The spare room downstairs made a perfect office. He had brought several boxes full of files from the office in Quebec City as well as all his drafting tools from home, and figured to do a lot of work right here for the first few weeks. After that, he would have to spend some more time in Quebec City, and then they could all move in after the thaw. He felt confident that the plant would be a smashing success. Hell, maybe he would even get some recognition for a job well done, or at least move up in the ranks. For the first time since college, he began to feel good about his job and his future.

Later that afternoon, before Hank was to stop by with some papers to sign, he and Helen had a snowball fight in the front yard by the Toyota. He crouched as the fight became more intense, and the U-Haul, which was now unhooked and parked by the side of the house, became Helen’s fortress (he had arranged to return the trailer to a rental store in Fort Kent next week; until then, it seemed to have found a purpose).

As the snowballs whizzed by, and he snuck a peek at Helen’s flushed and laughing face from behind the car’s front bumper, he was reminded of the first time that he knew he had fallen in love with her. She had taken him to a James Taylor concert for his twenty-second birth- day, and on the way back they had stopped in a jazz club for a drink. The club was nothing special, just a hole in the wall, but when they walked in, Louis was singing the blues while the Duke played behind him with his big band, and for a moment it almost seemed as if they had stepped through time to the fifties. Of course, the music was canned and coming from the loudspeakers mounted on the wall, but the magic in the air stayed with them as they found a table in the dark and smoky rear of the club.

They ordered a couple of long-neck beers and leaned back, watching the people, feeling no need to talk. The concert had been great, holding hands and feeling each other close, even better. Halfway through the show, Helen had leaned to whisper in his ear, “I just love his voice,” and then let her head remain on his shoulder. The words weren’t important, but the touch on his shoulder was. He smelled the clean, soft scent of her hair and felt the softness of her cheek, and something stirred deep within him.