I Chose a New Life novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Sales Floor

Cliff's POV

I took the first boat to the mainland on Wednesday and drove the two hours to Duluth in my old truck without turning on the radio.

Ellery Marine sat on the lake road, a glass showroom with forty boats on trailers out front.

There was a banner across the roof that said INDEPENDENCE SALE.

I had seen the sign every time I drove past, and it had never once occurred to me that my own engine loan was in a file inside that building.

I parked in the customer lot.

Before I got out, I took my phone, started the voice recorder and slid it into my shirt pocket with the microphone up.

Della had said, You can fix it by being useful.

I didn't have a plan beyond that.

Inside, the air conditioning hit me.

Twelve or fifteen customers wandered the floor with salesmen in blue polos.

Bennett stood by the biggest boat in the room, a white cruiser with a chrome rail, laughing with a couple in matching vests.

He wore the same cuff links I had seen on the dock.

He saw me when I was twenty feet away.

His face went through three things in a second, and settled on delighted.

"Captain," he said. "What a surprise. Folks, this is the man who runs the best ferry on the lake. Cliff, are you here to buy?"

"No."

"Looking for engine parts? We can do a fleet discount."

"I'm here about Della."

The smile stayed.

The couple in vests started drifting toward the next boat.

"Of course you are," Bennett said easily. "She told you some story. You seem like a decent guy. Walk with me."

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Chose a New Life from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.