“Yes. I suppose we should eat.”
I smiled. “Got it. A beer for me, water for you and two of whatever Bud is cooking today.”
I went up to the bar to place my order with Bud.
“Another one?” he asked me, using his chin to point in Jenny’s direction while he had a glass in one hand and a dry towel in another.
“Yep.”
“This place is getting overrun by women.”
Literally, Jenny was only the third new woman to visit Hope’s Point in the three years I had been up here—four, if you count Olivia. Not what I call a stampede. Still, it’s not as if I was going to piss off the only supplier of beer up here.
“You have a point.”
Drinks in hand, I returned to the table and sat across from Jenny. She was pulling something out of her back jeans’ pocket. It was a folded paper that she unfolded and tried to smooth out as much as possible on the wood table.
I immediately recognized our Facebook ad.
“I wanted to be clear,” she said, pointing to the ad. “It says the tickets are in exchange for a date. That was date singular, correct?”
“I guess.”
“And we are two people, out at an eating establishment where we are going to share a meal together. Does that not count as a date?”
“I suppose it does,” I said, starting to get the idea Jenny wasn’t here for anything more serious than I had wanted out of this adventure.
“Then I hope it won’t disappoint you very much if I suggest this evening would fulfill my obligations related to the contract.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Jenny, there are no obligations. I would never force a woman to go on a date with me.”
She blinked a few times then nodded as if she accepted my veracity.
“Can I ask, though, if you weren’t interested in dating anyone, why apply for the contest at all?”
“I saw the ad. I’ve always wanted to come to Alaska. My father was a great outdoorsman and he always promised me we would go together. But he died and that never happened.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
She nodded again. “My mother, who also recently died, left me her estate. But it only provides a monthly allowance for me. It wasn’t enough to give me a start up here as well as the cost of tickets. I thought if I was chosen, then I could get the tickets for free. As long as I went out on one date. Otherwise, it would have taken several more months to save the money.”
“Well, consider yourself officially off the hook.”
She looked at me then as if she was studying me. “Relief.”
I shook my head. “I’m really sorry you were stressed about that. I could have told you before you got on the plane I wasn’t the type of guy to demand anything from a woman if it would make her uncomfortable.”
“No, not me. You. You look relieved.”
I did? If I was being honest with myself, I thought it was probably true.
“Let’s just say you’re not the only one whose intentions weren’t exactly pure.”
“I wanted to get away from my uncle, my cousins. They were…suffocating me. I wanted to be here instead. What was your intention?”
I let out a long breath then looked at Jenny. She had clear green eyes and gave me the impression of someone who didn’t know how to be dishonest with people or with herself.
“I was trying to make someone jealous. It didn’t exactly work.”
