Page 33 of Caleb's Salvation
Then Eve got pregnant and maybe that had been the first shot fired into my soul. Because I remembered when she would walk around town with Zeke right there next to her, sometimes resting his hand on her engorged belly. It hurt to look at her. Hurt to remember that feeling of standing next to the woman who was carrying my child.
Then Eli and his stupid contest and suddenly my quiet, monastic life was upended.
I needed to talk to Vivienne. I needed to explain that just because I kissed her…it meant nothing. That while I might be having these cracks in my resistance to her, there would never be anything big enough for her to get through to me.
She needed to leave me with my grief. Maybe if I explained that to her, she would make it easier for me. She would understand and back off. Hadn’t I seen sympathy in her eyes tonight?
I poured myself another drink and decided that was the way forward.
A talk with Vivienne. Once I put some distance between us and that kiss.
9
A week later
Cal
I heard the knock on my office door and looked up. Ty stood there with a weird look on his face.
“What’s up?”
He seemed to hesitate. “I’m pretty sure she’d get mad at me…”
She. Vivienne. It’d been over a week since I’d made my decision to talk to her rationally and reasonably about why it wasn’t going to work out for us. Not that I really had any idea of what she expected.
After all, she came here only looking for someone to take care of her. Other than that, maybe she didn’t have any expectations when it came to me.
Not that she hadn’t kissed me back. Or more accurately hadn’t tried to push me away when I practically devoured her in one taste.
Shit. I was supposed to be putting distance between me and that kiss so I could talk her. That wasn’t going to happen if I couldn’t stop thinking about what she tasted like.
“What about Vivienne?” I pushed him.
Again, he seemed to hesitate. “You told me to let you know about how things were for her…so I think I’m just doing my job, right?”
“Get to the point, Rodgers,” I said an uneasy feeling starting to settle in my stomach.
“Well, she’s missed work five days in a row, and I know she wouldn’t do that unless something was up. So I went to the cabin and she’s pretty sick. Seems like the flu is going around. Eli said Shelby had it, too.”
I knew that. Eli had asked to trade shifts so that he could stay at Shelby’s place and take care of her.
“I asked her what she needed…but she said it was just the flu and she’d be fine. But I don’t know. Sammy was crying pretty hard…”
I stood up. “The baby’s sick, too?”
“She didn’t say, but that cry, it didn’t sound like a normal baby cry.”
Fuck me.
“I would have pushed the issue, but truth is, Cal, I’m not sure I would know what to do for either of them. Never been around anyone sick like that who I had to take care of.”
Of course not because he was a dumb kid and Vivienne needed someone who knew what the hell they were doing. She’d been sick for how long? The missed work could have been from Shelby being sick, which could mean she was in the grip of a flu with high fevers and probably nothing to measure them with. And she hadn’t called for help.
Didn’t she realize how dangerous that was? Especially if the boy was sick, too.
“I got it,” I told him.
“She said not to say anything. Said she could handle it herself but...”
