I Tried to Evict My Three Tenants, So They Moved Into My Bed novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Fleet Is Lit

Marit's POV

On Christmas Eve the whole river was strung with light.

Every boat in the Astoria fleet that could float went down the channel with its rigging lit, red and green and white.

The horns answered one another from the east basin to the bridge.

The Ingrid Marie wore a crab pot on her wheelhouse roof, wrapped in so many bulbs that Henrik called it the tree.

Jussi had done it himself.

He stood at the helm in his good wool sweater with the cap pushed back, grinning at the glass.

"Henrik says it's tacky," he told me.

"It's the best thing on the river," I said.

"I know," said Jussi, delighted.

Gunnar and Henrik stood on the afterdeck with paper cups of cider, watching the lights go by.

Jussi throttled down and let the boat idle in the channel, and the horns sounded all around us.

Then he took an envelope from the shelf above the compass and put it in my hands.

It was thick and white, with one word on the front in his blunt capitals.

DAG.

"The season opened on Tuesday," he said.

"The first landing paid at the dock this morning. Fourteen thousand dollars, Mari. It's what I had."

"It's the eight thousand, with eleven years of interest at five percent, rounded up. I did the arithmetic on my knees in the bunk."

He was not laughing.

His hands were open at his sides, and he waited for me to speak.

"This isn't from the loan money," I said.

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