Page 44 of Elijah's Hope
Ark’s eyes got wide and I couldn’t hold back a laugh when I saw Shelby’s eyes get huge, too.
Olivia looked at Eve as she came to stand next to her. Eve was a few inches shorter and maybe fifteen pounds lighter than Olivia, but the look on her face suggested she would have no problem taking down Ark.
Ark was six-one, packed with muscle in his arms and chest and not someone I would ever want to take on. Fighting him would be like wrestling a bear. In fact, it would be a contest between all four of us as to who was the biggest badass, although Jackson would probably fight the dirtiest. The good news was we liked each other so we never had to find out.
Still, Ark looked at Eve and gulped.
“I don’t think so,” Ark finally said.
Eve’s shoulders dropped like she was disappointed. “But it’s been ages since I’ve been able to kick someone’s ass.”
Zeke approached them with the baby in his arms. “Come on, baby. We’ll put junior to bed and then you can have a go with me. Probably wouldn’t have been a fair fight with Ark anyway. He would have tried not to hurt you, and you would have gone for the kill.”
“Not the kill…just a little wounding,” Eve said as she followed her son and husband out of the bar.
Ark swallowed harder and even Olivia looked a little worried.
Again, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I don’t understand,” Shelby said. “I thought Eve was just a momma. Was she some kind of fighter? Like one of those female ultimate fighters?”
“Nobody knows what Zeke and Eve were exactly,” Cal said. “Now, they are residents of Hope’s Point. About as mysterious as Mountain Man.”
“Oh my, who is Mountain Man?”
“You’re going to scare her, Cal,” I grumbled.
“Nothing to be scared of,” Cal said, looking at Shelby. “Just a mysterious guy who lives in a cabin somewhere out in the woods. He seems to live off the land and only comes in to town now and again when he’s found a chunk of gold. Must have a mine out there somewhere, but no one seems to know where that is. You stay long enough in Hope’s Point, you’re bound to see him. He’s one big son of a bitch. But I guess you won’t be staying much longer. How many days left is it now?”
“Five,” Shelby whispered, then looked at her hands, which were both wrapped around her beer.
Five, I thought. Five days of her. Of us. Of fucking. I wanted more. But we had time to talk about that.
Ark left Olivia at the bar and joined us at our table. “Why do I feel like I escaped getting a serious beat-down from a woman?”
“Uh, I don’t think you escaped, Ark,” Shelby said gently. “Your cheek’s still pretty darn red.”
Which naturally had the three of us busting up laughing over Ark’s discomfort.
In typical Ark fashion, he got up and muttered, “Women.” Then he left the bar altogether.
“Guess we better go after him,” Jackson pointed out. “He was our ride back to camp. Not to mention the entertainment.”
Cal stood, too, and looked over toward where Olivia was still at the bar staring at her drink rather than drinking it. “Olivia? You got a ride back to camp?”
She held up a set of keys in her hand. “Got a truck.”
Cal looked to me. “When you’re ready to leave, you make sure she does, too. I don’t want her in here unprotected.”
I nodded. “Got it covered.”
“Shelby, a pleasure to see you,” Cal offered.
Jackson, however, said nothing. Just lowered his chin and followed Cal out the door. I wanted to ask him what his problem was. My first thought was that it might have been jealousy, but I knew his own date was showing up in a few days. A taller, dark-haired woman named Kate whom he’d picked out of the entrants almost instantly.
It couldn’t be that he didn’t like Shelby. Who the hell couldn’t not like her? She was the sweetest woman I had ever met, and that sweetness was only compounded by the fact that she was one of a handful of women in this godforsaken place.
Still, any conversation with Jackson wasn’t going to happen tonight. Tonight, and for the next few nights, my plan was to stay with Shelby in her cabin.
