Chapter 132: She Wasn’t Paying Extra for the Husbands

The driver arrived the next morning while Dove was trying to eat a sausage biscuit without dropping half of it down her shirt. She recognized his laugh before his face, and waved him over with her clean hand. Thorne caught the falling piece of biscuit without comment, which was the sort of marriage service she intended to encourage.

"You’re the lady with the pizza," the driver said. He put his travel bag beside the waiting bench. "I wondered if you’d come west."

"Working on it. Apparently my cooking needs a reference before they’ll let me sell it somewhere with plumbing."

He had watched her work at Quarry and knew the receiving staff in B. When she explained the application, he went inside with her and signed it. No private dinner, no sudden fee, no suggestion that her husbands would be happier somewhere else. Dove almost distrusted how easy it was.

Ellis priced a convoy place for their pickup, measured fuel for the agreed route, and help if it broke down. The deposit and balance came to six canned meals, two coffee packs, and a spare tarp. Dove counted out owned goods, pleased that extra coffee from the convenience store had bought more than a completed task.

"Our truck stays with us," she said, checking the form. "And if B refuses the permit?"

"You can stay at the receiving hostel while you arrange another place or leave," the driver answered. "Nobody owns you because you followed our trucks."

"Beautiful. Put that man in charge of more conversations."

Edrik’s quiet laugh came from beside her. Sprout awarded two Favor for his amusement, and Dove dismissed the corner notice before accepting their travel slip. The convoy left at eight tomorrow. She paid another annex night with two household cans and a bag of rice, then let herself stop worrying about beds for five whole minutes.

Outside, Thorne took the empty breakfast plate from her. "You did it."

"I noticed. I was there being very impressive."

He kissed her forehead, and her grin softened before she could help it. She caught his shirt and kept him close for another kiss, pleased when his tail moved against her leg. Edrik watched from beside the cart cage with her coat folded over his arm. She held out her hand for him too.

Day Sixty-Seven had already given her a pond-water wash, four family cutlery sets, and Sprout suggesting she display them with a romantic dinner setting. Selling three sets paid thirty normal coins. The Favor target was twelve fresh coins, the exercise reward remained three, and she needed one new stored item while they stayed at the yard.

"Anyone buying knives from me is getting a fork, not a date," she’d told it. Her husbands already supplied several of the reactions it wanted. Sprout seemed particularly pleased when Edrik kissed the back of her hand and she forgot what she had been saying.

Three drivers and a kitchen worker bought the sets before lunch. Their payments included shelf-stable milk, rice, cooking oil, and a sealed bag of raisins. Dove stored the raisins, completed her exercise through practice and moving stock, and packed all four empty wrappers. Nothing needed keeping or returning today.

The driver found her arranging the remaining household goods. She asked him about the stops between here and B, then about the buildings near those stops. He marked the planned route with a finger, amused when she asked whether a grocery store still had its stockroom doors.

"You’re going to slow us down for chips?"

"Depends on the chips. Where’s the next loading stop?"

He gave her the times, then pointed toward a road behind the maintenance yard. A distribution warehouse stood less than a mile away. Its caretaker had kept one cold room running through the freeze, but the generator had been coughing all morning. The cook here had bought from him before.

"He’s offering a share if anyone can help clear it," the driver said. "The rear bridge won’t last if the water keeps rising."

Dove looked toward the kitchen yard, where crews were lining up for lunch. Cold food needed using. Drivers needed feeding. She wasn’t going to save a warehouse out of kindness and then pay to eat her own work, but a proper share was worth discussing.

Sprout opened a new tab beside her goods list. Local Salvage Leads had become available with the household shelf. Dove stopped turning her pencil and read the description before letting herself get excited.

"Can you actually tell me where the goods are?"

"I can organize locations and conditions you learn about. Reports may be wrong or outdated. I cannot inspect a building you have not visited."

"So the driver does the useful bit and you make it pretty."

"I also offer selected recovery objectives. Forty-five normal coins for recovering an agreed share from this lead and putting the perishable portion to use today. Acceptance is optional."

Dove checked the rest. It couldn’t make rotten food safe, confirm a stranger’s ownership, or move anything without her. The daily tasks remained separate. She accepted after asking Thorne and Edrik to look at the route with her. Both preferred the higher front entrance to the narrow bridge behind the building.

"You can say if you hate the idea," she told them.

"I hate the water crossing," Edrik said. "I like you leaving tomorrow with more food. We use the front."

Thorne tapped the road on the map. "And you tell us when storing things makes you tired, before you fall over trying to take the shelves."

"You’re both very suspicious of a woman who hasn’t stolen a shelf yet."

"You’ve looked at several," Edrik said, and Sprout counted their amusement while she folded the map.

She collected their cart from the cage, loaded it into the pickup, and left the stranger’s named bag in its separate hold. The cot stayed strapped flat beneath the crates. Thorne packed extra water where all three could reach it, while Edrik took the empty food carrier and the thick gloves she’d found by the road.

A warehouse worker came through the gate before they left. His pants were wet to the knee. He caught the driver beside the noticeboard and pointed back down the road.

"If anybody’s going, use the front entrance. The bridge had water under it this morning. It’s coming over it now."

Dove looked at the room left in their truck bed, then at the marked road. They could still do this, but the easy way out of that warehouse had just disappeared.