Chapter 110: She Had Set a Place for Him

Edrik looked at the chair, then at Dove’s hand on his sleeve. "I wasn’t planning to leave the building."

"I wasn’t asking whether you could hear me scream. I was asking you to have dinner. Sit down before I eat your rice."

Thorne unfolded the third chair beside the filing cabinet. Edrik sat, smiling as she pushed his plate toward him, and Dove decided she liked having that effect on him. Unfortunately, liking it did nothing to help her look him in the eye.

The next morning, rain hammered the auto shop’s roof. Their borrowed office opened into a waiting room, with the repair bays beyond it and the red pickup under a rear awning. Moving the seller’s empty shelves paid for two more nights. Their delivery was due in two days, so they could afford one day to fix the truck and another to test it.

First came her wash. Thorne held her hair away from the basin while she rinsed with pond water, then failed to look innocent when she caught him watching her neckline.

"Helpful husband or filthy pervert?" she asked, wringing out the cloth.

"I’ve been doing both for weeks. I’m surprised you only noticed."

She flicked water at him and went to inspect the truck before he could make a convincing argument for staying indoors.

It was a red four-door pickup with a long bed and an interior that smelled like wet upholstery. Dove opened the passenger door and found an old french fry beside the seat. Somehow that made it feel more like a car than the steering wheel did.

"Oh, good. The apocalypse left us a snack." Edrik took the shriveled fry from her and threw it away. "You’re not that hungry."

"You haven’t seen the way I eat after work."

He opened the hood. He had maintained vehicles on jobs before, he explained, but metal strength wouldn’t fix a ruined engine. The seller watched him check for damage, then admitted he had a charged battery they could borrow for a test. He wasn’t giving it away with a truck that might never move.

The starter turned with that battery connected. The engine caught, coughed, and died. Dove’s hopeful smile lasted about three seconds. Could Sprout sell a replacement part? It offered its current shop listings, which were no help at all. She shut them and asked Edrik what he needed.

"Rude," she told it. "I was already imagining air-conditioning."

Edrik found a split hose and showed it to the seller. They could look for a replacement in the shop’s bins. Thorne freed a bent hood latch, then waited for Edrik to point out what actually needed moving. Neither man pretended a stronger piece of metal would make fuel appear.

Sprout supplied three extra-large sleeping bags for Day Fifty. Two needed buyers. The seller took those two for pasta, sauce, and a hand mirror while they discussed a separate price for the pickup.

If it passed a proper test, he wanted the blocked service drive cleared and his warped bay door repaired, and two owned battery packs from their supplies. That included the truck, the working battery, and one measured can of fuel. Dove made him write it down before Thorne touched the door.

"If it dies before we’re out of your driveway, you’re getting it back," she said.

"You’re hard to please." "Wait until you meet my husband. He’s the polite one."

Thorne smiled without showing his teeth. The seller fetched the hose bins.

Dove paid four Favor to keep the third sleeping bag and handed it to Edrik. "This one actually fits you. Try sleeping without your feet sticking out like a sad picnic."

He ran his hand over the fabric, then looked at her. His quiet thank-you made her want to hide behind the hood. Sprout counted his pleased surprise toward her daily Favor target, and Dove dismissed the screen before it could suggest she congratulate herself.

While the men worked, she cleaned the cab and stored loose tools separately. Thorne later hunted in the nearby woods while Edrik stayed with her. He brought back a rabbit, and she took one look at the cleaning involved before turning firmly toward her perfectly innocent truck.

"I support dinner. I don’t need to attend its preparation."

By evening, the roast rabbit smelled of garlic and pepper. She tried a bite with rice and vegetables, then took another before Thorne could ask.

"Don’t look smug. It’s good. The part before the pan was still disgusting."

He passed her more meat. "I’ll remember to introduce you after dinner next time."

They ate at the folding table inside the office. Their bedrolls lay behind the desk, Edrik’s new sleeping bag waited in the front room, and the washstand stood beside the cabinet. Dove could reach everything from her chair, and the rain stayed outside. She wanted to get moving, but she would miss having dinner like this.

Dove asked Edrik what food he liked, warning him that whatever she served was a lazy answer. He admitted he liked heat, savory food, and sweets he didn’t have to split with a dozen men.

"Terrible news," she said, moving the chocolate pretzels between them. "You’ve found one very demanding woman instead."

"I’d noticed," he said, reaching for the packet. Thorne stole one while Dove watched Edrik. She caught his wrist, claimed half, and let him pull her chair against his.

"I miss fries and a movie," she said after a while. "Just deciding to waste an evening. No weather report, no armed idiot, nobody trying to buy me with jewelry."

Edrik asked which movie. She described a ridiculous comedy until Thorne laughed against her hair and the bear demanded to know how anyone could lose a parked car. It felt good to explain something that didn’t decide whether they stayed warm that night.

Kael would have listened, too, once he finished wondering whether it was another trick. She hoped he was eating properly. Missing the few kind moments didn’t mean she had forgotten the suspicion that came with them.

After dinner, the truck started again. This time it kept running. Dove hurried onto the sheltered apron, grinning at the sound, while Edrik listened beneath the raised hood.

"Tell me that’s a good noise," she called. He lowered the hood and held up the keys. "Tomorrow we find out whether it stops as well as it starts."

Dove looked at the flooded road beyond the driveway. She wanted those keys badly enough that she was already trying not to picture what happened if the answer was no.