“I don’t want to talk about it, but I bought him some underwear. I was hoping you could instruct him on the importance of wearing it after you show him how to take a shower later.” Hannah gave Jason a sweet smile as he took a seat at the table.
“The things you two get me into,” he said with a beleaguered sigh. “How did I get the bad end of this stick?”
“Because you can’t expect Hannah to show this guy how to do his business or dress like a normal person, that’s why, honey.” Jill gave Jason a quick kiss on the mouth as she set a bowl of sliced melon in front of him. He pulled her onto his lap and tickled her sides, making her squirm, while Rachel clapped and Hannah grinned.
She looked up to see Thor studying them with an unreadable look on his face.
Jason gave Jill another kiss then let her go. She popped him playfully on the shoulder then took a seat next to him. He pulled Rachel’s highchair between them. Hannah sat next to Jill, leaving the lone empty chair for Thor.
“You get those hands washed?” Hannah asked as Thor settled onto the chair.
“Yes. Soap is a wondrous invention.” He held his hand up to his nose and sniffed. “It smells of flowers and fruit.”
Jason smirked. “Welcome to my world.”
Thor remained quiet through the meal, focused instead on learning to eat with a fork and knife. Hannah offered to cut his steak for him, but he gave her a fierce glare and did it himself.
When he finally sawed off a hunk and bit into it, he closed his eyes, as though savoring the experience. He studied the baked potato from every angle before taking a taste. Hannah convinced him to at least put butter and salt on it, which he did. His eyes lit up as he tried another bite. He liked salad, but not dressing, and ate several pieces of the sweet, juicy watermelon.
It seemed Thor had a bit of a sweet tooth. He drank three glasses of the sweet tea then swirled the ice around in his glass, as though mesmerized by the wonder of it.
After dinner, Jason left to see to a few chores. Jill and Hannah did the dishes while Rachel scooted around the kitchen floor. She crawled over to Thor and held up her hands to him.
Hannah watched as he held out two fingers and the baby clasped onto them. Rachel stood and bounced on her feet, happily babbling as she held Thor’s fingers in a tight grip.
She had no idea what he said to the baby, because it was in his language, or his made-up language, she corrected herself. But the way he looked at Rachel made her wonder if he thought of his own daughter. What did she look like? Did she share Thor’s blue eyes? She’d assumed he was dark-skinned, but where Jill had removed his beard, the skin was pale. If Thor wasn’t careful, he’d end up sunburned.
He must spend an awful lot of time outside to have such tanned skin, she mused. It was a wonder he didn’t have skin cancer.
Should she take him to the walk-in clinic and have a doctor look at him? What would she tell them? The man thought he was a caveman and had no identification or insurance. That would not go well.
“He’s good with her,” Jill whispered as they wiped off the counters and put the last of the leftovers in the refrigerator.
“He is. If it wasn’t for Rachel, he’d be over here asking a hundred questions about how the fridge works.” Hannah grinned at her sister. “It’s a good thing you don’t have a garbage disposal.”
Jill laughed. “I could get out the vacuum. Maybe he’d clean the house for me.”
“Now there’s a novel idea.”
“Would you like to watch TV, Thor?” Jill asked, lifting Rachel and blowing on the baby’s neck, making her giggle.
“TV?”
“I’ll show him,” Hannah said, taking Thor’s hand and pulling him to his feet. She’d never seen a man’s hand with such broad fingers or wide palm. It didn’t seem oddly shaped, just… incredibly strong and capable.
She led him down a hall to the family room where leather couches surrounded a big-screen television. “Have a seat. I’ll see if I can find the movie you were watching earlier.”
Within minutes, Thor was settling back into the smooth cushions of the couch, and the opening credits of the adventure movie he’d watched a few minutes of earlier rolled on the screen. Hannah started to leave the room, but he gave her a pleading look. “You will leave me now?”
“I just have a few things to do, then I’ll come back.”
He nodded and glanced at the screen then jumped as the movie began. Hannah settled a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s not real. It’s just pretend.”
“It’s much bigger than when I watched earlier,” he said, as though that explained his startled state.
“Wait until I take you to a theater.” She patted his shoulder. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. Just stay here.”
She walked to the door and glanced at him, admiring his profile and the way he leaned slightly forward, clearly engaged in the movie.
Confused, and with her thoughts at odds, she went outside to the Jeep and gathered the bags of things she’d purchased for Thor then took them to the guest room upstairs where he’d stay.
Once she carried her things to her room next to Rachel’s nursery, she returned and watched the movie with him. Thor didn’t say anything until it ended, then he grunted, as though satisfied with how it concluded.
“What do we do now?” he asked, looking at Hannah.
“Now, we eat dessert,” Jill said, poking her head into the room. “Come to the kitchen.”
“More food?” Thor asked with interest, rising to his feet.
“Yes, more food.” Hannah grinned. Jason washed his hands at the kitchen sink when they entered the room. The four of them sat at the table and enjoyed warm apricot cobbler topped with freshly whipped cream.
Thor looked as though he might lick the bowl clean when he finished his serving.
“Would you like more?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No. I am full, but the food is good.”
“Thank you,” Jill said, smiling at him.
Jason and Jill talked about plans for the following day, and Hannah chimed in with what she wanted to do.
“We’ll see you in the morning,” Hannah said, standing and motioning for Thor to follow her.
She led him to his room, explained what the bed was, and showed him the new clothes she’d purchased for him.
“You can take a shower before you go to bed,” she said, guiding him to the bathroom. She turned on the water in the shower stall, and Thor’s eyes bugged.
“It’s a waterfall in the house!” he exclaimed, turning the water on and off three times.
Hannah couldn’t help but smile. Even if he was acting, his excitement seemed genuine. “You take off your clothes and get in the shower. That’s the soap there,” she said, pointing to a bar of soap. “You scrub it all over you then wash it off. And there’s shampoo in the bottle right there. You wash your hair with it. Just squeeze a little out, though. It doesn’t take much.” She thought it best not to get into conditioner with him at the moment. “When you get out, here’s a towel to dry off, and I’ll set your clothes by the sink. Before you go to bed, use this little brush and some of this paste to brush your teeth. If you have questions, my door is right across the hall.”
Thor nodded and had already tugged his shirt over his head. Before he dropped his shorts, she spun around and closed the door behind her. Had the man no modesty at all?
She’d taken a look at his bare chest, though, and wondered again at the scars he bore. Some looked as though they’d been created by terribly painful wounds.
Hannah stood at the door and listened as the water started and stopped several times. She heard Thor yelp once and wondered if he’d turned the knob too far and gotten a frigid blast of water.
She went across the hall to her room and got out her laptop. Erik had sent her a text letting her know he’d asked the rancher who owned the land where they were digging if he’d heard of anyone in the area with a mental illness or if he knew the guy. The
rancher had no idea who he was but said he’d ask around.
Despite how impossible and improbable it seemed, a part of Hannah couldn’t help but question if Thor really had found his way out of the past to the present. If they took his shoes and had them carbon dated, she was sure they’d come back the same age as the one she’d dug up that morning.
Then there were his clothes.
She could hardly wait to study every detail of his garment, but she was waiting for him to go to bed first. Thor might not appreciate finding her going over it with a magnifying glass.
She grinned. Most likely he’d take the magnifying glass from her and ask a dozen questions about it.
It was almost like having a first-grader with her all day with the endless questions he asked. However, she only had to explain something once, and Thor seemed to grasp it perfectly. He had a keen mind, of that she had no doubt. Her concern was whether he was a bad guy with a gift for acting, a man out of his mind, or, by some miracle, a cavedweller from the past.
Too tired to continue reasoning with herself, she did a search online to see if anyone had reported a missing man. She had no idea how old Thor was and hadn’t thought to ask him. When she’d first seen him, she would have assumed he was in his late thirties or early forties, but with his hair and beard gone and him no longer scowling at her, he seemed far younger.
In fact, the way his eyes lit up as he discovered new foods and saw things for, presumably, the first time, he seemed almost child-like in his wonder.
She tried to imagine what it would be like to be minding her own business and suddenly wake up somewhere unexpected.
If she’d been transported back to his day, which she guessed to be around 10,000 BC, she didn’t think she’d have handled things nearly as well as he’d done today.
Was she ready to buy into his tale of being from the past? Part of her still wondered if he was a crazy man from the present.
The water stopped running, and she cocked an ear, listening. She heard Thor humming and imagined him examining the toothbrush and paste she’d left on the bathroom counter. She’d also purchased a comb and deodorant for his use, but she’d introduce him to those tomorrow. A shower and toothpaste seemed like enough for him to experience tonight.
The bathroom door cracked open, and steam rolled into the hall. Thor looked out and grinned at her. His underwear were outside the soft cotton basketball-style shorts she’d purchased for him to wear as pajamas, and he had a ring of toothpaste around his mouth.
A giggle burst out of her as she set down her laptop and hurried across the hall. “What are you doing with the toothpaste?”
“It tastes good,” he said, talking around a mouthful of paste.
“You can’t eat it.” She took the brush he held in his hand but had not yet used and pressed it against his teeth. “Brush up and down and back and forth, like this,” she said.
He held the brush and did as she said.
“Now, spit it out in the sink.” She turned the water on and stepped back. He didn’t seem pleased about spitting out the minty-flavored paste, but obeyed. She filled a disposable paper cup with water and handed it to him. “Now rinse.”
“Rinse?”
She took a drink from the cup and swished it around then spit it in the sink.
He mimicked her actions and gave her another grin.
“Good job,” she said, as though she spoke to a five-year-old. She moved back and pointed to his shorts. “You’ve got those on backward. The white ones go inside, the blue ones on the outside. When you get dressed tomorrow, you’ll leave the white ones on all day.”
He glanced down, shrugged, and started to take off both pairs of shorts.
Once again, she spun around and closed the door behind her. Maybe Jason could explain to him about acceptable social behavior, particularly in mixed company.
“Are you dressed?” she asked when all remained silent in the bathroom.
“Yes.” Thor opened the door and gave her a questioning glance. “Why does your face turn red and you leave when I take off my clothes?”
“Because it’s not… You don’t… It’s not proper.”
“Proper? I do not know this word.” He stubbornly crossed his arms over his chest. “Explain it to me.”
“Tomorrow. I’m tired, and you should be, too.” Hannah led him to his room, turned down the covers, and motioned for him to get in the bed.
When he continued staring at her instead of getting in, she sighed. “Face the door,” she ordered and stepped in front of him. He did as she asked, then she gave him a hefty shove. He fell back on the bed.
He grinned up at her as he bounced on the mattress. “I like this,” he said, scooting back so his entire body was on the bed.
“These are sheets. You sleep between them, with your head on the pillow,” Hannah instructed. Thor moved until he was between the cool, crisp sheets with his head nestled on a fluffy pillow.
Unable to resist the urge, Hannah brushed her fingers across his forehead. “Sleep well, Thor.”
He caught her hand and stared at her fingers before he kissed the inside of her wrist. Sensations she’d never experienced, stirred by this man, spiraled through her with such force, she felt lightheaded. Without a word, she backed out of the room but left the door open a crack.
In her room, she released the breath she’d been holding and stared at the skin he’d kissed. Her knees still felt wobbly from that brief touch.
She couldn’t be falling for a lunatic who thought he was a caveman, could she?
Chapter Seven
“You get your caveman tucked in last night?” Jill asked as she mixed batter for pancakes while Hannah slid a pan of bacon into the oven.
“I did. He acted like he’s never seen a shower, or toothpaste, or a bed for that matter. I just don’t know what to make of him.”
Jill laughed. “If I was in your shoes, I’d make a few calf eyes at him. He’s sure a cutie.”
Hannah scowled at her sister then turned at the sound of someone walking into the room. She almost dropped the mug of coffee she held in her hand at the sight of Thor. He still wore the shorts he had on last night but hadn’t bothered with a shirt. His hair pinwheeled on the left side of his head, and his eyes looked hooded and entirely too enticing for six in the morning.
He grinned at her and sniffed the air. “Coffee,” he said in a low grumble.
Jill laughed and poured him a cup.
He took a long sip and released a contented sigh. “It is good, sister of Hannah.”
After breakfast, where Thor had eaten more than his share of the crispy bacon and asked a dozen questions about pigs and smoked meat, Jason encouraged Hannah to go riding. Jason talked one of his hired hands, who was close to Thor’s size, into letting Thor borrow a pair of jeans and an old pair of scuffed boots.
Thor had loved riding and made her laugh when he said the horses were much more fun to ride than eat. They even helped Jason herd a few cows as they moved them from one pasture to another. Thor talked to Jason at length about beef cattle and the steak they’d eaten at dinner.
If Hannah hadn’t known what she did about Thor, she would have thought he was just one of the many cowboys who worked on the ranch. He took to riding like he was born to it, which he clearly wasn’t.
They’d barely finished lunch when Jill told her she should take Thor into town and buy him something to wear to the rodeo that evening. Hannah had no intention of taking him to the rodeo. In spite of her protests, she found herself driving him to the local ranch supply store. She helped him choose two pairs of jeans, two snap-front shirts, a few T-shirts, and a pair of boots. Goodness knew what the man would do with the clothes after this weekend, but he was quite proud of them.
When Hannah selected a straw hat for him to wear, Thor looked like a little boy who’d just received everything he’d wanted for Christmas.
On the way home from the store, she went to a drive-through and ordered ice-cream cones.
&n
bsp; “What is this,” Thor asked as Hannah handed him the paper-wrapped cone.
“An ice-cream cone,” she said, holding her cone up and taking a lick of the rapidly melting treat. “You lick it until you get to the crunchy cone then peel off the paper and eat it.”
At his first taste of the cold, creamy confection, Thor’s eyes lit with such pleasure, Hannah knew his reaction was real and honest. No matter what this man’s past was, in his mind, he’d just experienced ice cream for the first time.
He leaned over and placed a sweet, brief kiss on her mouth. “This is the best thing I have eaten.”
Stunned by the fact he’d kissed her, even if it was chaste as far as kisses go, Hannah almost dropped her cone as she pulled onto the road and headed home.
She tried to convince Thor to stay at the house and watch another movie instead of going to the rodeo, but he insisted on attending. Jason hadn’t helped matters any by talking about Thor watching him compete in the team roping event. Jason had taken him out behind the barn and shown him how to throw a loop over a dummy head mounted on a straw bale.
Thor returned to the house even more excited to go to the rodeo. When Jason said he was going to grab a shower and change, Thor had done the same. Hannah was in her room getting ready and heard him singing a Blake Shelton song he’d listened to that day. “You name the babies and I’ll name the dogs,” he sang with such enthusiasm it made Hannah giggle. She wondered if he had any idea what the words and context of the song meant but decided it didn’t really matter.
Jason and Jill left early for the rodeo. Hannah promised to bring Rachel and meet them there. She and the baby were in the kitchen when Thor walked into the room, looking like he’d stepped out of a western clothing advertisement.
Stubble covered his cheeks and chin, since no one had taught him how to shave and Hannah wasn’t brave enough to hand him a razor. The day’s growth of beard gave him a rakish look. It also hid the stark whiteness of his face where Jill had removed his bushy beard. The pale skin contrasted sharply with the deeply tanned skin around it
Capturing the Cavedweller's Heart Page 8
