Chapter 9: The Gas Station

Stian's POV

I found her on the porch steps at ten at night with no coat on.

Dawn sat with her arms wrapped around her knees, looking at the harbor lights.

I put a mug of tea in her hands and sat one step below, so she didn't have to look at me.

"You'll freeze," I said.

"I'm checking whether I can still feel it."

"Feel what?"

"Anything that isn't him."

I didn't answer that.

Driving a plow at four in the morning teaches you to leave some silences alone.

She drank the tea.

After a while she said, "He asked me not to take it from him. The money."

"You didn't."

"He said it's the only thing that's his."

"Then he's a poor man," I said. "Even with your hundred and seventy-six thousand."

She laughed, and it caught halfway.

I took off my own jacket and put it around her shoulders without asking.

She let me.

Her rule from the market hung over us both, so I kept my hands where they belonged and said nothing else.

At eleven, Ellie called through the window that she was out of butter for the morning bake.

I took the truck to the gas station on the highway.

It stays open all night and sells everything from antifreeze to pie.

The lot was nearly empty.

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