by Lauren Wood
“Well I guess it is as good of a time as any to get up. What time is it?”
I looked at my watch and gave him an answer. It didn’t faze him that he had been awaiting for her for an hour. I almost tried to get him up again, but I was convinced that he wasn’t as bad as he appeared. I’d seen Kevin function on far more in his system, I was sure of it. Kevin finally wobbled up, even though he was swaying badly.
I went out to the top side and breathed a sigh of relief when I was off of the boat and my back was to the water. The dock moved underneath my feet and it was like before. This time the woman was in front of me and instead of it doing what I was supposed to, I felt the queasiness take over. So I went to follow her and the dock moved again. I tried to steady myself, but I was going face first into the water before I knew it.
The water was so damn cold, an immediate shock to my system. Damnit, it looked like my day had just taken a turn for the worst. I sputtered out the cold water and tried to push back the flash backs that they caused.
Chapter 4
Merle
Kevin was not at all what I expected, but it was the man in the water that got my attention back. Charlie was hauling himself up from the cold water and I could tell that he wasn’t happy. I felt responsible somehow because he had only gone to get Kevin because of me. Now he was soaked and even though he was trying to hide it, he was shivering and I knew that it wasn’t good. Hypothermia could happen quickly and he didn’t even have a wet suit on to dampen the blow. I knew that he was cold and I knew that I was going to have to do something about it. At least I had my bags with me, even if I didn’t have a vehicle at the moment.
“Come here Charlie. I have some extra blankets in here. You need to get out of these clothes before you catch your death.”
He tried to shrug me off and said that he was fine, but his lips were trembling and I knew that it wasn’t the case. I proceeded to take his shirt off and when I realized that he was too tall, I had to ask him to bend over.
“You don’t take no for an answer Merle, do you?”
I told him that I didn’t. It was easier if he knew what he was up against. I wasn’t going to let him off of the hook until I knew that he was dry and warmer than he was. He wasn’t going to get sick from helping me. I wasn’t going to allow it.
“Come on Charlie, just work with me or I am going to have to strip you down the rest of the way.”
He stopped and looked down at me. “I don’t think I would mind at all.”
His blue eyes were twinkling and I got the impression that he was calling my bluff. The funny thing was though that I wasn’t bluffing. I was going to do what I set out to do and when he moved closer, my hand went for his jeans and he finally got the hint that I wasn’t joking around.
“I didn’t think you were being serious.”
“I am. I have extra blankets and clothes that will probably fit you. You can’t be out here in this wind as wet as you are. I don’t want something to happen to you because you helped me.”
Kevin chimed in after a moment. He was not sure who the woman was, but he liked the show that she was putting on and he liked how uncomfortable his friend was at the moment.
“Oh Charlie, when did you get so shy? I am starting to think that I am back in the bottom of the boat and this is a dream. Where else would she come from?”
“I don’t know where she came from, but this isn’t a dream. She is your new diver.”
I saw the look on Kevin’s face and I can’t say that he looked like he was too impressed. It wasn’t how I had meant to meet my boss, pulling another man’s pants off, but Charlie had taken over and I handed him a blanket before I went to my new boss with an outstretched hand. I wanted him to know that this wasn’t how I usually was, but I was afraid of Charlie getting sick. Hopefully he would see it as fast thinking, but when I got to Kevin, it was clear that he was looking at me about like the other guy had.
“So you are my diver?”
“Yes Sir. Merle Clannahan. We talked several times on the phone. I was waiting out here for you because I didn’t realize that you were on the boat. Nice nap?”
Kevin’s eyes moved over my body and I can’t say that it was the most comfortable assessment that I have ever had. I felt like I was being weighed and measured and I hoped that he saw enough in me to be found approving.
“Why yes, I remember talking to you, but I don’t remember you being a girl.”
I sighed to myself and nodded my head. Did he want me to apologize for it or something? I wasn’t really sure, but I was sure that I didn’t want to let him know how aggravated with it all I was. Yes, I was a girl. Was I the only one there that wasn’t male because both men were acting like I had horns on my head or something and I was a bit surprised by the reaction. I thought this was a state that was used to going against the status quo.
“Well, I am a girl. I thought that my voice would have given it away.”
The man looked at me sheepishly and I paid attention to the other man that was covering himself in a blanket from out of my bag. Charlie had refused it at first, but I could see that he was at least not shaking as badly as before.
“Girl or not, can you dive?”
It was a question that he had asked me before and since I had answered it several times already, I was going to chalk it up to something that he wanted to make sure of because of my gender. I told him again that I could and I tried to ignore the half-naked man that was standing next to me. Charlie was huge and when he had gotten down to his skivvies, there wasn’t much left to the imagination. I tried not to let the sight of him bother me, but it really was impossible not to let it. He was distracting and when he smiled at me in such a disarming manner, I knew that I was going to have to get it together.
“Yes I can dive Kevin. I was hoping that we could get out there and do a run before the sun goes down today. No time like the present.”
Kevin agreed, but I could tell that he was hung over. I was going to have to be careful working for him. I turned to Charlie and told him to keep the blanket and clothes that he had managed to find that fit him. I was glad that I had kept some of my ex’s things now.
“I can’t take your supplies.”
“Well then find me later when you don’t need them and you can give them to me then.” I waved to the distraction and tried my best not to think about the hard lines he possessed. I was going to be surrounded by hot, rugged men. I was going to have to do a better job of hiding my lust if I was ever going to make it here.
Chapter 5
Charlie
I was left standing on the shore in clothes that weren’t mine and the arguable realization that I was no longer shivering from falling in the water. It wasn’t my finest moment by any stretch of the imagination, but that didn’t stop me from feeling worse when a hot new girl started to strip me like I was a child or something. Her hands had been on my jean buttons and there was nothing there but a perfunctory movement. It didn’t even look like she was enjoying herself. I wanted to say something to her, to get her to stop, but the shock of it all had given her a longer amount of time with me standing there with my mouth agape then necessary.
Now I was hard thinking about it and I knew that I was going to have to go home and get some clothes on that actually fit. Hers had worked in a pinch and I wasn’t going to even wonder why she was walking around with man’s clothes in her bag.
I gathered up what was left of my sopping wet clothes and made my way back to my truck. My face was still hot from turning red and I could relive my embarrassment for some time because as I was walking back, I realized that there were more people that had seen the scene than I had hoped for. I should have known that nothing went unnoticed in Nome. I was going to be the laughing stock of the whole town if I didn’t figure out a way to get the attention from me.
“Early morning swim Charlie?”
I nodded with a small smile at Dustin as I made my way past his boat where he was sunning on the back deck. I hadn’
t seen him for a while and of course I would see him in the middle of such a thing as that.
“I guess so.”
“Who was that sexy little number with the big ass?”
I took a deep breath and shrugged like I didn’t really know. “She works for Kevin diving.”
His brow went up and I could tell that Dustin was thinking about getting to know Merle a little bit better and I didn’t like the idea of it. She was hot and she was going to be all mine.
“Well damn that won’t last long. If she is any good, she isn’t going to want to waste her time with old Kevin. He will never make her any money. I am sure I can work it out where she comes onto my rig. Is she as pretty as she looks from over here?”
I had to agree with him, but I didn’t like the attention that she was getting. She hadn’t been here a full day and already she was being eyed. It made me think of Ayla and my friend that had went through hell to keep her. Was this raven-haired beauty worth that sort of work? If I was going to claim her, it was clear that I was going to have to do it soon.
When I got back to my truck, I was warmed up enough that I wasn’t even cold anymore and I had actually dried off, short of my shoulder length hair. It was still dripping down my back and it was just a good reminder of the woman I had met that had saved me.
Back at the house, all I could think about was the new diver and what that was going to mean for the small town of Nome. When outsiders came in, it was easy for things to get a little crazy here. I knew that Ayla coming to town had changed everything. Why was it going to be any different? I decided that I needed to get some advice from the man that knew exactly what I was going through. He had known that Ayla was worth the fight and I felt that way about Merle, but I didn’t know if I had what was needed to make a stand. What if she wasn’t interested? At the moment she thought I was a boob that fell into the freezing ocean and needed to be saved. It wasn’t a good feeling at all.
I went back to the docks a little later, hoping that I would catch Kevin and Merle back, but they were still out, so I had some time to kill. It was an easy thing to do when there was always someone coming in to talk to. A few of them had a small little jar of gold and a good tale about how they came to have it in their hand. I spent more of the afternoon hearing the stories until my own crews were back and they had something to say as well. It had been a good day, but I was still waiting for the girl that was going to make it even better.
When I saw her and Kevin driving up, my body was relieved and I was ready to get to know her even better than before.
Chapter 6
Merle
“I see that you have dried off and made it.”
His face kind of turned a cute color of red and I was unable to stop the way it made me feel. He looked so innocent that it was hard to not see the rough exterior. I don’t know why, but Charlie was the kind of guy that I was drawn to. After the day I had had, it only seemed natural to calm down and have a conversation with someone else but my half-drunk boss. I was livid with Kevin and Charlie seemed to know the man well, so I wasn’t as hesitant to talk about what my day had been like.
“I did, thanks to you. How was your first dive with Kevin?”
I looked back to where Kevin was getting all of the boat’s pieces back in place for the night and I kind of sighed to myself. It wasn’t that I wasn’t grateful for the job or anything like that, but at the end of the day, it had been a rough one.
“Why don’t you buy me a drink and I will tell you all about it? Unless you are busy.” I looked around for his crew and wondered which boat was his, but I didn’t want to look too hard. I wanted to get off of the shore and put a little distance between me and the boss. I knew that it was going to be hard, but I had never considered that it would be dangerous. If it was going to be just me and Kevin out on the water together, he was going to have to go a little more sober the next time. He had to keep track of things and twice while I was under the oxygen shut off and once the hot water that was fed into the wet suit was gone and I liked to have frozen before I got to the surface and back on the boat.
“Well it is the least that I can do after you saved my life earlier.”
I waved him off. He wasn’t going to keel over earlier, but he would have gotten sick if he hadn’t done something. I didn’t want to see someone not taken care of. I used to be a lifeguard and that need to help was still there.
He offered me a ride and I took it because I was exhausted and the last thing that I wanted to do was to walk to the bar. It had been a long day and I knew that tomorrow was going to be longer, but at least there had been some success in the sluice box. The little glitters of gold were what kept me from telling the older man that I was done before I got started. It was hard to do, but I was still trying to make my fortune this summer and the only way to do it was on a gold mining rig. All I had to do was convince Kevin that we would do better with him actually sober for most of the day while we were out there.
“So was it that bad with Kevin?”
I was looking out the window and I nodded my head that it was. “Yeah he was hung over or still drunk from this morning or last night. I am really not sure, but he certainly wasn’t on his A game.”
Charlie grinned and told me that he was on his A game. “If he got out of bed and off of the stool at the bar, that’s about as good as it gets for Kevin. I hate to say it because I like Kevin a lot, but I think that you have gotten in with the wrong rig. He will barely scrap up enough to pay for his habit over the winter. I have known many of his divers through the year and no one comes out any better.”
I made a sound of displeasure and I tried to straighten up, but I had known that it was going to be something like that. Hearing Charlie say it just let me know that what was in my gut. This was a bad idea and after choking on no oxygen and almost freezing earlier, I knew that it was going to be dangerous. But the deal that there would-be some gold at the end of it would help me endure more abuse. The idea that it was all for naught was not something I was prepared for and if I was honest, he had deflated my sail more than I thought possible.
“Well I don’t know what I am going to do if that is true. I have been trying to get up here for almost two years and finding someone that would let me dive for them was hard enough. I am here now and I can’t leave yet. I need to get some gold.”
I wasn’t really thinking too hard about what I needed. I knew that I needed another rig to work on, but I was still under the impression that I was going to have to prove myself first. When Charlie offered an alternative, I didn’t know what to say.
“I thought you said that you don’t go out anymore?”
“I do not usually but I do have two that go out every day. I just bought up some more mining area and I need to get my money back out of it. We can talk about percentages later, but my rig is safer and you will always have someone on board that will watch your back while you are down there.”
“I have to think about it Charlie.”
“Don’t think too long. I need an answer by the morning. If you are in, just meet me at the same place and I will get you started.”
I agreed to do that, but I was also trying to figure out how I could explain myself to Kevin.
Chapter 7
Charlie
The bar was pretty busy, but that didn’t stop people from gawking at us as we came in. New girls were always given a bit of attention, but this time around it was even more so because she was so damn hot. I wanted to claim her so that other men would see that it wasn’t in their best interest to try something, but short of grabbing her and kissing her in front of everyone else, I didn’t think that there was going to be a way to do it.
I put my arm around her and I felt a moment hesitation as my fingers touched the back of her shoulder, but she relaxed and I was able to take a breath of relief myself. I didn’t want her to think badly of me, but I wanted her and that was that. It was better that she knew, though maybe she wouldn’t agree to work for me if she knew t
hat I was envisioning her being pulled to the floor and slammed into over and over again.
I shook my head to get the image out of it. It was hard to breathe when I was thinking of such things and the more I tried to get it out of my head, the stronger it held on and bothered me even more. I was rock hard and I was supposed to be showing her that I was harmless. It was a hard thing to do when I was feeling more animalistic than I could ever remember feeling before. It had been too long since I was in bed with a beautiful woman and Merle was one that would top all of the rest. Patience was not something that was in big supply at the moment.
“What would you like to drink?”
She shrugged and finally went for vodka. It wasn’t what I would have guessed for her, but she had to have some fire in her to be all the way at the end of the world looking for gold. I was born and raised here and I can’t say that I would ever be able to pick up and leave. I have been here so long, I don’t know if I would be brave enough to leave now. It is supposed to be one of the hardest paces to live, but it was home to me and I don’t know if I would want it any other way.
“So tell me about yourself Merle. What brings you to the end of the world?”
She giggled a little and told me that the name alone was enough to bring her here. It was a nice little saying that was on some tourist stuff for the few people that made it up this far. She wasn’t a tourist though. She was here for fame and fortune. There was a big difference. She also wasn’t staying around and that made me a little more determined to put myself out there.
“Gold. I guess I want to see what all of the fuss is about. Maybe I got the fever. I guess I just like the idea of it just sitting out there, waiting for me to come suck it up.”