Is that what I am? She said. Marcus held her gaze. I don't know yet, he said. And he meant it.
And she knew he meant it and she didn't push and that the fact that she didn't push was somehow the most important thing that had happened in this house in 3 years. She turned back to the stove. Eggs, she said. Yeah, he said. Outside the river was starting slowly to drop.
But whatever had started inside that house, that conversation at the kitchen table, that hour of moving boxes in the dark, that light under the door at 4:00 in the morning, wasn't dropping at all. It was rising. The eggs were good. Marcus didn't say that out loud, but they were. Clare had found the cast iron skillet on the second shelf without being told where it was.
Had seasoned them with something she'd pulled from the back of his spice cabinet that he didn't even know he still had and had served them with toast that was actually toasted and not just warmed bread. He didn't say any of that. He ate and drank his coffee and watched the gray morning light start filling the kitchen. And across the table, Clare was doing the same thing, eating, without making conversation without filling the quiet with noise, which was something Marcus had forgotten was possible. Another person in the room.
Most people couldn't handle quiet. In his experience, the people who couldn't handle it were usually people who were afraid of what it let them hear. Clareire Bennett sat inside that quiet like she'd been living in it for years. When she finished, she stacked her plate on top of his and carried them both to the sink and washed them in the inch of water they'd saved in the basin before the well pump went off. She dried them with a dish towel and put them back in the cabinet.
And then she stood at the kitchen window with her coffee and looked out at the river. The dock still above water, she said. Barely, Marcus said. But barely is above. Yeah.
She didn't turn around. How long does it usually take to drop after the rain stops? 12 hours minimum. Could be 24. If there's runoff coming down from the ridge, she absorbed that.
Drank her coffee. So, we have today. The way she said it, not we're stuck. Not I'm stranded here, just we have today. Like it was a thing that had been given to them rather than a problem that had been imposed that landed somewhere between his ribs and didn't move.
We have today, he agreed. She turned around then, leaning back against the kitchen counter with her cup in both hands and studied him the way she'd been studying him since last night. Careful and direct and without apology. Tell me about the boats, she said. Marcus looked up.
What about them? You do repairs. You've got a shop near the marina. I've got a garage near the marina that I use as a shop. There's a difference, is there?
A shop has employees and inventory and a business license with a logo. I've got a workbench and a man named Earl who comes in twice a week to help me with the heavy stuff. Is Earl useful? Earl is 63 years old. Has done marine electrical since before I was born and can diagnose a bad solenoid by the way it smells.