Chapter 13: Say That Again

Henrik heard the lie land, and he stood up before he had decided to.

He had promised her. He had said, in his own kitchen, I'll follow your lead.

He had not known her lead would be this.

"Say that again," he said.

Over her mother's shoulder, Alana's eyes found his.

They were wide and wet and begging.

She gave one small shake of her head.

He had seen a lot of people ask him for things on a boat in bad water. He had never seen a look like that one.

Janice turned, with her arms still around her daughter.

"Henrik, what on earth..."

"You said you'd call Trenton tomorrow." He kept his voice flat. "Say that again."

"I said we would. Somebody has to."

"No," Henrik said. "Alana asked you not to. It's her decision, and she hasn't made it."

"She's frightened."

"Then let her be frightened at her own speed."

Janice stared at him.

Janice had always been able to make him feel small in his own kitchen, and he stood there and let her.

"You don't get a vote," she said quietly. "You haven't had one in this house since she was nine."

"I know."

It was the truest thing anybody had said at that table, and nobody there understood why he said it so gently.

He picked up three plates.

He carried them to the sink and set them down without a sound.

"I'm going to check the lines on the Maren."

"It's ten o'clock at night."

"Yes."

He took his jacket from the hook where Janice had hung her coat on top of it, and he went out.

The air on the dock was cold and smelled of tide.

He sat on the engine hatch with his elbows on his knees and looked at his hands.

He had been telling himself a story for five weeks.

It was a good story, and it fit him. A hard man with an old appetite, and a girl who could not say no to him, and a house with a door that stuck.

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