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“Yeah, and I spent time in the sandbox, same as you, I’d guess.”
Gunn raised his coffee cup in salute. “Navy SEAL.”
“Army Ranger.”
Gunn nodded. “Good to know.”
Perry brought two plates with scrambled eggs and placed them in front of Maddie and Gunn. Then he pulled a bottle of Tabasco from his pants pocket and set it on the table. “Makes everything taste better.”
Maddie laughed. “I like powdered eggs.”
“Says no one,ever,” he said, then walked away.
Nate dropped forks, knives, a butter dish, and a bottle of honey on the table.
Gunn twisted the cap off the Tabasco and sprinkled it liberally on his eggs. Then he plucked two biscuits from the plate.
“Don’t be shy about the biscuits,” she said. “He’ll make plenty. We all burn a lot of calories in the cold.”
He plucked up two more, split them open, and then applied butter and honey before he picked up his fork.
“Meat is something we leave for the main dish at dinner, so the protein from the powdered eggs has to tide us over until then,” she said. “We had all our foodstuffs and supplies delivered by boat at the start of the season. We keep it all in the warehouse. Mostly canned and dried goods.”
“Canned meat,” Nate said. “Yum.”
“We do have some preserved, non-canned meats, like summer sausage and some dried jerky, but yeah, lots of canned meat.”
“Unless we have good weather,” Nate said, “and then a couple of us go out in kayaks to fish.”
Gunn raised his eyebrows. “You go out on the open water…in winter?”
Nate grinned. “If you’re here long enough, we’ll take you with us.”
Perry shook his head. “Him and Eric. Crazy bastards. They’ve lost catches to seals before. And where there are seals…”
“There can be polar bears,” Maddie said. Then she turned to Gunn. “All we’re waiting for is for the sky to get a little lighter, and then we can head out. I know you’re probably antsy and used to people who work at a faster pace. Our pace slows in the dark, but when we have daylight, we speed up so we can make full use of those precious hours.”
“We do have work when we come back inside,” Nate said, “but there are hours and hours left after the work to fill. If you don’t play games, love movies, or have a hobby, it can be deadly dull.” Nate shrugged. “I paint.”
Gunn grinned. “Seriously?”
Nate shrugged. “Yeah, gouache and watercolors. Very portable and not so messy. I’ve done some landscapes of the ice, but mostly I paint places I’ve traveled—old ruins, beaches—whatever I have saved in my phone.”
“He’s getting really good,” Maddie said.
Nate’s smile was a little embarrassed but also pleased.
“Yeah, you can actually tell what it is he’s painting now,” Perry said. “Used to look like something my little sister did in grade school art class.”
Nate pulled the towel off his shoulder, twirled it, then popped Perry in the ass. What followed was a duel of the towels that had Maddie and Gunn grinning.
At last, Maddie stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled. “Children, enough! There are still some folks sleeping.”
“Not anymore,” Eric said, coming into the room wearing a very dark frown. “Fucking hell.”
On his heels were Em and Hanna.
“I smelled biscuits,” Hanna said. “I hope you guys didn’t eat them all.”
