Chapter 6: Take a Number

On Friday morning, at ten past six, the radio said, "Bridge, Aurora, request a lift."

I raised the span.

The Aurora passed under it and did not blow the usual single whistle.

She blew nothing at all, and she tied off at the dock.

The radio clicked.

"Bridge, Aurora. I'm not coming up."

I looked down at the canal, where he stood on the deck with the radio at his mouth.

"Why not, Captain?" I said.

"Term two," Mats said. "The bridge is yours."

"I haven't been asked."

I looked at the clock.

My relief would not come on until seven.

A freighter was due through at twenty to, a thousand feet of ore boat, and the span had to stay up the whole time.

I put down the handset.

I picked it up again.

"Aurora, Bridge," I said.

"Take a number is over. Come up."

He took the stairs three at a time.

The door shut behind him, and I locked it with my left hand and kept my right on the console.

"You asked," he said, breathless.

"I did."

"I've been holding that number for three weeks."

"Two weeks," I said. "Come here."

He crossed the room in two strides.

His hands went to my face, and he kissed me against the window with the whole gray lake behind my head.

It was not the kiss from the sauna.

It was hungry, and it went on until I had to pull away to breathe.

"For three years I've looked at this window," he said against my mouth.

"Every morning there was one light on in the glass, and someone moved in it, and I used to wave."

"I waved back," I said.

He went still.

"You didn't."

"At the Aurora's wheelhouse. Every morning. You thought I couldn't see."

He laughed, and I felt it down my whole body.

"Turn around," he said, low. "Face the water. Your hand stays on the lever."

I turned.

The ore boat's lights were coming up the channel, far out and slow.

I put my right hand on the lift lever and my left flat against the cold glass.

His hands came around my waist and under my sweater, and he took hold of my breasts.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Clinic Swore the Baby Was His, So He Stayed When It Wasn't from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.