Page 16 of Caleb's Salvation
It was the first time I’d seen him since he ran away from me that day weeks ago. God, it’s like I’d forgotten how handsome he was. He was sitting at a table with his guys. And they were all these big, beefy man types, sure, but there was something about Caleb. A quietness about him that drew the eye. Like there was this invisible force field around him that kept him separate from everyone even while he sat there in the middle. And you couldn’t help but wonder why he needed that barrier.
Jackson, who I’d met last week, was there with Kate. Kate, the contest winner who had left, but now was back. She was a cop in Nome, according to Shelby who also expected her to be around a lot more now.
I watched Jackson casually reach over and touch her thigh and thought how intimate that was. A touch high on her thigh, like it was his right to touch her there.
There had been none of that with Sam’s father. Just an invitation to play with him in the back of his rig. The truth was the sex hadn’t even felt that good. The first and second time hurt real bad. By the time I got the hang of it, to start even imagining what an orgasm might feel like, I was pregnant and he was gone.
There’d been no flowers. No dating. Sex without any real intimacy. I didn’t know that at the time. When he’d been flirting with me, I’d been planning weddings in my head and houses with picket fences. Some place not with Pop. Because I’d been that desperate. Maybe that lonely, too.
Lonely. That’s what it was about Caleb. He was sitting at that table with his friends, surrounded by people he knew. But he still looked lonely. I tossed my braid over my shoulder and made my way toward them.
“Another round guys?” I asked with a smile on my face. Cal scowled at me. This time I scowled back at him so he would know I wasn’t afraid of him anymore.
“Vivienne, what are you doing?” he asked me, like my very existence on this planet was a challenge for him.
“Bud and I have an arrangement,” I told him, once again deliriously proud of my accomplishment. “I deliver food and drinks, and I get to keep the tips. So how about you all order another around and then pony up?”
“I’m in,” Kate said, shooting me a smile.
“Yep,” Jackson said, getting out his wallet.
“Fine,” Cal said, sounding reluctant. He pulled out a twenty and handed it to me. I flashed him a smile then headed to bar.
Once there, I put in the orders with Bud. Trying not to look over my shoulder at Caleb. Trying and failing.
Bud and I swapped out the money, and I pocketed the change. I put the drinks on the tray, quickly learning that moving beer around a reasonably full bar was more of a waitressing challenge than pouring coffee at a diner, but I was getting the hang of it. Especially since Bud charged me for every beer I spilled.
I got to Caleb’s table and dropped off the drinks. I handed Eli his change minus the two bucks he’d indicated with his fingers as tip. I thought about the fifteen bucks I still had in my pocket for Caleb.
As a little dare, I started to walk way. That’s when I felt it. His hand circling my wrist to stop me. Was his thumb rubbing along the inside? It was and it was doing things to my insides that made every hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Oh, my goodness. He was turning me on with the barest touch of his fingers on my wrist.
What would happen when he finally touched me? Because I was starting to believe that day was coming. There was something there. Athingbetween us. This wasn’t about me being desperate. Or chasing something I couldn’t have. I was sure of it.
This was chemistry.
And from what I understood about people, chemistry wasn’t something you could control. It also wasn’t something you could stop. No matter how badly Caleb wanted to stop it.
“Where’s my change?” he asked. He still wasn’t letting go of my wrist.
I shrugged and took a guess. “Figured you would just give me the rest as a tip, so I kept it.”
I held my breath for a second, but when he said nothing, I knew I’d guessed right.
“Where is…he?”
Right. My name he was now okay with, but Sam’s? Caleb was still having a hard time.
“With Shelby,” I told him, although I suspected he knew the answer.
He looked at Angel, who quickly averted his eyes. Obviously, he was still in the doghouse for the whole contest. I should feel bad for him, but I didn’t. Because of Eli, I was here. Because of Eli, Shelby was watching Sam for me. Giving me a chance to earn a living and take care of my baby boy. Giving me a sense of purpose. Telling me I wasn’t as useless as I’d felt when Pop kicked me out.
Because of Eli, I met Caleb. A man who made me tingle in the best possible way. At a time when I didn’t know if that would ever happen again.
Even though he was fighting it. Fighting me.
The question was whether or not that was a war I wanted to engage in. I’d come here looking for someone to help me, someone to save me. Someone to shoulder my burdens.
