Sy brought the poker with us to the bedroom, I think as a bit of a security blanket. We laid down together on the broad bed with its picture windows looking out over the stormy mountain ravine. We were too preoccupied to notice the view. We lay together, clothed, and safely enfolded in one another’s arms. Sy kissed my lips, my nose, my eyelids, and I pressed my forehead against his, treasuring the small, sure contact of skin to skin, of his hand stroking my waist, my back, of my arm draped ...