Riley heard the low murmur of his voice down the hallway and Sophie's responses getting slower and quieter and then nothing. She changed into the flannel shirt. She sat on the couch with a blanket over her legs and looked at the fire. She realized, with a small shock, that her mind was quiet. Not empty, never empty, but quiet in the way it got sometimes in the middle of a long run when the thoughts stopped competing and just floated.
She couldn't remember the last time she'd sat in a room with a fire and no agenda. When Daniel came back, he sat in the chair Sophie had vacated and picked up a mug of coffee that had been sitting on the side table, presumably since before Riley arrived. "She was out in 40 seconds. " He said. "She's a good kid. She's the best person I know. " He said it without sentimentality, as a statement of observable fact.
They sat with the fire for a while. Outside, the snow continued without apology. "Does she always make hot chocolate for strangers? " Riley asked. "She makes hot chocolate for anyone who looks cold. " He turned the mug in his hands. She decided that's her job.
Noticing when people are cold, Riley looked at the fire. That's a good job to have. It is. Another silence, but not an uncomfortable one. The particular silence of people who have, without planning it, found themselves at ease with each other.
I'm sorry I'm keeping you up, Riley said. I was already up. A pause. I work late most nights. It's quiet.
He said the word quiet the same way Sophie had said Gerald prefers quiet things. Like quiet was something you earned, not something you were stuck with. She left the next morning when the storm broke, and she was back two days later. She told herself it was because she wanted to learn the basics of motorcycle maintenance. A plausible excuse.
Almost true. The Triumph was genuinely temperamental in cold weather, and she'd learned nothing from the Denver shop that had charged her three times what Daniel had. She did not examine the other reasons too closely. Daniel was not surprised to see her. He nodded at the Triumph when she pulled into the lot and said, Sophie ran out from behind the building in her winter coat and snow boots, having apparently been watching from the window.