“There. That’s out of the way,” Jake said huskily, looking down at her. He still held her close, afraid she might pull away from him if he gave her the chance. “Now, what were you going to say?”
“Hmm… nothing.”
“No objections?” he asked cautiously, hoping she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
“No.”
“Good,” he replied. His mouth was mere inches from hers, inviting her to kiss him back. She did, savoring the taste of his lips. Her arms moved up around his neck, her hands pulling him closer. When they came up for air, Nora felt lightheaded.
“I think the bear may have come back last night,” she said unexpectedly. She hadn’t meant to tell him. She just blurted it out without thinking. “I heard a scratching sound outside and another noise that I’ve only ever heard when I had the encounter with the bear. It scared the crap out of me and I didn’t sleep at all last night.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Jake looked worried.
“I don’t know,” Nora stammered. “I don’t even know for sure if it was the bear. I might have been imagining it. It’s pretty easy for me to get spooked out here.”
“Well, in that case, I insist on spending the night tonight… just to keep an eye on things,” he said.
“That’s silly,” Nora argued. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll sleep outside, if you’d be more comfortable. But I’m not leaving you here alone tonight,” he said, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. The look in his eyes said he was serious.
Nora didn’t argue any further. Honestly, she was glad she didn’t have to spend the night alone again. Glad that Jake would be there to take care of her.
Chapter 14
Jake awoke early, with the sun. Nora was still asleep in the loft, and he didn’t want to wake her, so he went outside.
She can’t do this all on her own, Jake thought, surveying the property.
The wood pile was already half what it was when he’d first dropped her off at the cabin. That was less than a month earlier. He’d witnessed her feeble attempts at chopping wood the day before. As hard as she tried, she hadn’t accomplished much. She’d managed to slice off a few slivers of wood from one log. Who knew how long she’d been hacking away at that one piece?
She just couldn’t do it on her own. There was too much heavy work that needed to be done and Nora wasn’t built for that kind of work.
She needed help, whether she was willing to admit it or not.
* * *
Fresh brewed coffee. The smell was quite possibly the best thing to wake up to in the morning. Especially when someone else got up first and took the liberty of brewing a pot.
The scent wafted up from the wood stove below, filling the loft with the roasted nutty aroma of the coffee. It looked like a scene from a Folgers commercial, Nora waking up, stretching, taking in the heavenly aroma, and smiling contentedly. It really was a great way to wake up.
The only thing that might have made it better would be waking up next to Jake. But he was already gone from the cabin. The only trace he’d left behind was the fresh pot of coffee sitting on the stove.
Nora ran a brush through her hair and then climbed down from the loft, hoping Jake hadn’t left without saying goodbye. The night before, he’d proven himself a perfect gentleman and slept on the couch, but not before he’d made his intentions toward her perfectly clear.
She poured herself a cup of coffee before venturing outside to see where he’d gone and what he was up to. She found him by the woodpile. His back was turned to her, so he didn’t see her approach. Nora smiled to herself. A flannel shirt lay draped over a stump. He wore only a pair of blue jeans, fitted perfectly to his lean form, accentuating his masculinity. He didn’t know she was there, which gave her the perfect opportunity to watch him, to observe him in the wild, in his purest form.
The ax swung back. Then forward with a swift force, slicing easily into the piece of wood, splitting it perfectly down the center. The pieces fell off the chopping block, onto the ground that was already littered with dozens of other split logs.
Jake bent forward and positioned another piece of wood on end on the chopping block. Again, the ax swung back, his powerful arms an extension of the rudimentary tool. They were one, he and the ax, working like a fine tuned machine, both hard and strong.
In spite of the cool temperature, beads of sweat were beginning to form on his skin. They glistened in the sun, dripping down his back as his muscles worked in perfect unity. Muscles defined so clearly. Tensing, pulling, swinging the ax again and again.
A red handkerchief hung part way out of his back pocket. He rested the blade of the ax on the ground long enough to grab the handkerchief, wipe his brow, and stuff it back into his pocket.
Then he went back to work. He split another dozen logs before he leaned the ax against a tree and straightened up, stretching his back. The muscles rippled as he stretched his shoulders one way and then the other.
Nora wondered what it would feel like to run her hands over those muscles, to feel them stretched taut. Solid.
Instinctively, she moved toward him.
Jake heard her and turned around.
“Good morning,” she said, stopping a few feet away from him.
“It is a good morning, isn’t it?” he responded, looking her over. She was wearing a pair of pajama shorts and an oversized t-shirt, sipping from a mug of hot coffee. Her hair was down, flowing over her shoulders in a just-got-out-of-bed way. It was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.
“Yeah,” Nora smiled, realizing how nice it was to wake up and have someone there with her. “I’m glad you stayed the night,” she said genuinely.
“Me, too,” Jake said, reaching for his shirt and pulling it over his shoulders. He fastened three of the buttons, leaving the rest open.
“You know, you don’t have to do this.” Nora gestured toward the woodpile. “I can chop more wood anytime.”
Jake chuckled and that adorable dimple in his cheek appeared. “I think I do. I saw how long it took for you to split that one piece yesterday.”
Nora smiled, knowing all too well that he was right.
“Well, did you want me to run you into town, so you can get that motor fixed?”
“Trying to get rid of me already?”
“No,” Nora said. “I thought you might have things to do. Work. Fishing.”
“Being here with you right now is a little more important than fishing, and a lot more fun,” he said, as he took her hand, pulled her close to him, and lightly kissed her. “Besides, I fixed the motor first thing this morning. It was just a clogged fuel line.”
“How early did you get up?”
“A lot earlier than you,” he said, leaning down and kissing her again. This time, his kiss left her breathless, dazed.
“Well, what would you like to do today, then?” she asked, willing to do almost anything he asked in that moment.
“You know, I never did get the chance to take you crabbing.”
Nora grinned, thinking back to the day when he’d taught her to operate the boat. She’d gotten angry with him and cut the boating lesson short. Oh, how wrong she’d been. She had misjudged him in so many ways.
“You’re right,” she said. Crabbing wasn’t exactly what she had in mind when she asked what he wanted to do, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to be with him.
Jake grinned back at her. “I have everything we need in my boat.”
An hour later, they were on the other side of the inlet, near the edge of a large cove.
“This looks like a good place to drop a trap,” Jake said, cutting the throttle and letting the boat drift on the current. He reached behind his seat and grabbed one of the traps. Then he reached into a cooler, pulled out some bait, and hooked it into the trap. He tied a buoy to the line and dropped the crab cage into the water.
Over the course of an hour, they dropped four crab cages in a circular pattern around the cove. By the ti
me they were finished dropping the last one, they were nearly back to the first trap. The buoy marking its location was a few feet away.
At Jake’s direction, Nora pulled the line until the trap reached the surface. She was surprised to see two crabs wriggling around in the wire cage.
“Looks like a couple Dungeness crabs,” Jake grinned. “Those are my favorite.”
Nora looked into the cage, unsure of what to do. It was exciting to pull in her first catch, but she was reluctant to pick a crab out of the cage. She was a little scared one of them would grab hold of her with its pincers. Jake saw her hesitancy and quickly reached in and pulled out the smaller crab. Then he held it out to Nora.
“Here, hold it like this, so it won’t pinch you.”
She cautiously took it and watched as he picked up the other larger crab. Using both hands, he grabbed the crab’s legs in each hand and slammed it hard against the edge of the cooler, knocking off its head. The legs still wiggled as he turned it over and pulled off its genitals and tossed them in the water. Grabbing each side of the crab, he broke it in half down the middle, leaned over the edge of the boat, and shook out each piece to make sure they were clean.
“Your turn,” he said.
An amused smile lit up his face as he watched Nora’s futile attempts at knocking the crab’s head off. She slammed it into the cooler three times without success. After patiently watching, Jake took Nora’s hands in his and moved the crab into an angled position, so when she hit it against the edge of the cooler the fourth time, its head popped off easily.
“There,” he said. “Now you can see the lungs. We need to pull those out too.” Nora watched as he finished cleaning the crab for her. Then he handed it back to her so she could break it in half, just as he’d done with the other one.
“You want to do the next one?”
“Not really,” said Nora, feeling squeamish at the idea of pulling the organs and genitals out of a crab with her bare hands. “But I’ll give it a try,” she added bravely.
The second trap was empty, but the third trap held a large king crab. This time, she pulled it out of the trap on her own. Doing as she had done the first time, she popped its head off. Then she cleaned the crab exactly how Jake had instructed her. This isn’t so bad after all, she thought, as she tossed the two halves of the crab into the cooler.
Her growing confidence betrayed her on the final trap, though. Just like the other traps, Nora leaned over the edge of the boat and pulled in the line. But this time, the trap caught on something on the way up. Leaning further over the edge, she gave it a firm tug to try and free it. When she did, though, she rocked the boat enough to lose her balance. Jake, focused on keeping the boat from capsizing, didn’t have a chance to catch her. Nora let go of the trap line and flailed in an attempt to grab hold of the boat. Her hands found only air before she plunged below the surface of the frigid waters. A second later, she came up gasping for air, her body reeling from the shock of the sudden cold.
Jake acted quickly. He moved to the rear of the boat and grabbed Nora’s arm as soon as she resurfaced. Bracing himself in the boat and shifting his weight to keep it steady, he quickly pulled her up out of the water and over the edge of the boat. Before she even sat down, Jake had his jacket off. He wrapped it around her and checked to make sure she was okay, silently cursing himself for letting her pull the last trap in.
Nora shivered. The cold was setting in.
Jake quickly pulled up the empty trap and tossed it into the boat. He took the seat at the rear of the skiff and fired up the motor. The crabbing fun was over. He pointed the boat in the direction of Nora’s cabin and opened up the throttle all the way.
As soon as the boat struck the sandy bottom of the tidal flats, Jake jumped out and pulled the boat up onto solid ground. He helped Nora out of the boat and took her inside. She was still shivering when Jake helped her up the ladder to the loft. She disappeared behind the curtain and Jake turned toward the wood stove, tossing a few pieces of wood into the stove to get the fire burning hotter.
Up in the loft, Nora stripped off her wet clothes. She quickly dried herself and then put on a warm sweater and a pair of jeans.
“I’m really sorry about that back there,” Jake said when Nora crawled down from the loft a few minutes later. He was devastated he’d let something happen to Nora. He was supposed to be teaching her how to survive out there, not how to get herself killed.
Nora moved toward the warmth of the fire. “It’s not your fault,” she said, embarrassed at how stupid she’d been. She held her hands out over the top of the stove, trying to absorb the heat. “I should have known better than to lean over the edge so far.”
“No. I should have been the one pulling the trap in,” Jake said, moving closer to Nora. “You just looked like you were having so much fun. I was enjoying watching you and I got careless.” He reached up, then, and gently touched her face. “I’m really sorry,” he said a second before he brushed his lips lightly against hers.
The touch of his lips against hers sent heat coursing through Nora’s body. “Don’t worry about it,” she whispered, unable to think about anything but the feel of his mouth on hers. His scent was intoxicating. Nora pulled away to catch her breath, to regain her senses. “Can you believe it? A minute ago I was freezing and now I’m starting to sweat. This stove sure heats up the cabin fast.”
“Yeah, it does,” Jake said, sensing she needed a little space. “I’ll go get some water and we can get those crabs cooking.”
“I can help...”
“You stay here and get warmed up.” He kissed her gently on the forehead, then he pulled a large pot off a hook on the wall above the stove and went outside. From the doorway, she watched him walk toward the water pump. He slung the handle of the pot over the spout and then pumped the lever a few times until the water started flowing.
Nora didn’t want him to see her watching him, so she went back inside and began clearing the table. She didn’t know what else to do with herself, so she grabbed a stick of butter off the shelf and pulled a small pan off the wall. The pan was a bit dusty, but Nora wiped it with her hands and then sat it down on the table. She pulled the paper off the butter, which was already softened from the heat of the stove, and dropped the butter into the pan. She sat the pan next to the stove, knowing full well it would melt without the direct heat of the stove.
A moment later, Jake returned and placed the pot of water on top of the cook stove. He sat the cooler with the crabs down just inside the door.
“Once the water boils, we’ll toss these babies in. Then lunch will be ready in no time.”
Nora smiled back at him. “Good,” she said. “Because I’m hungry.”
Twenty minutes later, Jake announced the crab was ready. Using tongs, he pulled the crabs from the boiling water and dropped them into a large bowl.
Nora washed a couple plates and set the table. Then she looked for something to drink with their lunch.
“Do you think this will go alright with crab?” Nora asked, holding up the bottle of Scotch.
Jake sat the plate of crabs down on the table and then looked at the label. When he realized what Nora was holding, he let out a soft whistle. “That will go good with just about anything,” he said, taking the bottle from her hands. “Are you sure you want to drink this?”
“Why not?” Nora said, feeling adventurous. “That’s what it’s made for.”
Jake smiled at her and opened the bottle. He held it under his nose for a second to take in the aroma.
“Let’s hope this tastes as good as it smells,” Jake said. He reached over and pulled two small cups off the shelf then poured a small amount of the dark, amber liquid into each of the cups. He offered one to Nora as he sat down at the table across from her.
Nora took it and looked down into the cup, considering whether she really wanted to try it. She looked to Jake for encouragement. He raised his cup and Nora followed suit.
“To living free,” he sa
id. “And surviving the wilderness,” he added, taking a drink of the Scotch. She raised the cup to her lips, but took only a tiny sip of the liquid. When it burned on her lips and tongue, the look on Nora’s face made Jake laugh.
“I think I’ll save this stuff for guests,” she said, setting the cup back down on the table.
“You mean all the neighbors that won’t leave you alone?”
“Yeah,” Nora said, playing along. “I can’t seem to find any peace and quiet out here.”
They both laughed.
Jake sat his glass down on the table and reached for Nora’s hand. “So, what did you think of our first date?” he asked sincerely.
“That was a date?”
“It’s what passes for dating around here.”
“Jake, if you think crabbing is a date, you need to get out more often,” she said.
“Well, then, how about a real date next time?”
“What did you have in mind?”
“The Summer Solstice Festival. It’s a few days away. Come with me.”
Nora thought about it for a second. “Can I wear heels and leave these ugly brown boots at home?”
“Sorry. The rubber boots are part of the deal,” he said.
“Well, how can I say no to that?”
“Don’t even try,” he said, leaning in and kissing her softly.
Chapter 15
It was strange how Nora’s daily life had shifted so dramatically. Everything she did now was dictated by the tides instead of a clock. Before hopping in the skiff for a run into town, she always consulted the little red booklet sitting on her table to see when the tide would be high. She’d quickly learned most things were easier at high tide, when there was less chance of getting hung up on the rocks that lurked below the surface of the water, posing a risk to someone like Nora, who still had a lot to learn about the nuances of the inlet. It also helped that the ramp to the store’s dock had a less steep incline at high tide.
Water's Edge (Alaskan Frontier Romance Book 1) Page 18