Page 13 of Elijah's Hope
It was odd because here I was in this strange cabin in the remote part of a state I thought I would never ever visit. I mean, Alaska was about as far away from the bayou as a human could get, I expected.
Only I wasn’t scared. Not even a little bit. Instead, I felt safe as a bug snug in a rug.
Of course, bugs snuggled in rugs tended to get squashed by big heavy feet didn’t they?
I wasn’t going to think about that. I was only going to think about today. The excitement of flying on that small plane and seeing those big mountains. Knowing that this was a temporary blip in the big plan, but it was still an adventure.
Then there was seeing Eli for the first time. Realizing he was just as handsome as his picture. Although when I had entered this contest, what he’d looked like had been the least of my concerns. All I had been looking for was an escape and he was the one to provide it.
Still, he was courteous and generous…and nice. When was the last time I had thought a man was nice?
Then there was me. Or at least the me I got to pretend to be. Who graduated from college and was going to be a teacher. Who came from this perfectly nice family who had blowout Halloween parties every year. I didn’t even know why I had lied about that. I had this sense though that Eli liked those tidbits. I told myself making him happy was part of the plan, so he wouldn’t know he’d been duped. It came pretty easy to tell the truth. Nothing I had to work for.
He wanted his fantasy woman so that’s what I would be.
Oh and I also didn’t kiss on the first date because I wasn’tthat kind of girl.
I sighed and snuggled down in my bed even farther hiding under the blankets.
Yes, it was always who I had wanted to be.
Too darn bad it was all a lie.
4
Dyson Camp
Eli
I pulled into a spot underneath a carport and parked. The carports were marginal at best at keeping out the snow when storms rolled in, but they saved us a little time digging out our trucks when it happened. I was grateful for it tonight because even though the sun had been shining earlier, thirty minutes into my drive the clouds got dark, quick. It poured rain the rest of the drive and I didn’t want to get drenched before getting inside.
I just wanted to crash, go to sleep and maybe have sex dreams about Shelby. Simple requests for a simple man.
The camp was separated into two halves. The rigs and the buildings that supported them were on one side and the barracks, which included our rooms, a mess hall and lounge area, were on the other. Not that dissimilar from how the Army operated. The exception was the roustabouts had to bunk up, but management got our own rooms.
I made my way down the covered path to the main area, which was essentially a big play room. Pool tables, TV, a bar although it was only stocked with soft beverages, more card tables. Things that I supposed should make it feel homier. Frankly, I thought it looked like an old man’s retirement home. But it was room and board and three squares a day on the company, which, again, meant any salary we earned we banked.
So a couple thousand dollars for a round-trip airfare ticket seemed like nothing.
Something, right now, I was very grateful for. I headed down the hallway to the left of the lounge area that led to the private rooms. I was surprised to see Daniels’s door open. It was nearly midnight and he was on rotation, which meant he needed to be up at the crack of dawn for a twelve-hour shift tomorrow.
“What’s up?” I asked.
He was lying on his bed reading. Jackson was always reading something. Books on geology, archeology, theology. He was into all the “ologies.”
“What makes you think something is up?”
Jackson survived on being enigmatic. There were times I wished I could be more like him. Cool. Aloof. I thought we shared a similar life view, but I went to the Army and he went to prison. So he had the prison tats on his arm and the no-talking thing.
I had a few tats of my own that didn’t mean as much as I wished they did. And a sense of always searching for something. Searching and never finding it.
Jackson wasn’t searching for anything. He’d made that clear from the moment I met him. Still, we weren’t going to play this game. I was too damn tired.
“Daniels, you and I both know you’re not sitting here with your door open wondering if I was going to make curfew. What the fuck do you want to say? It’s late. Just say it.”
He looked away, nodded, then looked directly at me. “Be careful.”
I didn’t have to guess about what he meant. “Of Shelby? Five-foot nothing, sweet as honey Shelby? That’s who I’m supposed to be careful of?”
