Page 12 of Caleb's Salvation
“I brought a cord of dry wood. It’s in my truck. I’ll unload it, show you how to split it and stack it, and how to keep it dry with a tarp.”
“See? You are nice to me. Even if you don’t want to be.” I walked toward him so that I was close. Close enough to smell pine on him. Close enough to see some flecks of gray in his beard. Close enough to realize how much larger he was than me, but he didn’t make me feel scared at all.
In fact, being this close to him, seeing his breath come out in puffs of air, he made me feel…tingly.
Which was crazy. When I’d decided to take the tickets, I hadn’t expected to come to Alaska and be turned on. I suppose I was hoping to maybe strike a deal with a lonely widower. Someone who needed softness in his life. What had Caleb said about survival up here? That it was all transactional.
This didn’t feel like that. This felt like my nipples were hard and my breasts were aching, but not because Sam needed to be fed. All this time, I considered Caleb a person in my life because the contest connected us in some way. But this was the first time I saw him not as someone who could help me, but as just a man. A large, handsome, attractive man.
“Don’t,” he said, taking a step back, even as I took a step closer. Did he see it on my face? Did he know that my heart was suddenly pounding in my chest?
“Don’t what?” I pressed, moving closer. Close enough to touch him. I put my hands on his chest, his big, wide, strong chest. Even through his wool-lined coat I could feel his heart thumping, too. “I know you said you don’t like freckles, but maybe mine are growing on you?”
I lifted myself on my toes, wanting to see if I could reach his mouth. He was going to have to bend to kiss me and for a second…the smallest briefest second…I felt him give a little.
Then he sidestepped me, and I stumbled forward until I finally caught myself. My hands flew to my cheeks to hide how red they were. Shame from his rejection, or desire. I wasn’t sure.
“I told you I’m not your solution. Don’t think you can manipulate me like that.”
Of course he would think that. That I was seducing him for an ulterior motive. Why wouldn’t he, after the story I just told him? Except it wasn’t true. I hadn’t been thinking about anything. Except him.
“I wasn’t… I wouldn’t…” I couldn’t think of a word that would explain how I felt.
“I’m sorry about your father,” he said curtly, walking away from me, leaving the thermos on the stump with the axe he’d brought me. “Sorry about Sam’s father, too. But I’m not someone who can help you.”
I didn’t want him to help me just then. I wanted… Well, I suppose I just wanted him.
I was sure he’d felt something, too. In that brief second.
“Are you going to tell me the real reason you want me to leave so badly?”
“Because you’re looking for some prince and that’s not me. I’ll send someone later to unload the wood.”
He was running. He was literally running away from me.
Was it possible that big, bad Caleb was scared? Of me?
* * *
Dyson Camp
Cal
“Rodgers,” I called out to one of the young roustabouts on Eli’s team who was hanging out in the rec room.
He was watching a college football game with a bunch of the other guys, but he didn’t hesitate to jump up.
“What’s up, Cal?” he asked, coming toward me, but I didn’t want to have this conversation among the guys.
“Follow me to my room, will you?”
Again, he didn’t hesitate. It’s why I picked Ty. Young, earnest. He’d been here for a year. A solid worker, Ty didn’t cause problems. No fighting, no excessive drinking and he did everything anybody asked.
I opened the door to my room and closed it behind him.
“Okay, you’re making me nervous, Cal. Am I in trouble?”
I shook my head. “No, nothing like that. I need a favor. You hear about the new contest lady in town?”
