Capturing the Cavedweller's Heart

by Shanna Hatfield

  She filled two insulated bottles with ice and cold water, then dug around in the freezer until she found two ice-cream bars and tossed one to Thor.

  He removed the wrapper and grinned. “Ice cream?”

  “Yep. It’s called an ice-cream sandwich. I think it will meet with your approval.”

  He’d eaten it before they reached her Jeep at the end of the walk. “Here, you can have mine, too.”

  Thor shook his head. “No. You need it. You worked hard, too.”

  Hannah patted her left hip. “Sugar goes straight to there.”

  He stepped back and eyed her then waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Maybe you should eat two.”

  Hannah couldn’t help but laugh. Apparently wide hips were a good thing in Thor’s time.

  She ate half the ice-cream bar then insisted he finish the rest as they drove to meet Bailey. It took a little more than an hour to reach the paleontology center where Bailey worked in what was considered another of the fossil bed’s official units.

  Thor studied the large building as Hannah parked in the nearly empty parking lot and cut the ignition. “Your friend lives here?” he asked.

  Hannah shook her head and grabbed her wallet out of her pack, stuffing it inside a pocket of her shorts, then slid out into the summer heat. “No. Bailey lives a little ways down the road, but this is where she works when she isn’t out on a dig.”

  Thor nodded and followed her inside the building. Hannah greeted the staff member near the door by name and was quickly escorted back to where Bailey worked in the research center.

  “I can’t believe what you found,” Bailey said as she slid off a stool and swiveled her computer screen around so Hannah could see she was studying the images she’d sent.

  Thor leaned closer and looked at the place they’d just been.

  Hannah could only imagine how modern technology must seem like some creepy magic to him.

  “Who’s this?” Bailey asked, smiling at Thor.

  “Thor, this is Bailey Morgan, an amazing paleontologist. Bailey, Thor is…” Hannah had no idea how to introduce him. She couldn’t exactly blurt out that he was a cavedweller misplaced from his own time. “An expert on life around 10,000 BC.”

  Bailey’s eyebrows shot up, but she grinned and held out a hand to Thor in greeting. “And you’re the one who found this cache of bones and fossils?”

  Thor started to speak, but Hannah cut in. “He had a general idea of where to look, and we dug down to see if he was right. He was.”

  Bailey asked questions about the location, the size of the hole, who to contact to get permission to bring in a team, and how Hannah had come to know Thor.

  “Oh, he just sort of showed up out of nowhere,” Hannah said, smiling at Thor.

  He grinned at her then went back to looking at the bones and fossils that surrounded Bailey’s work area.

  “What type of bones do you think we’ll find there?” Bailey asked Thor.

  He looked at Hannah, and she gave him an encouraging nod. “Bison, lion, bear, camel, horse.” He stopped, as though he tried to remember something. “Maybe a few smaller animals.”

  “Excellent,” Bailey said, clearly excited. “Have you seen the displays before?”

  Thor pointed to one of the fossils. “No. I haven’t.”

  Hannah placed a hand on his arm as she took a step closer to him. “I’ll walk him through before we leave, but first, I want to see photos of your darling daughter.”

  Bailey took out her phone and scrolled through a few dozen shots of a golden-haired girl with bright turquoise eyes.

  Hannah showed the photos to Thor. He appeared quite interested in her eye color and stared at Bailey for a moment too long. “Unusual eyes,” he said. “Nice.”

  “That’s his way of saying he thinks Maizy is beautiful.”

  Thor nodded in agreement.

  Hannah handed the phone back to Bailey. “How’s Brice and his family?”

  “Doing great. He took Maizy with him this morning to visit her grandparents while he makes a delivery to Portland. They should be back soon.”

  “Brice is a woodworker,” Hannah said, realizing Thor wouldn’t have any idea what that was. “He makes the most incredible furniture.”

  Thor nodded again.

  “Brice’s family lives a few hours northwest of here. They have a ranch. And his sister is married to the youngest brother of a neighboring family who also ranch. Ben, that’s Brice’s older brother, married Harper, and…” Hannah was rambling and had no idea why. In spite of her desire to do so, she seemed unable to stop.

  Both Thor and Bailey gave her odd looks, so Hannah moved toward the door. “If you need any other information, Bailey, just let me know. I wanted you to get first dibs on a potential dig site.”

  “I appreciate it more than you can know. From just the skull, it looks like this will be quite a find.” Bailey smiled at Thor. “It was nice to meet you. I hope you enjoy the exhibits.”

  Thor nodded and followed as Hannah led the way back to the foyer and then into the exhibits. He couldn’t read the words on the placards, but Hannah read them to him. She described the evolution of the mammals and how the change in temperature and climate had created the variations in the soil and animals that lived during each period.

  When they got to fossils of an ancient bear, Thor studied it closely. “I have killed something similar to that a few times.”

  Hannah thought of Thor living in the midst of such wild, vicious predators and shuddered in fear for him, for his people. How had they survived? No wonder Thor had so many scars.

  “What is wrong?” he asked, placing his hand on her back in a comforting gesture. One that threatened to leave her entirely undone.

  “Nothing,” she said and forced herself to offer him a weak smile.

  He studied her a moment then turned his attention back to the displays. He laughed as she read a placard about an early gopher. “Jason showed me gophers this morning,” he said. “I think he would not enjoy trapping one like this.”

  Hannah grinned. “No, he would not. Trapping gophers on the ranch used to be my job, when I was young.”

  “You caught gophers?” He picked up her hand and held it to the light. “I can’t believe you’d touch one.”

  “Well, I did. And a lot of other gross things, too.” Hannah frowned as she thought of all the disgusting things she’d touched, smelled, and encountered during her growing-up years.

  “Gross?” he asked as they moved on to another display.

  “It means disgusting, yucky, nasty.” She scrunched her nose and made a face.

  He chuckled. “I understand.”

  When they’d seen all the displays in the exhibit, Thor returned to the beginning and went through them again. Hannah answered his questions and read anything he pointed to. Once they made it to the end of the display, Thor stood and stared for many long minutes at a timeline with images that showed the evolution of the horse.

  Finally, he turned away, clearly finished with the exhibits. In the small gift shop area, he looked at several children’s books, studying the colorful pages.

  “Would you like one of the books?” she asked.

  He nodded and handed one to her. She grabbed a second book she’d also seen him eying and added it to her purchases.

  Outside, he surprised her by holding open her door as she slid onto the seat. Instead of showing the shock she felt, she smiled and thanked him.

  He shrugged. “I watched Jason and your sister. It is the right thing to do, isn’t it?”

  “It is,” she said. There was no way she’d tell him about women’s lib. Not when too many men failed to exhibit any gentlemanly manners.

  The following morning Thor joined her at the dig site. Erik reluctantly agreed he could stay. Thor showed Erik where he thought might be a good spot to dig for cooking utensils. A few hours later, Erik found something that resembled the remains of a woven basket. From that moment on, there was no mention of Tho
r’s past or leaving him with the authorities from any of her coworkers.

  Erik and Sam peppered him with questions while Jen looked at him like he was a relic come to life.

  The five of them worked in harmony through the remainder of the day and the next morning. They stopped their work long enough to eat sandwiches for lunch and were just finishing the meal when Erik’s phone rang. He stepped away from the group to talk. At first, he appeared annoyed, then angry. His face bore a look of resignation as he disconnected the call.

  “Who was that?” Sam asked, voicing the question they all wanted to know.

  “Mr. Hurley. He’s threatened to withdraw his funding if Hannah doesn’t meet with him tomorrow.” Erik sighed and offered Hannah an apologetic look. “I tried to explain things are going well and we’re making great progress, but he insisted you bring some samples and meet with him. Since he’s paying the bills, I couldn’t say no.”

  Hannah hated meeting with Charles Hurley, but for reasons she couldn’t understand, he nearly always insisted updates on the project come directly from her, preferably in person. She hadn’t been forced to see him in almost a month, so it was about time for him to want to meet.

  Only the timing couldn’t have been worse. What was she going to do with Thor? She didn’t feel right leaving him with the others, but would that be worse than taking him with her to the city?

  Thor didn’t leave her a choice. “I will go with you.”

  Erik shot her a panicked look. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

  Hannah agreed with him but wouldn’t admit it. The last thing she wanted to do was say something that might hurt Thor’s feelings. “It’ll be fine. He can stay at my apartment while I meet with Mr. Hurley.”

  “Sure you don’t want to stay with us, big guy?” Jen asked, giving Thor an encouraging smile.

  “Yeah, we can teach you all kinds of stuff without Hannah here to keep us in line,” Sam said, winking at Hannah.

  “No. I will go with her.” Thor scowled at Sam, although Hannah had no idea why.

  She turned back to Erik. “What do you want me to take to show Mr. Hurley?”

  The four of them discussed the best sampling to take from the artifacts they still had with them and hadn’t yet sent to their lab for dating and preservation.

  While Mr. Hurley might be irritating, he had been a wonderful sponsor, providing generous funding for the project. Unlike many, he had no intention of keeping the artifacts they found, but he did like to see them from time to time.

  “Go on and pack, and get on the road. If things go like they did the last time he summoned you, we probably won’t see you again until next week.” Erik gave Hannah another apologetic look. “I’m sorry about pulling you away right now.”

  “I get it, Erik, and I’ll do my best to keep Mr. Hurley happy with our work.”

  “Sounds good,” Erik said then turned to Thor. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay with us?”

  Thor shook his head. “No. I go where Hannah goes.”

  Chapter Ten

  “How old are you?” Hannah asked as they got back in the Jeep after she’d stopped so Thor could stare at a snow-covered mountain she called Mount Hood. He couldn’t believe it was covered in snow in the middle of the summer, but it was. In fact, the air around him as he studied it held an icy bite.

  He glanced over at her. “I am twenty-six summers.”

  “That’s the same age as me,” she said, giving him a look of astonishment. He knew she would have a hard time believing it.

  Where she looked young and fresh and innocent, Thor knew he appeared older, wizened, worn down by a life that was difficult on a good day. Today, however, he felt young and free. He and Hannah were on an adventure driving to a place she called the city.

  She’d tried to explain the differences in towns and cities to him, but all he got from the conversation was that cities were bigger, louder, and had more people.

  “Tell me again how long you’ve been leading your clan?”

  Thor’s chest puffed out a bit with pride he couldn’t subdue. “Since I was eighteen. My father was the chief before he died.”

  “I’m sorry you lost your father, too. I know how hard that is. All you have left of your family is your sister and daughter?”

  Thor nodded. “Yes. But I consider all my people my family.”

  She smiled at him. “That’s wonderful.” She gave him a glance. “Are you hungry?”

  “Of course,” he said with a chuckle. Hannah had teased him about having a hollow leg. He’d asked Jason about the turn of phrase, and he’d said it meant someone who was always hungry, which Thor seemed to be.

  The abundance of food in this time, and the ease with which it was available, nearly boggled his mind. He’d gone to the grocery store with Hannah on their way back from seeing Bailey Morgan. His mouth had fallen open as he gaped at the shelves and bins full of food. The idea of having a place where anyone could walk in and buy whatever they wanted or needed was almost more than he could fathom. It seemed too easy to a man who’d once spent two weeks hunting down a mammoth when his clan was in desperate need of food.

  Hannah drove into a small town on their way down the mountain. “This is Faraday,” Hannah said as she parked in front of a building with a tidy, welcoming appearance. Lettering was painted on the windows, but he had no idea what it said. When they stepped out of the Jeep, the smell of meat and bread tantalized his senses.

  “This is a café. The Miller family owns it, and they’re super-nice people,” Hannah said as she pulled open the door and walked inside. She sat at a table with benches on either side. “This is a booth,” she whispered as Thor studied the seats covered with shiny material.

  Hannah smiled at a girl who brought them glasses filled with ice and water and handed them hard pieces of paper.

  “Menus,” Hannah said and tapped the paper in his hand. “It lets customers know what food is available to order. What would you like to eat?”

  Thor thought about the food he’d eaten since he’d been with Hannah. His favorite was the steak Jason had made, but he’d also liked chicken and hamburgers.

  “Meat,” he said, giving her a teasing grin.

  “That much I already knew, you carnivore.” She winked at him, and something in his chest flopped around like a fish on the bank of the lake.

  The girl returned and glanced at Thor before taking their order. Hannah chose a salad for herself and the meatloaf platter for him.

  He thought meatloaf sounded odd, but at least it had meat in it. When the girl brought their food a few minutes later, he decided meatloaf might have a strange name, but it tasted delicious.

  “You’ve got thick slices of ground meat that’s mixed with bread crumbs and spices then baked and covered in gravy.” Hannah grinned. “I’m pretty sure you’re going to like gravy. The fluffy white stuff is mashed potatoes with more gravy. And that’s what we call a vegetable medley of carrots, broccoli, and summer squash.” She lifted the cloth covering a basket and took out a golden roll then slathered it with butter and handed it to him.

  Thor devoured the roll in three bites then turned his attention to the food in front of him. Hannah might have asked him a question or said something, but he was so involved with his food, he didn’t pay any attention.

  She was right. He liked gravy. In fact, he liked it so much, he took the last roll from the basket and used it to sop up every bit of gravy left on his plate.

  Hannah gave him a knowing smile as she ate a salad that had many colorful vegetables, thin strips of meat, and shredded orange stuff he knew was cheese.

  While he drained his glass of milk, something she insisted was better for him to drink than Dr Pepper, she ordered pie.

  The girl returned with two small plates holding heaped mounds of something bright yellow topped with what appeared to be bits of clouds that had been browned.

  “Lemon meringue pie,” Hannah said, pointing to his pie with her fork. “It’s a cr
ust made out of flour. The filling is pudding made from lemons and beaten egg whites are on top.”

  Tentative, Thor took a bite then closed his eyes as the citrusy flavor and sweetness flooded his mouth with a decadent flavor. “Pie is good.”

  Hannah grinned, finished her salad, and managed to eat half her pie before Thor started snitching bites. She laughed and playfully swatted at his hand. “With you around, I won’t ever have to worry about dieting.”

  His brow furrowed. “What is dieting?”

  She tipped her head toward him and smiled. “A crazy thing women do, depriving themselves of food, to try to look better, thinner.”

  “You will not diet,” he said, giving her a long, studying glance. “You are perfect.”

  Embarrassment bloomed with bright pink splashes in her cheeks, and she dropped her gaze to her plate. “Flattery like that could get one of us into trouble.”

  He wasn’t sure what she meant, but he liked seeing her blush.

  They left the café, then Hannah drove down a road and stopped, pointing to a camel wandering around in a pasture. “That’s Lolly,” she said, pointing to the animal. “She’s the town’s celebrity.”

  “I can see a resemblance to the camels of my time,” Thor said, studying the furry beast with two humps.

  Hannah turned around and headed back the way they’d come. She turned onto the highway, and they headed down the mountain.

  By the time they exited the busy road Hannah called the freeway, Thor’s neck was sore from swiveling back and forth to take in as much as he could. He looked out the window at towering buildings, gleaming with glass and metal. Cars zoomed around like furious ants as they drove down a street lined with buildings that stood as high as hills.

  People were everywhere. Some had multi-colored hair and piercings on their faces. Some hardly wore any clothes. Others wore too many clothes for the summer heat. It looked like madness as Hannah turned down a side street, then another. She pulled up to a gate, rolled down her window, and entered numbers on a keypad attached inside a metal box. The gate opened, and she drove inside.