it hard and said nothing.

Rhoda came down the dock with Roxana under one arm and the inn's gray dog trotting behind.

"I'm taking this one home," she said. "She's had a day. There's a pot roast. Don't wait up."

"Rhoda," I said.

"Don't wait up, I said. Twice."

She winked.

Roxana stopped in front of me and put her arms around my neck without a word.

She smelled of Rhoda's laundry soap.

"Thank you," she said into my shoulder.

"You pressed play."

"You stood up there with me."

"We both did."

She let go, and went up the dock, and the dog went with her.

Then it was just the two of us and the lake, and a slip where the ferry had been.

"I have nothing," Cliff said.

"You have a house."

"With a loan on it."

"You have a house tonight."

He turned his head and looked at me for a long time.

"Come home with me," he said.

We went in the dark with the porch light off, and the green door shut behind us.

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