by Doyle, S
Caleb’s Salvation
S Doyle
Copyright © 2019 by S Doyle
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
Lovers to Enemies
Also by S Doyle
1
Hope’s Point Airport—aka the runway
Five months ago
Cal
“Tell me again why I’m out here?” I turned to my right and looked at Eli, who looked about as nervous as a cat.
“Doogie called and told me he had a drop-off,” he said. “Wasn’t sure how big it was going to be. Didn’t know if I could handle it myself.”
I frowned. “A drop-off of what?”
Eli shrugged. “Not sure. You know Doogie. He’s not very communicative. Hung up before I could ask him what it was.”
Something didn’t smell right. Doogie calls Eli about some mystery drop-off. Eli grabs me to come out here with him when both Jackson and Ark were back at camp.
I heard the plane first, then looked up to see Doogie making his normal approach over the mountains.
There was something too déjà vu about me standing on the runway with Eli waiting for the plane to land. So much so I had this ridiculous suspicion.
“Eli…tell me you didn’t do something stupid.”
I looked over at him and he winced. I could practically smell the guilt on him.
“Okay, let me start by saying that when I made this decision I was still in the whole mindset of fun and games,” he said with his hands raised in a defensive posture.
“What did you do?” I barked.
“Now, Cal, I know you were against the whole idea of dating…”
“Fuck me,” I muttered. “You did it. You did what I asked you not to do. You went and invited some woman up here for me.”
“Her name is Vivienne Chester. She’s thirty-five and a retail buyer from Texas. Super-hot redhead. Nothing like—”
He had the good sense to stop himself before he finished that thought and said her name. My wife’s name. The only woman I had ever loved, the only woman I would ever love.
I owed her at least that.
“It was already set up. The tickets, when she was coming. What was I supposed to do, cancel everything?”
“Yes!”
“It’s a date, Cal. That’s it. A conversation between you and a sophisticated, professional woman. What harm could come from that?”
My eyebrows practically lifted off my head.
“Okay. So maybe things haven’t exactly been simple with the women we’ve brought up here, but at least one of these dates has to go as expected. I mean, what are the odds?”
I cursed in general. Then I cursed Eli. Wasn’t much more to say after that. Together we watched as the plane came in for a landing. A few minutes later Doogie set out the steps for Hope’s Point latest arrival in what Eli had dubbed the Alaska Dating Games.
A woman popped out and stepped off the plane carefully. She was wrapped in a large coat that made it difficult to get a sense of her build. A wool cap was pulled low over her head and I could see she was wearing her hair in a braid down her back.
Doogie grabbed two separate duffel bags and started walking toward us as the woman—Vivienne, Eli had said—followed behind him.
“Hey, check out Doogie being chivalrous. He never carries their bags.”
He approached us and dropped the bags at my feet. With a casual salute he smirked at me and said, “Good luck with this one, Cal.”
My attention turned to the woman behind him.
“You’re not thirty-five,” I announced, taking in her freckle-covered, make-up-free face.
“Hi. You must be Cal,” she said, sticking out her hand. I could see that it was trembling. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
I didn’t take it.
Eli rushed in to cover my rudeness. “Hi, I’m Eli. The contest, well, it was my idea. Cal wasn’t expecting you today, so this is a little bit of a shock for him. I hope you’ll forgive him and me, really. This is sort of all my fault.”
She looked from Eli to me. “Oh. Well, I guess I come with a few of my own surprises.”
“You’re not thirty-five,” I said again, pointing out the one lie that was obvious. I didn’t know many women who lied by adding years to their age.
She smiled then. A mischievous little smile as if she’d proven that she was right about something. “I liked your picture, and your story. But when I saw your age, I figured I needed to fudge a bit.”
There was a hint of a twang in her voice. Not deep South like Shelby. What had Eli said? She was from Texas?
“How old are you?”
She looked at me directly. Her hazel eyes filled with false bravado. “Thirty?”
“Try again.”
She huffed, and a white puff of air left her lips indicating the temperature was dropping. Had I been more thoughtful, we could have had this conversation in the truck with the heat blasting, but it was like I was afraid to move from the spot where I stood. That if I did, the universe would change in some fundamental way. I wasn’t ready for that.
“Fine,” she sighed. “I’m twenty-six.”
This time it was my turn to huff. “What the hell is a woman of your age thinking about coming here to date someone my age?” I growled. “And why the hell would you lie about how old you are?”
That’s when it happened. It was like her whole chest underneath the heavy down coat shifted. A burst of sound escaped the enclosure and I looked over at Eli to see he was as shocked as I was.
Because the sound…was a baby’s cry.
“It’s okay, baby,” she crooned, her arms now wrapping around the bundle secured to her chest. “We’re here now.” Returning her gaze to me she said, “I don’t suppose we could sit in your truck while we hash the rest of this out.”
“Holy shit. I swear, Cal,” Eli said, obviously taken aback by this revelation. “I had no idea. There was nothing about a baby in her profile. And the picture was different, too.”
“That was my mother. In the picture. She’s prettier than me, I know. As for Sam…I know it was wrong not to say anything, but I didn’t think I would get picked otherwise. I’m sorry, but I really needed to get picked.”
Perfect. Just what Hope’s Point needed. Another runaway.
“Get in her in the truck, Eli.”
“Right,” he said, grabbing her bags to store in the back of the truck while he got her situated inside. I heard the engine start up behind me. A sense of relief fell over me that in a minute or two it would be warmer inside for her…and him.
A twenty-six-year-old and a baby.
Still, I didn’t move.
Eli approached me, rubbing his hands together. “Cal, I’m so sorry. I had no idea something like this might happen or I would never have—”
“Something like this?” I said, cutting him off. “Something like a woman lying about everything in order to secure a plane ticket to escape from whatever circumstances she’s running from? Because that sounds pr
etty fucking familiar to me.”
He had the common sense not to say anything then.
I looked over my shoulder to where she sat in the car, pulling her zipper down to give the baby more space to move.
I had to get in that truck with them. I had to smell that hint-of-baby smell. I knew I had to do it. It was the only way to get off the runway and back to Hope’s Point. But if I did that…if I moved…then the world was going to change forever.
My gut screamed it to me.
“I’m sorry, Cal,” Eli said, finally. “This was a mistake. Maybe she’ll take the hint you’re not thrilled to have her here and go home.”
She lied about her age. She lied about her child.
“I really needed to get picked…” That’s what she’d said.
No, I thought, she wasn’t going anywhere soon. I took a step, then another until I was sitting in the passenger seat of the truck with her in the back of the cab.
She didn’t say a word other than to croon softly to the baby.
Neither did I. Yet still, it happened. My world was changed.
* * *
Vivienne
I held Sam close as I studied the cabin. It was pretty sparse, but it was a roof and there was a heat source. Sam would sleep with me and as long I ate, he ate.
“I know it’s not much,” Eli said, dropping my bags, which was everything I owned, just inside the door. “This is where the other women stayed and they seemed to do all right.”
Because there had been four men, four profiles. I hadn’t thought of the other three. Only Caleb’s picture had spoken to me from the monitor of a computer situated in the library where I’d been trying to escape from the heat.
I’d sat down with Sam tucked against my chest and signed onto Facebook to see if there was someone, a friend, I might ask for help. Someone not from my father’s church. Instead, I’d seen this ad for an all-expenses-paid, round trip contest to Alaska for a blind date.
Alaska, where it wouldn’t be so blistering hot all the time.
I hadn’t thought anything of it. It was more curiosity than anything else that had me clinking on the link. Then I saw their pictures and something about Caleb…
A widower, it said in the profile. No details, nothing more than basic facts about him and his life in Alaska for the past seven years. It was his face. Stoic and resigned to life, but also with a sense of gravity and responsibility. That he was the boss was evident.
He would help me.
I don’t know why I thought it. Why I became so convinced it was true. But after three nights in a homeless shelter, it seemed like a certainty that I was right. That he would pick my profile, fly me to Alaska and keep me and Sam safe.
Despite his greeting, I still didn’t think I was wrong. He was an older man. I’d been told I was pretty. Obviously, I was young. Maybe all I had to do was charm him, seduce him. Make him feel like he was a king. Didn’t all older guys want to date younger woman to make themselves feel young?
Is that who you are now, Vivienne?
I didn’t want it to be true. But I also knew nothing was about what I wanted anymore. Everything was about me and Sam surviving.
“Am I the last one?” I asked Eli. “The last woman coming up here?”
Eli shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and nodded. “Yeah, you’re the last one.”
“And this cabin. Is it rented?”
Again, he nodded. “For the next two weeks it’s yours. Uh…I’m not sure…the whole blind date thing...”
Caleb was still sitting the truck. Stubborn, I thought, but he would come in eventually. My gut told me he wouldn’t be the type to drive away without checking to see that I was settled.
“Don’t worry about that,” I said with huffed laugh. “I knew what I was doing when I lied about Sam. Knew any man probably wouldn’t take too kindly to being lied to. I guess I was hoping… It doesn’t matter. How did the other ladies make out?”
Eli smiled. “Well, Shelby was the first to come. She’s my girlfriend now. She’s got a cabin next to Zeke and Eve’s place not too far from here. Zeke and Eve are locals and Shelby is a nanny for their little boy. Kate went back home. Jackson’s pretty broken up about it, so who knows? Maybe he’ll do something about it. But Jenny bought a place out in the woods. Wants to start up a business of bringing folks out here to hunt and hike and stuff. She and Ark are just friends, though. If you ask my opinion, it’s because Ark has a thing for our inspection engineer, Olivia. Don’t let the fighting fool you with those two.”
I didn’t follow much of what he said, but one thing stuck out. “So most of them stayed.”
“Don’t get ideas in your head.”
I turned at the sound of his voice. He was standing in the doorway leaning against the frame. Tall, broad chest, dark thick beard, heavy shoulders. Really, really heavy shoulders. I bet they sure could hold a lot.
“Why can’t I get ideas?” I asked him.
“This isn’t a place for a woman not from Alaska. Certainly not one with a baby,” Caleb said.
“Eli, didn’t you just tell me there is a woman named Eve up here who has a little boy?”
“Uh, yeah.” The poor guy, I thought. Talk about being caught between a rock and a very hard place.
“Eli. Wait for me in the truck.”
“You got it, boss.” Obviously, happy for the escape, Eli took off and shut the door behind him leaving me alone with Caleb.
“Everybody around here does what you tell them to?”
He grunted. “Privileges of being the boss.”
“Just remember you’re not my boss,” I told him. I was aiming for sassy. Did older guys like sassy?
“Listen,” Caleb began, then paused as if he’d forgotten my name.
“Vivienne,” I reminded him.
“Obviously, you have some kind of agenda. Why don’t you tell me what that is?”
“I won a contest to go out on a date with you. I got a ticket to Alaska, a cabin and all expenses paid for two weeks, which, I assume, means food. Right now, that’s my only agenda. I’m hungry.”
He sighed, opened his mouth as if to say my name again, but stopped.
“Vivienne,” I said again. “It’s not that easy a name to forget. And yes, my mother did name me after Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman because I was born with a shock of red hair. Although she spelled it the French way rather than the way it’s spelled in the movie. Not that it matters, I suppose, because little did she know at the time how close to being prophetic that was.”
He scowled at me.
Which was intimidating as heck, but I didn’t come all this way, take this risk, to back down under a little intimidation. “I understand you might be disappointed with me, but I think you owe me a date,” I told him boldly. “And food.”
His scowl deepened and I took a step back.
“I don’t owe you anything. Beyond having nothing to do with that contest, you apparently lied about everything on your profile. You certainly lied about him,” he said pointing to my chest.
“Sam,” I said introducing him, even as I snuggled him closer. “Short for Samuel, after my grandfather who was a good man. This little guy is almost five months old, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“I’m not. Look, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but this isn’t happening. The smart thing to do would be to rest up and then head back home.”
I laughed bitterly at that. “There is no home to go back to. There was a promise when I signed up for this contest. That promise was at least two weeks, room and board and all expenses paid. You need to honor that.”
“What makes you think I won’t walk out this door right now and tell you to go fuck yourself?”
I blinked. Not just at the language but at the starkness of the sentiment. Because the guy from the profile wouldn’t do that. The guy who I’d built into this modern-day knight in shining armor wouldn’t do that. Because I needed help, damn it! And there was no one around to offer it.
I could feel tears threaten and I pushed them back. Sam was here because I was a fighter. I was here in Alaska because I was a fighter.
I took a deep breath. “I think you’re lying,” I told him, praying I was calling his bluff. “I think you’re going to make a fire in that potbelly stove—because I don’t know how to—so you know I’ll be warm. And I think you’ll find me some food because now you know I’m hungry. Because I’ll bet everything I have that’s who you are.”
He ran his hand through his hair nearly pulling it out by the roots. Then he looked to the ceiling as if there was someone clinging to it who he needed to talk to.
“Wait here,” he barked. “I’ll be back with food.”
He stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
I let out a whoosh of breath as if I’d just managed the feat of the century. “I was right, Sammy. When he comes back, he’ll have food and he’ll make us that fire. We did it.”
I kissed the top of his head, sat on the bed and waited.
2
The next day
Cal
I stared at the cabin and wondered if I shouldn’t just leave what I brought at the end of the walkway and call it day. I wouldn’t have to see her. I wouldn’t have to see the kid. Drop off the food and go.
What if she’s freaking out? What if the cabin was too cold?
I shook my head, hating that I knew I had no choice. I couldn’t just leave her to fend for herself. She wasn’t my responsibility.
ABSOLUTELY NOT.
But she was a visitor who’d come to this place with expectations I’d failed to live up to.
And she was hungry.
Cursing under my breath I got out of the truck and stormed up to the door. I banged on it hard enough so she could hear, but not hard enough to wake a sleeping baby.
