“You’re tired. Never mind. We can talk when I see you next. I’ll be up in a few weeks.”
A few weeks. I didn’t like the sound of that. Three weeks until I could touch her, taste her, smell her. All those things, beyond simply hearing her voice, that I needed.
Except I didn’t know how I was going to make seeing her happen and still keep our secret from the guys.
And if she’s pregnant? That certainly wasn’t a secret we could hide.
“Liv, you take a test yet?”
“A test? Oh…no. It’s too soon. I think I would have to be late before taking anything.”
“You’ll let me know, though. When you do. You won’t try to hide anything from me?” If we were in it, then we were in it together. No matter what happened. She needed to understand that.
“No. I promise. There wouldn’t be any point.”
Right. Because her stomach would be round with my kid.
Fuck, I needed to get those images out of my head. Whether because it bothered or me or it seemed too real, I wasn’t sure.
“I should go. I need my sleep.”
I grunted as I was mostly half way there.
I was about to hit disconnect when I heard the faint, “Goodnight, Noah.”
I grunted again and she was gone. I was alone in my room and I didn’t like it even a little bit. I didn’t think too hard about what it meant. I only knew it meant something.
15
Hope’s Point Airport—akathe runway
Ark
I could hear it coming in over the mountains. Doogie bringing the plane down for a landing.
Yes, I knew what I was doing. Yes, I conceded this was the equivalent of the whole pigtail-yanking thing again. A few days ago, she’d said she would be up in a few weeks. I’d decided that was too damn long.
I didn’t want to ask Olivia if she wanted me to fly to Anchorage to see her. I didn’t want to ask her to come to Hope’s Point to see me. Both of those things seemed tricky. However, I also didn’t want to wait another two and a half weeks for her next scheduled visit.
I wanted her here now.
So what if I have never in the history of my professional career asked another engineer about a question related to a new design.
Wanting back-up to blow a well when you knew you were going to have to face down corporate, that only made sense.
This? This was weak. I’d asked her if she wanted to collaborate on some ideas I had related to the new drill design I’d started to noodle around with when we were in the cabin.
Would she know it? Would she see right through me and be frustrated I had all but called her here for nothing? Because it’s not like I was actually going to let someone have a say in my design. Sure, I respected her. I respected lots of people in my field. Didn’t mean I wanted their interference in my work.
We couldn’t even have sex. The same rules applied as before.
Cal, Angel and Daniels might suspect something, but they would never talk. To the other men at camp, this would be business as usual. Olivia was here to discuss some design changes to our drilling operation. We would probably get into a few skirmishes. That would be expected.
Nothing to see here, folks.
Was I deluding myself into thinking I wouldn’t try to sneak into her room at camp when I knew she was just down the hall from me? I’d been strong once. Could I do that again?
And what about her? What if she tried to sneak into my room?
