"You're not going anywhere," Jack said. "Not tonight. Not unless you've got skis in that coat."
"I gathered. And I don't."
"We've got a cot in the back office. Or the booth by the heater, which Mae swears is luckier. Mae sleeps upstairs in the apartment—always has, since Walter built the stairs crooked on purpose so she'd hear thieves. I take the office when storms trap me here. You're welcome to whichever feels less like charity and more like a decent human arrangement."
"Booth by the heater," Claire said. "I don't want to put you out of your own cot."
"You're not putting me out. You're the first customer who insulted the gravy and stayed to apologize with her whole face. That earns lodging and a second cup of coffee, no charge."