Page 52 of Elijah's Hope
I was nearly asleep myself when I felt him shift around me, his hair-roughened thigh sliding up against mine. So delicious.
Then he mumbled into my hair. “And lying. Hate a liar.”
I didn’t sleep the rest of the night.
12
Eli
“Let’s move it, slow poke. Even if you’re staying, this is my last full day off before I start on shift. I want to make the most of it.”
I was already dressed and had coffee brewing over the stove. I poured her a cup and left it for her on the table while she was finishing dressing in the shower area. When she emerged, she was dressed, but doing something with her hair.
“What are we doing today?”
“There is another trail we can hike. Takes us along the water with some amazing views. We get lucky, we might see some whales migrating.”
“Oh my goodness. Real live whales! I never thought I would see a whale in my lifetime. Gators. Seen lots of gators and snakes. But a whale? Never. Do you think we’ll see one, really?”
I groaned. “I probably shouldn’t have gotten your hopes up. We have to be lucky.”
I shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up because I didn’t want to disappoint her. Shelby was a person who looked at life like everything in it was special. Seeing an owl was a gift. Seeing a whale was a gift. Catching a fish was a gift.
I couldn’t imagine how she would react to an actual gift. I tried to wrap my head around something I could find in Hope’s Point that would be gift worthy, but Gert didn’t carry anything in her store that wasn’t absolutely needed for survival.
But I could order something off the Internet. A necklace maybe. Something with an angel on it, so she would always have me with her. I liked that idea. I would check it out when I got back to camp.
“So about me staying,” Shelby said. I whipped around to look at her. She was biting her lip. “I think…I mean, I know…I would like to stay. But first, there is something I have to tell you.”
I rushed up to her and took her face in my hands before she could say another thing. I kissed her and with that kiss I felt the promise of something. Of tomorrow and the next day.
She pulled away. “This is serious, Eli.”
“I know, babe. And I can’t tell you how excited that makes me.”
Someone knocked on the cabin door and startled both of us. It wasn’t like we got company out here. My head went straight to an emergency. Bud and Gert’s place in town wasn’t that far down the road. One of them could have gotten hurt.
I moved away from Shelby and opened the door to find Jackson standing there with a grim look and a laptop in his hand.
“What’s up? Something happen at camp?” I asked urgently.
My thoughts went to explosion or fire. Something Ark would never let happen to one of his babies. But if it did happen, then he would be in the heart of the danger.
Jackson however remained silent.
“We got a problem with one of Ark’s wells?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Nothing like that. Look, I didn’t want to do this, but I’ve been thinking about it all night and it’s something you need to know.”
“What?”
“It’s about her,” Jackson said, pointing over my shoulder.
“Jesus, here we go again. I don’t know what your problem is—”
“She’s a liar,” Jackson said bluntly. “Everything she told you, everything on her profile. It’s a lie. She’s got a criminal record, too. I did background checks on all the women we selected. I didn’t want any surprises. But I figured two weeks of fun, what the hell was the harm. Then suddenly, it was going to be more than two weeks.”
“You really can’t stand to see me happy. Can you?”
