On the other hand, the Ford F250 was parked in the driveway of Wyanet Chouinard. He had free access to Wys kitchen, Wys laundry room and Wys bathroom. He had free access to Wy, when Tim wasnt home, as the door to Wys bedroom was six feet down the hall from Wys bathroom. Even if the bed in that bedroom was smaller than the one in the Jayco popup, Wy was in that bed, and he didnt really give a damn if his knees stuck out over one end of it and his head and shoulders the other.

Of course, Tim was home now, having returned from fish camp the day before to start school the day after Labor Day, so nights in Wys bed, comfortable or not, would be severely curtailed. Shed made that clear last night. “No hanky-panky with the boy in the house.

“Is it hanky-panky if were married?

“We arent married.

“Then lets get married.

“Not yet was all she would say. “Not yet.

He rolled over on his back and stared at the ceiling fourteen inches from his nose, thinking of her less than fifty feet away, waking up in her bed. She slept in T-shirts, no panties. Handy, as he woke up with an erection pretty much every morning. Hed certainly put it to good use during the last month.

Not this morning. He cursed his way out of bed, stamped his legs into sweats and let himself out of the camper. He stretched and examined the southeastern horizon, where most of Newenhams weather came from. Partly cloudy, looked like. He lowered his eyes and stood for a moment regarding the Ford F250. At least it was a boy truck.

“A boy truck? Wy had said.

“As opposed to a girl truck, Liam said.

“And a girl truck is?

“A smaller truck. Like a Ford Ranger, or a Dakota Sport.

She looked from the big brown truck to the little gray truck parked next to it. “Like my truck, do you mean? My trucks a girl truck?

“No, your trucks an old mans truck.

“Why?

“Because its rusty and all the bumpers are dented and it needs a ring job and a front-end alignment and you have to hold the door on the canopy open with a bungee cord and add a quart of oil with every second or third gas tank, but it still runs. That makes it an old mans truck.

“Ah. So big trucks are boy trucks and little trucks are girl trucks, except for little trucks that need paint jobs, which are old mens trucks.

“Yes, he said. “Except for any truck of any size painted banana yellow.

“Oh.

“Or lipstick red.

“Uh-huh, she said.

“Then its a girl truck.

“Right.

Except for the subject matter, it had been a repeat of one of those nothing and everything conversations they had so delighted in when they had first met, three years and a lifetime ago. In the interim, he had lost his wife and his son to a drunken driver, and very nearly his job as well, and she had acquired a new home, an air taxi and an adolescent son. They were still getting to know each other, feeling their way, on a direct heading, he hoped, for a permanent relationship, formalized by the local magistrate and vows, the whole nine yards. Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made. Browning, not his favorite poet, but this time right on the mark.