this one is longer than usual, enjjoooyyyyyy
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Being by myself for the past couple of hours has proved to be excruciatingly boring. There was quite literally nothing to do. Magnolia kept me company for most of the time, but she could only entertain so much. After taking a shower like Caid offered, I found a deck of cards lying on the counter and ended up playing Solitare for a long time.
I was very relieved whenever Caid walked back into the house. At least, at first. Once I took a look at him, his face red from the cold, snow covering every part of him, I had the urge to wrap my arms around him and warm him up with skin on skin contact. There was snow in his thick beard and all I wanted to do was run my fingers through it and get the snow out for him.
He stripped down to his long sleeve, pants and socks and walked quickly to his room, and I couldn't take my eyes off him, as I'm sure he knew. Control yourself, Violet. You are stuck with him, and if you can't be thinking like this whenever he probably is annoyed by you here. He took one glance at me, I saw his eyes travel down to what I was wearing, and didn't look at me again. Was he mad that I was wearing his clothes? Should I have waited and asked? Probably.
Caid returned minutes later wearing a similar pair of sweatpants as me and a long sleeve shirt. I wish he didn't look so good, of course the man that saved would have to be a greek god.
"Sorry, I'm a little late, do you want some lunch?" He asked. His voice sounded rougher, probably from breathing in the cold air outside for so long, and I had to hold in a shiver.
I looked at the clock on the wall and noticed that it was about 2:45, and I didn't realize that it had been that long. I guess time passed faster than I thought.
"Yeah, sure."
"Anything you don't like?"
"I am willing to try everything and there are very few things I don't eat."
"That's good to hear." He smiled a little without showing his teeth and I looked away from him. I did not want to get caught for the third time staring at him. The first two were bad enough. Although, I wouldn't mind seeing that sparkle. The one of amusement that I saw a glimpse of whenever he caught me before he left. I found myself wondering what else I could do or say to be able to see it.
"I'm gonna make vegetable soup." I had moved from the couch to a stool at the kitchen island again.I didn't say anything and he didn't wait for a response before getting vegetables from the refrigerator.
He chopped up carrots, broccoli, onions, celery, and also added tomatoes. The process took him a lot less time than anyone else I had ever seen do that. My mother was a damn good cook and even she couldn't chop shit up that fast.
"Do you need any help?" I asked. I felt bad for just sitting, doing nothing.
"No, thanks. Keeping busy keeps me sane." His gaze flicked to me for a moment before he continued working. "I appreciate the offer, though."
"I'm dying to do something. I feel really bad just sitting here." He sighed and looked around the counters for a moment, then pointed towards two plates and utensils set out.
"Wanna set those out?" He laughed a little, a rich sound that sent a shiver down my spine. "Sorry, I know it ain't a lot, but I don't know what else to give you.
I hopped up from my seat and shook my head. "I'm happy to do anything. It also keeps me sane, too."
I didn't look up from my task but saw him turn to me and stare for a moment, as if checking to see if I was lying. I wasn't. I could never sit still as a child and while I had learned to control it better by keeping busy with my hands, I still needed to be doing something. I usually drew, and also if my sketchbooks were in the trunk of my car. I wondered if it was still there, or if someone came and got it before the snow got bad. Either way, most of my stuff was safe in the trunk, at least all of the important things. My phone had surely broken during the crash, and if not it was probably covered in snow on the floorboard, if my car was actually still there.
Once I finished, which was nothing fancy at all, just two tablecloths sat beside each other in front of the stools at the island, a plate, fork and spoon sat on top of it.
I sat back down and picked up the deck of cards in my hands. Holding them in my hands, I was struck with a memory of my childhood, of my mother having a deck of cards and asking me if I had ever played "52 Card Pickup." I didn't know what it was and obviously said no, and next thing I know all of the cards were flying in my face. My mother giggled and said, "Now pick 'em up." I laughed and did what she said.
My mother wasn't like that often. She joked every now and then, but I remember her being sad for a really long time. I hate to say it, but we lost touch after I moved out. I loved her so much, and I saw her and my dad on most holidays, but it wasn't enough. I should have seen them more before they died. I had a good job and a boyfriend for a long time, and for some reason I thought that meant I didn't have the time to appreciate my parents enough. I loved them so much.
Whenever they died, I don't know what happened. I moved away. The relationship between me and my boyfriend had lost its love long before we decided to end it, and I quit my job. Their life insurance money and the money I got from selling the home was enough for me to buy another and settle down. Enough to be happy, but I couldn't find anywhere. Colorado didn't feel like home anymore with my parents gone, and there was nowhere else in the world that I wanted to go. Especially not without them, since it was their money anyway. I didn't want to waste it on something that I wasn't going to care about, or something that wasn't going to matter to me years down the road. So I had to find a place that completely felt like home, and that seemed to be very hard to do. Nowhere I had found so far was good enough.
"Violet?" I jumped at the sound of my name. I was deep in my thoughts and Caid looked at me funny.
"I said your name three times." He smiled a little. "What are you thinking about?"
"Just finding a new place to settle down. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be, and no place seems to be good enough."
He nodded. "Yeah, I get it. Honestly, I tried to leave this place once. Only for a couple of weeks, cause something stupid happened with my dad that I don't even remember now. And nothing else compared to it, I went to a couple different cities and stayed in hotels, but this is home. Feels like it, at least." He made a face like he was surprised, and I had to say I was too. I never heard him talk that much, and while I hadn't known him for very long, I knew it was a rare thing for him.
"I wish I could find something like that."
He shrugged and stirred a pot placed on the stove. I stared at the muscles in his back, under his shirt as he moved his arm around, mesmerized by the motion. "I'm sure you will."
"I hope so."
We didn't say anything until after he sat down at the stool next to mine and scooped out the vegetable soup into a bowl for each of us. Still, he gave me the same amount as him as if I could eat it.
I looked into his eyes and I couldn't help the smile that formed as I started to speak. "I feel like I'm being spoiled. You save me from the side of the road, and then you cook for me two times in one day. Homemade meals, which are amazing, I am definitely not complaining."
He laughed, only the second time that I remember—throaty and deep—and my heart beat faster. "Well, I'm glad to cook for anyone. Cooking for myself does get lonely at times, despite liking the isolation."
I took a bite of the soup as Caid was speaking and moaned whenever I tasted it. It was better than the breakfast, one of the best things I had tasted in a really long time. Where the hell did he learn to cook this well?
I looked over at him and smiled. "This is amazing. Seriously. You have to give me the recipe." The sparkle that was in his eyes earlier returned, almost as if he knew I would say that. "I really wish I could, but it's a family secret."
I narrowed my eyes at him, assessing and trying to see if he was telling the truth. "Really?"
He nodded. "Yep. My grandma, dad's mom, created it and everyone loved it so much back then that people were trying to buy it off of her, and she refused. She doesn't want it getting to anyone that is not inside the family. She died a couple years ago, but we still honor her wishes."
I couldn't help smiling again at the story. "Okay. That's fair, I suppose. There's no way to make an exception?"
"I'm afraid not. Family only."
Dammit. I want to know how to make this soup. Despite his grandmother's wishes, this soup deserved to be all over the world.
"Damn. I tried."
We ate in silence for a couple of minutes while eating our soup. Caid looked like he was focusing hard on his bowl, his eyebrows creased and creating a litte line between them. I decided to break the silence, at least to get him out of whatever he was thinking about that was for sure going to give him wrinkles. "Did your dad teach you to cook?"
He shrugged and swallowed his food. "It was kind of a mix of everyone. Whenever we would go to Christmas or Thanksgiving with the family, I would always try to help in the kitchen, and so I learned a lot. We don't really do that anymore, though, so my knowledge on anything other than Christmas and Thanksgiving food probably came from YouTube."
I laughed and looked up to find him staring intently at me. His eyes were so blue, I could get lost staring at them. I felt something between us then, a spark of heat that trickled through all the nerve endings in my spine, to my pussy and made me shiver. Fuck.
His eyes had darkened and I looked away, finally responding. "Well, you keep getting more impressive with every story you tell, it seems."
He didn't answer for a moment, not until I looked back into his eyes. "There's not much else I'm good at . Just surviving out here and chopping wood is practically my only skill. They kinda go hand in hand."
I tried to tell if he was serious, and the cold expression on his face told me that he believed everything he just said. "You don't realize that surviving out here and doing all the things that you do is really fucking impressive, and that surving out here is difficult. I wouldn't make it through a day by myself here, I bet. You have to have so many different skills to do this."
He looked like he didn't know how to respond and shrugged. "Maybe. But I was just raised to live like this, I don't know anything different. When I said I lived in the city for a couple of weeks, it was bad. I barely knew how to talk to any of the people about getting hotels or ordering food. I didn't enjoy it."
I tried to imagine this big, mountain man going out into the city and asking for things and the image almost made me laugh. He would look quite out of place in the city, I bet.
I had finished eating my soup in the middle of our conversation, and when Caid finished he picked up both the bowls and placed them in the sink. The pot of soup was lifted up and set into the oven to keep some of the warmth in it.
"I hope you don't mind, I made enough so we would be able to eat on it for a couple of days," he said as he turned back to me.
"You could make me that everyday for the rest of my life and I wouldn't complain. I don't think I could ever get tired of it."
His lips tipped up in a small smile and I stared at his mouth as he spoke without realizing it. "Great. I thought you would say that."
When silence fell between us again, I took a drink of the water in front of me and tried not to look at Caid as he leaned against the counter, one leg crossed in front of the other with his arms crossed at his chest. His biceps were bulging and all I wanted to do was lick over every dip and line in them. And his chest muscles, they looked so hard and defined, I had to squeeze the counter with my hands to stop myself from walking over to him and finding out if they felt the same way they looked. So much for not looking at him.