Chapter 134: If She Touched It, She Was Taking It

"Stop trying the switch," Dove told the caretaker. "Show me which crates won’t fit through the front office. We move those first."

The generator had stopped, but they were standing beside the cold room, not at the bottom of the flooded yard. There was still a route out. The office doorway was narrow, so they would have to break down the largest loads unless Thorne could clear the rear shutter for a short trip around the outside wall.

Her husband checked the ground through the gap and shook his head. Water was spreading behind the pad faster than he liked. Dove looked once and agreed. She wasn’t sending him into brown water so she could avoid opening a box.

"Front door, smaller loads," she said. "Nobody gets swept away over chicken. I have standards."

"You’ve also got two husbands," Edrik said, pulling the flat dolly closer. "Use them."

"I’m trying. You keep talking."

He grinned and took the first crate. Dove loved that expression, and right now she needed it attached to a man carrying food toward the front door. She pointed, and he went without making her spend another minute proving she was serious.

The stuck shutter blocked the dry cartons in the roofed dock recess. Thorne pressed his hand against the bent guide while Edrik held an existing support bar in place. The metal shifted with a low scrape. Edrik reinforced the bar while the caretaker rolled the last dry cartons inside. Everyone cleared the shutter before he let go.

Nobody needed the shutter fully open. They needed the things trapped behind it on their side. Dove kept the middle aisle clear and marked the recovered cartons with chalk so their share couldn’t quietly become somebody else’s when everyone got tired.

She checked the colder goods with the caretaker again. Containers with uncertain records stayed out of their agreement. The rest went straight from the cold room into covered carriers for the short trip back to the yard cook. Their own insulated carrier could slow warming; her space could not stop it.

"If you’re about to offer a magical freezer, now would be an excellent time," she told Sprout.

"No such upgrade is currently available."

"Of course not. If I needed a bra with tassels, you’d have twelve colors."

Thorne looked over when she snorted. She shook her head and handed him a box. Edrik had learned enough about Sprout to recognize the expression, but he waited until the caretaker went ahead before asking whether it had suggested another husband.

"Worse. It was reasonable. Very upsetting."

Her men laughed, and the quiet coin notice waited at the side of her view. Dove left it there, opened a crate, and touched the smaller packages one at a time to store them. She didn’t take the whole crate. After the sixth package her head felt light, so she stopped and sat on the dolly’s clear edge.

Thorne brought her water. No lecture, no lifting her away from the job, just the bottle opened and held where she could reach it. Dove drank, then tugged his wrist before he went back.

"Thank you for not making a fuss."

"Thank you for sitting down before I had to catch you."

"We’re becoming horribly reasonable. Kiss me before it gets worse."

He did, quick and warm, with his fingers brushing her cheek. She rested another minute while Edrik carried the packages she had left. Watching someone else work didn’t feel like losing when she knew what still needed doing.

The caretaker tried to stack the coffee against a damp wall. Dove sent it to the front instead. Water could ruin dry stock just as thoroughly as broken cold storage could ruin dinner, and she wasn’t spending her reward on a sack of wet mush tomorrow.

When her head cleared, she joined Thorne in the office and searched the remaining approved shelves. Tape, a sealed box of garbage liners, two good flashlights without batteries, and a packet of clean dishcloths came out with them. She checked that neither switch was broken and kept both to test once she fitted batteries. Useful didn’t have to mean useful this second.

Edrik put the heavier goods in the cart. He had rolled his sleeves above his forearms, and Dove found herself watching the muscles move while he tightened a strap. He caught her looking and held the buckle out.

"Do you want to check this?"

"I was checking something else. You’re fine. Keep going."

His smile turned slow enough to warm her face. The caretaker came through the office carrying another tray, and Edrik’s attention moved straight back to the work. Dove appreciated that almost as much as the view.

They counted the recovered food together once the path was clear. The caretaker honored the quarter share, dividing the chicken, prepared vegetables, and sealed cheese between them as agreed. Dove took the agreed quarter share and refused extra trays nobody could keep cold.

He offered more dry goods for another trip, but Thorne checked the rear yard through the window. Water had reached the lower doorway. Dove refused before her husband had to argue with her.

"We got what we came for. I’m not getting greedy in a building that’s turning into a pond."

Edrik looked at their loaded cart, then back at her. "You were greedy before the water arrived."

"And look how well it went. Come on."

The caretaker left by the front with his workers. Thorne and Edrik transferred their share from the handcart to the pickup and tied it down. Dove held the light food carrier in the cab while Edrik drove uphill. She watched the warehouse shrink behind them, glad they had stopped taking chances when they did.

At the freight yard, the lunch line still stretched past the cooking shed. The smell of fried onions reached her before they reached the gate. She looked at the food, then at the men carrying their empty plates toward the cook.

They couldn’t eat all this before it warmed. They didn’t need to. Dove patted Thorne’s shoulder and pointed toward the kitchen. "There’s our kitchen, handsome. We’re about to be very popular at lunch."