Page 43 of Home Ice

After backing the truck up to the roll door, I had the console loaded, strapped, and blanketed in twenty minutes. At my building’s loading dock, I had my tailgate, a ramp, and gravity on my side.

On the other end, it would require a two-man carry.

Rafe’s building had a move-in zone out front with a sign promising towing if I stayed in it past thirty minutes. I backed in and stepped inside to check the lobby. It had a leasing office that was dark, a package room with a keypad, and an enormous artificial tree. There was no doorman or desk.

I went back to the truck, put the tailgate down, and got my phone out.

Niko: I’m downstairs. Need a hand with something.

Thirty seconds later:

Rafe: coming

He came out forty seconds later in a T-shirt and no coat, and stopped when he saw what was on the tailgate.

“Oh,” he said.

“It’s a console.”

“I remember it from the shop.” He walked around the side of the truck, hands behind his back. “It’s yours.”

“It’s mine, but I’m loaning it to you.”

“No, I mean—you made it.”

“Four years ago, out of a beautiful slab of walnut.”

“Max said there was a table coming,” Rafe said. “For the shoot.”

“I’m replacing it with this.”

“Okay.” He paused. “Am I supposed to know why?”

I removed the straps.

“It’ll photograph better,” I said.

“Okay.”

I pulled the blanket off and folded it over my arm. Rafe looked at the full length of the piece. He reached out, but his fingers didn’t land.

“You can touch it,” I said. “It’s a table.”

He rested his palm on it and ran it down the length. Then he found the waney edge along the back, where the bark had come off and the shape of the tree remained. He slowly ran his thumb along it.

“That’s the outside of the tree,” I said.

“You left it.”

“That’s where it stopped growing. It seemed rude to cut it off square.”

He grinned, took his hand back, and joined me at the tailgate end.

“Where do you want me?”

“This end. Both hands under, fingers flat. If you hook the edge, you’ll lose a knuckle the first time we turn.”

He put his hands where I suggested. “On three?”