It seemed safest to go with the broad strokes of the version Inga had told Nita. “I was hiking the coast in my shift form,” Luke said, and Stieg gave him an impressed look, shaggy eyebrows raised. “I’m a bear.”
He faltered, and Inga waved goodbye to Nita before picking up the story, sensing perhaps how much Luke hated lying about it. “It was just him and Rogue, his dog. They were living off the land. Pretty impressive, huh? Just like the old days. I met him out there and we both decided he’d maybe take a break for a while. I invited him back here to see the town. He’s wearingsome of Tor’s old clothes because he didn’t have anything else with him.”
Stieg slapped Luke on the back, making him stagger. “Now that’s what I call a man after my own heart! You can tell us all your adventures over a few beers and a good hearty supper.”
Luke gave Inga a wordless, wide-eyed look.
“Dad,” Inga said, taking her dad’s elbow. “We’ve just motored down from the cabin, and we’re all tired and need showers. Let’s take Luke up to the house, I can show him around and get him settled in, andif he feels like it, we can talk over dinner. Are Tor and Bernie still staying at the house?”
Stieg shook his head. “They’re back up at the lighthouse for now. Said they missed their own bed, and running up and down to feed the cat was too much trouble. I told ‘em they could bring the cat down if they wanted to.”
“Oh, Dad, you don’t want that cat in your house. Trust me on this.”
The house was nice inside, a large open-plan living room/kitchen with exposed wood and big, comfortable furniture and huge windows looking out on the bay. Stieg showed Luke to a guest bedroom that also had a view of the water, and left him with some clean clothes, towels, and a packaged razor and toothbrush.
In Luke’s opinion, the following long, hot shower was right up there with the best showers of his entire life.
The only thing that would have made it better was having Inga in it with him. He kept thinking about last night, and their quick, furtive mutual masturbation session. They were now in her dad’s house, and he wasn’t sure what, exactly, she’d be up for. But his entire body was telling him that he wanted whatever she was ready to give.
The awkwardness that he had feared at dinner never materialized. They had a simple, hearty meal of pot roast thathad apparently been simmering all afternoon, fresh bread, and a salad. (Rogue enjoyed his share of the first two in a bowl on the floor.) Luke found that he got along well with Inga’s dad. He was able to brush off most of Stieg’s questions with brief anecdotes or half-truths, and for the most part, he let Stieg carry the conversation, which the old fisherman was more than happy to do.
Luke found himself crashing early, and excused himself after helping wash the dishes. But then he lay awake in the guest bed, listening to the sounds of Inga and her dad going through their evening routine. The shower ran for a while. And then there were soft, furtive steps in the hall, and the door opened.
“Are you awake?” Inga called softly.
Luke rolled over and sat up. “I definitely am now.”
Inga came in, and slipped into his bed wearing nothing but a bathrobe, which she shed on the floor as she climbed in with him. She had showered the salt and grime out of her hair, and she smelled delicious, like strawberries and vanilla. It must be some kind of shampoo, but it made her smell good enough to eat.
Which was, in a way, exactly what he did, and a lot more.
She hadn’t neglected to bring condoms this time.
INGA
Inga wokeby habit at the first rays of the sun through the window, which was getting to be hellaciously early at this time of year. Luke lay beside her in a deep heavy sleep, head turned to the side and mouth slightly open. He must be exhausted. Inga wondered when he’d last had the chance to sleep in a real bed. Even the bunks at the cabin had been somewhat rudimentary.
She slid quietly out of bed without waking him, which truly must be a measure of his need for sleep, and donned her discarded bathrobe. She cracked the door and peeked out into the empty hallway and the living room beyond. All lay quiet and peaceful, lit by the rising sun. All she had to do was tiptoe to her bedroom, grab some clean underwear, and hop in the shower with no one the wiser. Easily done.
She made it halfway there.
“Mornin’, love!” A shadow fell across her as her dad loomed out of a previously unseen part of the living room, clad in his favorite threadbare gray robe, cup of coffee in one hand and a copy ofSport Fishing Monthlyin the other. “Sleep okay?”
Inga froze in mid-step like a cartoon character whose concealing fake bush had just been snatched away, her bare toes just touching the floorboards. “Uh, yeah, Dad, I slept great.”They were both whispering, which meant that her dad clearly knew Luke was still asleep.
“Coffee’s on whenever you want it,” her dad said casually, and headed back into the living room.
“Thanks,” she said weakly to his back. Oh yeah,nowshe noticed the faint smell of coffee, finally making its way back here. There was no way he could have failed to notice that she was unambiguously headed from Luke’s room to her own, wearing nothing but a robe.
Maybe she could just hide in the bathroom forever.
Her dad didn’t reappear, and she felt a little better after a long shower, changed into clean jeans and a loose, oversized fisherman’s sweater. With a pair of heavy wool socks protecting her feet from the chilly floor, she padded into the living room, poured herself a cup of coffee, and picked up a donut from an open box beside the stove. Rogue, laying on a rug in front of the door, raised his head and thumped his tail, but didn’t get up when it became clear that no treats were on offer.
Her dad was reading his magazine on the couch in front of the big picture windows, with the entire sea spread out in front of him, the sky streaming pink-tinged clouds lit with morning sunlight. Inga was tempted once again to simply slink off, but she got herself together and went to sit on the other end of the couch.
“I love this view,” she said quietly.
After a moment, her dad lowered his magazine and reached for the coffee cup. His reading glasses were perched on the end of his nose—always strange to see, which she was so much more used to those blue eyes squinting at the horizon, sunk deep in nests of sun-wrinkles.
