Page 3 of Elijah's Hope
I didn’t.
“It’s been a while since you took some time off,” Cal said. “You need to get away for a bit? Find some companionship? I can arrange some extended time off for you to head to Anchorage. Or the Lower 48, if you think you need to really get away.”
I grimaced. “I’m not talking about getting laid. I’m talking about a date. Dinner, drinks. A game of pool. Conversation.”
Jackson looked at me as if I had grown two heads. “You’ve been watching too muchBachelor. When you started watchingBachelor in Paradise, I should have known things were bad.”
“Do not mockBIP. Jared and Ashley are together now,” I said defensively.
“Jesus, we’re talking about the freakingBachelornow. Is someone going to do something about the hand we’re playing?” Cal snarled.
“Check,” Jackson said.
“Check,” I added just so I could get back to the crazy idea I had. “What if we did that? What if we set it up so a bunch of nice, hot women would come up here for a trip and a blind date?”
“Are you insane?” Ark asked. He bounced his knuckles on the table to indicate he was also checking. “What woman in her right mind is going to fly to Alaska so she can go on a date with you? You understand Bud’s is the only establishment Hope’s Point has to offer.”
True, but there was also something exotic about Alaska. Especially in the summer. Snow-kissed mountains, beautiful clear rivers, amazing wildlife.
Alaska wasn’t a place, it was a state of mind. It was breathing in the cleanest, freshest air you’ve ever smelled and knowing this was what the Earth should taste like. It was a connection to the planet, to the animals and to the people who had been here before the Alaskan natives had ever considered the Lower 48.
A bucket-list stop for many people, but only a few were ever up to the challenge.
Hope’s Point was more than a challenge.
“Hear me out. We’re decent looking guys. We stay in shape because we have to. And we’ve all got money in the bank. We’re not bad catches if you think about it.”
It’s why I took job in the first place. The work was grueling. The weather was relentless. The isolation could be maddening. Which meant the pay was off the charts. With nothing to spend it on but the occasional beer, and losing a hand of poker now and then, I had more money saved than I knew what to do with.
“You think that’s enough incentive to haul their asses all the way up here? Do you even know what the cost of that would be? I agree with Ark. You’re smoking crack, my brother,” Jackson added.
“What if we paid for it? A round-trip plane ticket from anywhere in the United States?” I offered.
“Two dollars,” Cal bet.
We all threw up our two bucks just to keep Cal from getting annoyed.
Ark dealt the river. “You want to pay for their trip? Okay, that’s a little different. Makes it seem like they won a prize or something. How are you going to let these women know what you’re offering?”
“We run it like a contest. Want an adventure? Apply to win an all-expenses paid, round trip to Alaska and go out on a date with one of us. No strings attached. How much different is that from any other dating site? A picture, a profile. We pick who we like, and we pony up the bill.”
“Yes, but how are you going to do this?” Ark wanted to know. Ark always needed all the answers up front. “It’s not like you can post a profile on Match.com that says I come with an airplane ticket. No one is going to buy that’s for real.”
“Facebook ad.”
We all looked at Jackson, who had made the comment, and waited for him to explain.
He put another two dollars on the table. “You run a Facebook ad. You target women of a certain age and interest. The type of women who would sign up for something like that. I could probably set it up.”
I smiled and bet four dollars. “Raise. This could work. This could really work. All we need is a handful of women to do this and we get to pick our top four.”
Ark tossed his cards away but looked as if he was actually considering my idea.
“Three women,” Cal corrected me. “I want no part of this. I’ll call just to see what you got, Angel.”
That was me. I was Angel. They said it was because my name Elijah sounded like something out of the bible. My mother once told me she picked that name because she’d read it in a Western romance book she really liked. Nothing very biblical about that.
I didn’t poke Jackson on what he was going to do related to either the cards or the women. He looked at me and I did my best to not give him any tells. It must have worked because he threw another two dollars into the pot.
