William threw the rock into the snow and took off his robe. “You could have really hurt me,” he said, lowering himself into the steaming water.
“You scared the hell out of me,” Sam said.
“I just came out of the basement bulkhead door, that’s all. You really do have the most pronounced startle reflex.”
“Sorry,” Sam said. Sorry not sorry, she thought. Perhaps she had a pronounced startle reflex because there’d been a woman hiding with a knife in their bedroom closet, but she didn’t want to open that argument again.
William settled into his usual position facing the lake. He scooped water onto his face and sighed.
“We have a problem, Simone,” he said.
Sam’s stomach dropped. She had the feeling she always did at these moments, as if he’d opened a trapdoor beneath her that even she hadn’t known was there. Please don’t end it, she thought. Don’t send me away.
“What is it?” she said warily.
“You’re too far from me. Come here.”
Sam slid over to her customary spot between William’s knees. He rested his chin on the tendon between her neck and shoulder.
“There,” he said, settling her back against his chest. “Isn’t that better?”
“It doesn’t suck,” Sam said.
There was anothercrack! and Sam flinched. William’s arms tightened around her.
“I’ve got you,” he said. “And it’s just the ice.”
Sam nodded. There had been a thaw that afternoon, the temperature rising into the twenties from subzero, and the ice was expanding, producing its usual symphony of weird noises. Booms, space lasers, deep moans. When Sam first arrived, she’d said to William,I know this is ridiculous, but do you have...whaleshere?Sometimes the ice sounded like those big creatures communicating to each other underwater, the tenderest and most forlorn sound Sam had ever heard.
“Here’s our problem,” William said. “I’ve done everything I can to convince you that you’re safe here with me. And it’s not enough. You still don’t believe me, do you.”
Sam shook her head, reluctantly. “I don’t. I’m sorry. It’s not anything you’ve done or not done. You’ve been a splendid host. And I do love it here. It’s otherworldly beautiful. It’s just...”
“You don’t feel safe.”
“Right. I don’t.”
“Then that’s a dealbreaker,” said William. “We can’t go on this way.”
Oh God, Sam thought. Here we go again.
“What if...” William paused so long, Sam turned to look back at him. “A minute, beloved. This scares me a little. It’s hard to say.”
Sam felt him breathing beneath her, his stomach like a bellows.
“What if we look for another house? Together?”
“Seriously? Do you mean it?”
“I do,” he said.
Sam twisted fully around in the water. “Oh, yes,” she said. “Yes, William! Yes yes!”
He grinned. “I love making you say that. What if we both come up with a wish list of what we want in a living space, then compare? I won’t live in a city, Simone. That’s not for me. But I would consider a university town—provided we had adequate privacy.”
“That’s perfect,” said Sam. “Thank you. You don’t know what this means to me.”
William moved her off his lap so he could submerge fully, then burst out of the water with aPah!He slicked his hair back, looking like the world’s most elegant nude headwaiter, and pulled Sam to him in the center of the tub so they floated nose to nose.
