by Gina Leuci
“Daddy.”
The kiss ended, but Caleb held me in place as we both looked up at his oldest daughter who stood at our side, hands perched on her hips. “Hey there, princess.”
How his voice could sound normal after a kiss of that magnitude, I don’t understand. I was still reeling.
“Your son is annoying everyone.”
I spotted the quick tip of Caleb’s lips. “I’m sorry to hear it. What is your brother doing?”
Elena gave a deep dramatic sigh. “He won’t sit still. He climbed on everything, making noises like a tractor. Then, he had the baby doing the same.”
“Boys do like to move around.” He shook his head in mock agreement.
“All I wanted was for him to sit still and color. Instead he got louder and then he spilled Shawna’s juice all over us.”
“Ahh. That explains the yelling.”
The child continued the oblivious to her father’s mirth. “So Grammaw took the two of them home to change before we go to Aunt Karen’s house for supper. I told her I would wait for you.”
Caleb gave her a serious look, but the humor was still in his eyes. “Then, I guess we should get going. Why don’t you grab my water bottle and I’ll meet you at the dugout?”
The young girl gave another sigh before stomping off. Then Caleb gave me a casual, almost distant smile. “I think that’s enough of a show, don’t you?” he said and in a swift move had me off his lap.
Chapter Nine
I sucked in my breath. Of course. Today had all been a show. How could I forget? Why did I think last night had changed things between us?
Last night I had asked him to stay. I’d practically begged him to make love to me. He said he wouldn’t because I could get pregnant. Neither one of us wanted this marriage. What if there was another reason he wanted me gone? What if Caleb was still in love with his first wife? Maybe he didn’t want a replacement, or more kids?
Not that I was looking to have any of that, either, but in the heat of the moment, I wasn’t thinking about the false front we were putting on for the townsfolk. Maybe cool, always controlled, Caleb never forgot the end game.
I walked to the dugout for my glove and water bottle and then took my time to join Caleb and his daughter at the bleachers where he spoke with Aaron.
“Pull it straight up,” he instructed as his cousin lifted his arm at a ninety degree angle. I heard it pop into place, and my stomach twisted at the sound.
“Oh, God.” I quickly sunk to the bleacher grasping my waist, silently begging my insides not to hurl.
“Grace?” Caleb immediately bent to his knees in front of me. “What’s wrong?”
I held my hand up, not able to talk yet. I breathed through the nausea.
“Grace?” I heard the urgency in his voice, but it still took me another minute before I could lift my head.
“Sorry. The sound… It… Ugh.” I struggled for words. “Reminded me of what happened with Leland. Guess I’m not good with broken bones.” I got my composure back as I took another steadying breath.
“It’s not broken,” he assured me. “See? Good as new.” He moved his arm around to show me.
He was right, it wasn’t broken and seemed to be back in working order. I needed to get myself back under control, emotionally and physically, so I rushed to reassure him I was fine.
“Okay. I’m good.” I went to stand, and he took both of my hands, maybe to make sure I was actually steady on my feet, but I was still mad at him, so I pulled away. “I’ve got it.”
His raised eyebrow let me know he caught the curtness in my tone, but before he could ask, Elena tugged at his shirt. “Daddy, are we leaving yet?”
I responded for him, trying to keep my frustrations at bay for the sake of the child. “Yes, we’re leaving.” I turned to her father. “I’m going to head back to the apartment and clean up. Plus, I want to get a dish ready for the meal tomorrow.”
Caleb stood, his hand on his daughter’s head, stroking her long blonde hair, but his attention was still all on me. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
I gave what I hoped was a ‘do you really need to keep asking?’ look and he bought it because he turned his attention back to Elena. “Let’s get you home and fed. Want a piggy back?”
I gave a pointed look to his shoulder, but he didn’t even flinch when his daughter stepped onto the bleacher, flinging herself onto his back, her arms hugging his neck.
“Come join us when you’re ready,” he instructed then pressed a quick kiss to my lips before heading off with his daughter, talking to her as they left. “So today was a tough day to be a big sister, huh?”
“You have no idea,” the young girl agreed.
I took a swig of water as I walked back to the apartment. What the hell was I doing? I let myself get too close. I let my emotions get in the way of the mission to escape. I let my attraction for that man cloud my judgment.
Caleb had children here. A family. He claimed he wanted to help me leave, but why would he? He wouldn’t do anything that would jeopardize being with his kids. I should have seen it before. Pretending to get along had to be a game; a way to get me to believe the result would be to help me to escape, but what if it wasn’t? What if it was to have me fall for him so I wouldn’t want to leave?
And last night, I’d been the one to beg him to stay with me. He could have had sex with me, and I wouldn’t have said no. Why didn’t he? By not consummating the marriage, was that part of his ploy to prove he was trustworthy? So I’d continue to believe he’d help me leave? If so, it had worked. I berated myself all the way back to the apartment wanting nothing more than to wash the day away.
I’d just stepped from the shower when I heard knocking on the apartment door. “Who is it?” I yelled from the bathroom door.
“Jake.”
I wrapped a towel around my body, another around my hair, and strode across the small apartment to let him in. He barely looked at me as he stormed into the room. “Is he here?”
I closed the door and waved my hand. “Caleb? No, he’s with his kids.”
“Good,” he muttered before turning on me. “You slept with him, didn’t you?”
My jaw dropped at the unexpected inquisition. I sincerely prayed my face didn’t become a beacon of truth. “What? Why would you say that?”
Jake came to stand in front of me, staring down from his taller height. There were times I hated being short. This was one of them. “I saw you today. You and him.” He spat the word ‘him’ like it was poison. “The two of you were on each other like white on rice.”
Feeling vulnerable, I clutched the towel closer against my middle. “What you saw was nothing more than a show.” The words tasted bitter on my tongue. “I told you before, we need to convince everyone we’re together so Roger will lower the security on our tracking back to at least a normal level. Until then, getting out of here will be impossible.”
He shook his head as I spoke. “I’ve slept with enough girls to know the difference between the looks and exchanges a couple gives off before they’ve had sex and after. Today was definitely an after-sex day.”
He put his hands on my shoulders and pulled me into a fierce hug. “Don’t get involved with him, Grace. He’s the reason we are here in the first place.”
It was a plea, but there was something more in his tone. I was pressed against Jake, but my hands still clutched the damp towel. When he pushed the other towel off my hair and leaned down to kiss the top of my head, I froze in place.
Why did I feel like I was cheating? This was Jake. Jake. I’d known him forever. We were friends. Besides, Caleb had made it clear that what had happened last night was nothing more than a perk for pretending to accept our marriage.
Jake’s hands burned on my bare shoulders. Why did this feel so wrong? He’d been in my dorm room plenty of times when I’d showered, coming back into the room in nothing more than a towel or tee shirt, scrambling for clothes. He’d seen me in my bikini, which probably r
evealed more than this. We were usually so comfortable with each other.
“You have to stay away from him,” he pleaded, his mouth still pressing down onto my head.
“Jake, I…” I bit my lip, stopping myself. “Let me get dressed, then we can talk.”
He followed me to the bedroom and stood outside the closed door as I changed. “He’s trouble, Grace. You need to stop this thing, whatever it is between you. You know he’s manipulating you.”
I looked in the mirror as I pressed my hands against the bureau top. Was he right? My own doubts still echoed in my head, but a part of me wanted to believe last night meant more to Caleb, as much as it meant to me. The other part, the one still reeling from his cold words on the baseball field, had Jake’s words swirling in the forefront.
Why had I allowed myself to fall for Caleb? Was I a sucker for a good-looking man with moody blue eyes and killer abs?
I think that’s enough of a show, don’t you?
Yes, we’d put on quite the show today. No one would question our relationship. No one outside of these doors. But I couldn’t do it again. I can’t let my heart get involved.
I dropped the towel on the floor, grabbed whatever clothes I found, and used my fingers to comb my hair. Last night was a mistake. Today was nothing more than a convincing act for the public.
I opened the door, brushing by my friend. “I’m telling you, what you saw today was a farce.” My words were as much to convince myself as anyone else. “Caleb is the one who is going to help us escape. Don’t alienate him.”
“Is that why you slept with him? So he’ll help?”
The words felt like ice. I whipped around and gave him a solid push, forcing him back a step. “You know me better than that. I don’t use people.”
Jake put his hands up in surrender then turned to pace around the room. “Yeah. I know. But this place—”
I knew where he was going and let out a defeated sigh. “It’s like a ball of contradictions?”
“Exactly.” He continued to pace, making a figure eight around the furniture. “On the outside it appears completely normal. Okay, maybe nineteen sixties All-American-apple-pie-wholesome normal.”
“Until you get inside and see the absolute control they have over all the residents,” I said. “Where tracking everyone is termed safety and security measures. Monitoring your sex life disguised as a need to keep their legacy alive for future generations.”
“That’s what I mean.” He grabbed my hand and squeezed. “But forcing marriage on someone because of a sexual indiscretion is absurd.”
“It is old-fashioned,” I admitted.
He rolled his eyes. “Completely. Yes, I had sex with Hope, but who the hell doesn’t have unmarried sex these days?”
I let me hand slip from his as he went back to his anxious pacing. “You said it yourself, Wellington is stuck in a less progressive time.”
He didn’t stop his tirade there. “Sure, but you were stuck in the woods with the chief and nothing happened at all, except keeping safe and they forced you two to marry because you were alone all night. That’s not nineteen-sixty, that’s eighteen hundreds’ mentality.”
I needed to keep busy, so I headed to the kitchen. I’d planned on making a peach cobbler to bring to the fellowship meal, so I grabbed all the ingredients and lay them on the counter.
“Roger drove the bus on my marriage,” I said. “It was payback for me rejecting Leland, and for Caleb breaking his arm.”
“It doesn’t matter who forced the marriage.” He finally moved to sit in a chair at the counter separating the living room and kitchen areas and leaned dejectedly onto one hand. “You can’t forget it has been the police chief taking charge of keeping us here.”
“Well, technically, yeah, but he was under direct orders from the council. Did you know we are the first group of college students to be bussed in? In the past, they’ve basically gone and searched out runaways looking for a safe haven.”
“See what I mean,” he huffed. “Lover boy was a part of it all.”
My chest tightened at the term. “Please don’t call him that. Like I said before, it was Roger’s doing.” As mad as I was at Caleb, I felt an intense need to defend him. “Roger wanted a better class of people to marry his children to. He figured runaways would have too much baggage or be drug addicts. Plus, by recruiting at the colleges, they hoped to bring in several people at once, not one at a time.”
“So they lied about a work program to get us here? They never had any intention to let us go?”
“They were relying more on everyone loving Wellington so much they wouldn’t want to leave,” I explained. “And for the most part, they’re right.” I waved my spatula in the air. “Have you seen the others who came with us? The one’s I’ve spoken to are awestruck. I mean, what college student wouldn’t want to move to a place where everything they wanted was handed to them.
“Sure, they work,” I slid the cobbler into the oven as I spoke. “But they walk into the diner and swipe their wrist band and, voilà, food appears. No money changes hands. Want to go to a movie? Bowling? Just a swipe of the arm as you enter. It’s easy.”
With the dessert cooking, I couldn’t sit still, so I grabbed the bananas and started on bread. I got why my parents cooked. It was soothing; combining ingredients; following instructions; having a finished product to share with others. Focusing on the steps helped distract me from what was happening in my life outside of the kitchen. Or would, if Mr.-Regret-My-Decisions wasn’t front and center telling me my almost indiscretion was worse than his major faux pas.
Jake stood and watched. He hated cooking, so never offered to help. “I guess I never gave it a thought. It is an easy lifestyle here, and I suppose it would sound appealing. So are they all in? They’ve all fallen for it?”
I filled him in on my observations so far. “Kevin has. He doesn’t have a good family to go home to so he loves it here. Isabelle has blossomed. She’s no longer the quiet girl who came. She has guys fighting over her. Caroline is already married. Marcus has been practicing with the band and isn’t in any hurry to head home. I haven’t really spoken with the others.”
“How come we’re the only ones who see what is happening?”
“Caleb does. Now.”
Jake scoffed. “What took him so long?”
I hesitated. “It’s not my story to tell, but when you grow up here, all of this is normal. He didn’t know any different. His eyes have been opened to the reality.”
In a few quick steps, he moved around the counter to stand at my side and grip my shoulders. “You keep defending him, but I still don’t trust him to follow through. You need to watch your step and don’t sleep with him again. If you get pregnant, he’ll never let you leave with his kid.”
He didn’t know how true his words were. But pregnant? Not a chance. I turned my back to Jake as I searched out bread pans. Caleb had kept his promise last night, but in the heat of the moment, I’d been ready to give in. Now, knowing Caleb still thought of all of this as nothing more than show, I should be thankful he’d been strong.
Or conniving?
I was the one who’d wanted more. I’d thought what we had experienced together last night had meant something, or at least changed the dynamics. I was wrong. Damn. I guess I still had a lot to learn in the relationship department. The man I was forced into a marriage with was ten years older than me and a hell of a lot more experienced. As I switched out the pie for the banana bread to bake, I told myself to grow up. The wedding was a sham. What had happened—and what didn’t happen—was a lesson learned.
Jake was still in the apartment when Caleb got home. By the way he slowly closed the door, I could tell he was surprised at my company. “Hello.”
He bent to pick up the towel I’d forgotten about. Oops. I really should get better at cleaning up after myself. “Ah, hi.” It was all I could manage. I was still hurt by his words earlier, and my friend’s warnings still swam in my head as Jake barely
acknowledged the new arrival home.
My eyes followed Caleb as he stepped into the bedroom, my guess to put the towel in the hamper and I’m sure he discovered the other towel on the floor. I could only imagine what he thought. I worried my lip as I suddenly didn’t know what to say or do around the man who’d turned my world upside down and then inside out in less than twenty-four hours.
Jake stood to leave. He came around the counter where I was now doing dishes and kissed my cheek. “Thanks for earlier,” he said loud enough for Caleb to hear as he came back into the room, but then he leaned down to my ear. “Remember what I said.” Then he quickly left the apartment.
“He doesn’t look happy,” Caleb commented as he strode to the counter. “Wow, you’ve been busy.”
I looked over at the cobbler, two banana breads, and three dozen sugar cookies, all a testament to my current stress level. I saw he was about to come around the counter to give me a kiss, but I turned my back to him, putting away the pans as an excuse. “Yeah, I got a bit carried away.”
He stopped at the corner, obviously noticing my avoidance. “I thought you would join us for supper. Did you eat?”
“No. Guess I forgot.”
That’s all he needed to advance in the tiny confines of the kitchen. “How do you forget to eat? Here, I’ll make you something.”
The gesture was sweet, and I could quickly get used to his nurturing side, but Jake had been right. I need to keep emotions out of it. I need to concentrate on the plan to escape. And I needed space. “Nah, that’s okay. I have a headache and was about to head to bed.”
Caleb, being Caleb, didn’t let it go. “You probably have a headache because you didn’t eat.”
I grabbed a cookie and took a bite. “There. I ate.” I forced a yawn. “I really am tired.”
He stepped in my path. “What’s going on, Grace? I thought we were in a good place?”
No, you thought you could have a little fun while we played house. I couldn’t help the snide thought. Jake was rubbing off on me.
