by Doyle, S
Me. Noah. Small bed. Oh yeah, it was going to be a very warm winter off the coast of Scotland.
Then it occurred to me he was scowling about what I’d said.
“What?”
“My plan was to knock you up. Figured you couldn’t shake me loose then.”
My jaw dropped. “Noah! Are you kidding me? After everything we went through.”
He shrugged. “Now I know you want a kid. Had a chance to think about it and thought…yeah. That would work. A little mini us.”
I shook my head, completely dazed by him.
“I love you.”
“I know. You told me,” he said smugly.
We both got dressed and started to make our way to the control room. Over my shoulder I told him, “You know I’m not letting you knock me up until after we’re married. My parents might be hippies, but they are old fashioned that way.”
“Jesus, you’re demanding,” he said as he came up next to me and looped an arm over my shoulder, letting anyone watching us sknow exactly what we were to each other. “Fine. Ring first, babies next. But first, let’s fix this tin can.”
“Yep. I might have a few ideas, too.”
He snorted. “And I might listen to you.”
“Noah, I already know you respect my work.”
“That’s when you were an engineer. Now you’re a VP. Pretty much means you’ve forgotten everything I’ve taught you and all you care about are dollar signs.”
“Are you saying we’re back to being on opposite sides of the fight?” I asked him.
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Let’s face it, Liv. We both get hot when we fight.”
I smiled, knowing he was right. “Then let’s start talking about my ideas.”
* * *
Dear readers I really hope you enjoyed Ark and Olivia’s story. But I know you’re wondering who is Vivienne and what is she doing to Cal! Check it out in Caleb’s Salvation
Caleb’s Salvation
Chapter 1
Hope’s Point Airport – aka the runway
5 months ago
Cal
“Tell me why I’m out here again?” I turned to my right and looked at Eli, who looked about as nervous as a cat.
“Doogie called and said he had a drop off,” he said. “Wasn’t sure how big it was going to be to 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 deja vu about me standing here 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 up already 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 and you invited some woman up here for me.”
“Her name is Vivienne Chester. She’s thirty-five and a retail buyer from Texas. Super hot red head. 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 them has to go as expected. I mean what are the odds?”
I cursed in general. Then I cursed Eli. Together we watched as the plane came in for a landing. A few minutes later Doogie was setting out the steps for Hope’s Point latest arrival in what Eli had dubbed as the Alaska Dating Games.
A woman popped out and stepped out of the plane carefully. She wore a large coat wrapped around her that made it difficult to get a sense of her build. A wool cap was pulled low over her head and could see she was wearing her hair in a braid down her back.
Doogie grabbed two separate duffle bags and started walking toward us as the woman Eli had said was Vivienne 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 back 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 small 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 false bravado. “Thirty?”
“Try again.”
She huffed, and a white puff of smoke 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 new revelation. “I had no idea. There was nothing about baby in her profile. And the picture was different too.”
“That was my mother. In the picture. She’s prettier than me, I know. And 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 pretty fucking familiar to me.”
He had the common sense not to say anything then.
I turned and 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 the in passenger seat of the truck.
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 they other women stayed and they seemed to do alright.”
Because there had been four men, four profiles. I hadn’t thought of them. 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 had sat down with Sam tucked against my chest and signed on to 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 a round trip all expenses paid contest to go on a blind date in Alaska.
Alaska, where it wouldn’t be so blistering hot all the time.
I hadn’t thought anything of it. It was more curiosity then 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 last seven years. It was his face. Stoic and resigned to life, but also a sense of gravity and responsibility too.
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. 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 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, but he would come in eventually. My gut told me he wouldn’t be the type to drive away without checking to see 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 Caleb probably wouldn’t take too kindly to be lying to. I guess I was hoping… It doesn’t matter. How did the other ladies make out?”
Eli smiled. “Well, Shelby, that’s my girlfriend, she’s got a cabin next to Zeke and Eve’s place not to 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 doing 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 all that, 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 wall. Tall, broad chest, 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 of a name to forget. And yes, my mother did name after Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman because I was born with a shock of red hair. 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. “I understand you might be disappointed with me, but 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. He’s 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 two weeks, room and board and a
ll 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. Because the guy from the profile wouldn’t do that. The guy, who I had built into this knight in shinning 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 pot belly 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 bet everything I have on that’s who you are.”
He ran his hand through his hair nearly pulling it out by roots. Then he looked the ceiling as if there was someone clinging to it 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 had had 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 down on the bed and waited.
BUY NOW
Also by S Doyle
The Bride
The Wife
The Lover
The Baby
The Homecoming
* * *
Catching The Billionaire
Lovers to Enemies: A Hope’s Point Story
* * *
Dating The Superhero
My Crazy Ex-Superhero
* * *
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