She asked me about Anchorage, which surprised me, but I answered everything as honestly as I could. Because I sensed that was the key to making Jenny a friend. She had to sense my authenticity.
So I hid nothing.
Only when I yawned did Noah interrupt. “It’s late. You had a long day getting up here. I better get you to camp.”
I nodded. I was about to get up from the table, when Jenny put her hand on top of mine.
“You’re okay,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
Not a ringing endorsement, I thought, but it still made me smile. I rested my hand on top of hers. “You’re okay, too.”
We both smiled then.
“Let’s go, woman,” Noah interjected. “Jenny, you cool getting home okay?”
She nodded. “Bud looks after me.”
That made sense, I thought. That everyone in the town would embrace Jenny as one of theirs and would look after her. Realistically, I knew she’d been here only a few months, but she felt like one of them.
A Hope’s Point local.
I led the way outside where I snuggled deeper into my winter coat. It wasn’t nearly as cold as it had been last time I was in Hope’s Point, but it was clear the winter weather was settling in for the long haul.
“You okay?” he asked as I shut the truck door. Pulling my wool hat over my ears.
“Yeah, why?”
“Wasn’t sure how you and Jenny would get along. She’s…”
“Special,” I finished for him. “You were right about that.”
He reached over and took my hand. Squeezing it, as if showing me his approval. And he only let it go once we reached the camp where, once again, we became nothing but two co-workers who could barely tolerate each other.
16
Dyson’s Camp
Cal
I stared at the two of them. They were working together in Ark’s office. The door open. A single computer between them. Their backs were to me, as Ark liked to see out over the wells and the men working on them through the windows of his office.
Ark was in charge of the keyboard, but Olivia was constantly pointing at something on the screen. She was kneeling on a chair next to him so she could easily reach over to show him whatever it was she wanted him to make a note of.
Ark, incredibly, actually seemed to be listening.
“Crazy, isn’t it?”
I glanced over not realizing Daniels had come up next to me.
“What the fuck are they doing?” I asked.
“Collaborating,” Jackson answered.
I looked at him as if he was insane. “When the hell did Ark start collaborating? With anyone?”
“Don’t think Olivia is just anyone. Not to Ark.”
That raised the hairs on the back of my neck. “You think anyone has caught wind of them?”
