Page 20 of Noah's Reckoning
“Any day, Olivia,” he said, planting himself in the chair as I retrieved both a can and an opener from the storage cabinet.
I opened the can, plopped it in the pot and set it over the hook on the fire.
“Hearty Beef Stew,” I told him.
“Nice. So what did you do to the kill the time while I was out?”
I tried not to blush. I’m pretty sure I was blushing. “Nothing, absolutely nothing,” I answered with total honesty.
* * *
Ark
It was after we’d eaten and we were both seated in the chairs close to the fire to stay warm as the storm continued to rage outside.
One of the ways that helped to take my mind off Olivia was to think about the disaster I had left behind at the rig. Had I made a mistake? Impossible. I didn’t do mistakes. It was one of the things I loved about engineering. It was all math, all the time. And the numbers always added up.
Only Lizzie’s capacity had started to change for some reason. The pressure building slowly until it became out of control. Was it the size of the hole I had drilled?
“You had a notebook in the truck when I picked you up. You were jotting down numbers I was giving you. Do you still have it?”
She shook her head. “No, I left it behind on the rig. Why?”
“Just can’t shake what went wrong with Lizzie. I’m wondering if it was the smaller drill I used. I was trying to use it to prick the shale more cleanly. Less chance of spillage...now I’m wondering if that was a mistake.”
“Wait. I’m on the cusp of hearing that Noah Aikens is about to admit to having made an engineering mistake?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Not even close. I simply want to run some numbers.”
“You think you can get back to the source of the oil another way?”
“There’s still a lot of crude down there. It would be a shame to waste it. I’m wondering if a larger drill hole might work better to control the release of oil in a way to keep the pressure down.”
Olivia shook her head. “If it’s a high-pressure spot it might not have anything to do with how you drill it. Going back would be took risky. Trying to control the earth is like trying to control the ocean.”
“You’re saying it can’t be done?” I snorted. “I beg to differ. Lizzie was the first failure I’ve had.”
“But it was still a failure.”
I snarled at her but she only chuckled. “Fine. If you have numbers you want to jot down, just say them out loud and I’ll remember them.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “You’ll remember them?”
She tapped her temple. “If you say it, and I concentrate on remembering it, it will stick.”
“No shit?”
“No shit,” she said bluntly. “I have a freakish memory.”
That was a trick I needed to see. I threw some numbers at her, enough that I thought there was no way she would remember any of it. The good news was rattling through all those numbers was another way to keep my mind off sex.
Unfortunately, that didn’t last as long as I needed. With another couple hours to kill, I was looking for a distraction. I remembered the pack of cards. It was better than sitting here and not looking at her.
“You want to play?” I asked. “Cards,” I quickly clarified.
“Oh. Sure. Let me get the deck.”
* * *
