[For those unfamiliar with this part of the country, the setting for this chapter is the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.]

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"You've lived in Chicago almost your entire life and you've really never been here before?" asked Luka.

"Nope." Susan lay on her stomach on the sand and squinted into the sunshine glittering off the water. Luka sat down beside her and watched the boats for a couple of minutes.

"I found it within a few weeks of moving here. Why didn't you know about it after 30 something years?"

"Could be that it's not in Chicago," Susan said. "Indiana's kind of a foreign country, you know. Or, could be that you have to drive through Gary to get here. Nobody goes to Gary or even through Gary if they have a choice. Never seemed worth the drive."

"So, was it worth the drive?" asked Luka, looking sideways at her.

"Yeah. Definitely worth the drive. It's pretty. Or course, the pleasant company helps too."

"Our tax dollars at work, or something like that." Luka threw a rock into the water, and watched the ripples for a minute. "I made it a point to find all the prettiest places on the lake as soon as I moved here." He smiled. "Took me a little longer to find the prettiest woman." He waited until Susan had blushed satisfactorily, then went on, "I've always liked spending time by the water. I grew up by the water, by the ocean."

"Why Chicago, then?" asked Susan. "If you like water, I figure that somewhere along the ocean would have been more your speed. The U.S. has plenty of ocean-front."

"I did live on the ocean for a while." Luka threw another rock. "When I first moved here I lived in Southern California."

"L.A.?"

Luka gave her a withering look. "Over my dead body. No, Santa Barbara. Everyone told me that I'd like that part of the country, that it would remind me of home. The water, the climate, the fresh seafood. So I found a job in Santa Barbara, and moved out there. Lasted about 6 months. I couldn't stand it."

"What was wrong with it? I've been there too. A friend from college lives there. I visited her a few times when I was living in Arizona. I thought it was beautiful."

"It is beautiful. It reminded me of home," Luka said softly. "I didn't want to be reminded of home. I wanted to make a new start. I didn't want to look out my window every morning and see the ocean, and think I was still in Croatia."

"So you moved to Chicago? On the lake?"

"Not right away. I moved around for a while. Lived lots of different places. All away from large bodies of water. I tried a few more cities in California, inland from the coast, then worked my way east again. Colorado Springs, Kansas City, then finally Chicago when I needed water in my life again. Even then, for the first couple of years I spent my winters down south."

"Why?"

"I lived on a boat. On the lake. I really needed water in my life again. But I had no central heating. No heating at all. And the lake tends to freeze up in the winter close to the shore. Wouldn't have been healthy for either of us." He grinned and clarified, "Me or the boat."

"A boat? Like a houseboat?" Susan sounded fascinated.

Luka laughed. "That would be a generous description. No ... just a boat. It was cozy. No heat, no running water. It did have a kitchen of a sort. One of those propane camping stoves." He smiled, lay back on the sand. "I loved it. I think my happiest times in America were when I was living on the boat. I felt so ... free. I wasn't. Not really. I would have been freer with a car. But I always felt like ... anytime things got to be ... too much ... I could just get in my boat ... and go ..." He closed his eyes and just enjoyed the warmth of the sun on his face for a minute. "Leave it all behind."

"I guess boats are like that," Susan said softly.

"Yeah. Boats are like that."

"So what made you settle down? Get a real apartment?"

"A real job. I'd been moonlighting; working in hospitals all around the Chicago area ... sometimes even further up the lake. Kerry finally offered me an attending position at County. I couldn't move south for winter anymore, so I needed a more permanent place to live. I sold the boat and used the money to buy a car. I lived in a hotel for a couple of years, while I saved up for furniture and stuff, then I rented my ... our ... apartment."

For a few minutes neither spoke. They just watched the sun on the water, and Luka slowly stroked Susan's hair, warmed by the sun.

"Did she have a name?" Susan asked suddenly.

"Who?"

"Your boat?"

"No, not really. There was a name on the bow when I bought it ... Clarissa, Clarice ... something like that. I was going to change it, but never got around to it. Probably just as well. I would have changed it to something really sentimental like The Danijela, and then I would have never been able to sell it, right? I always thought that naming boats was kind of silly anyway. Just about as silly as calling them 'she'."

It was Susan's turn to give him a sideways look. "Are you saying that I'm silly?"

"Just a little. Or completely insane. But I'm very glad that you are." And Luka was also very glad that there were only a few other people walking on the beach as he lay down beside Susan and took her in his arms and kissed her.