Chapter One
Caleb White tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as he waited for his brother to finish collecting their mail. He hated coming to town, but once every couple of months, they made the long trek from their cabin back to civilization. They had to buy food supplies for their pantry. In another three months they’d make the same damn trip but it would be to stock up for a lot longer as they were forecast to have a rough winter.
Damon was taking too damn long, and it was starting to piss him off. He nodded at the townsfolk and played the polite card, when in truth, he couldn’t give a shit about what people thought about him. The only reason he played along was so it made life easier.
Their parents had decided to live off the grid before they were born, and it had been the only life they knew. When their parents got killed in a bear attack, they’d been shipped off to the city to live with their estranged uncle.
Going from complete freedom to living within boundaries, and constantly being told what they were doing was fucking wrong, it had gotten tired real fast for him.
They’d done their time in the city, going to college, building a business, and finally, selling up, and returning back to their old life, which Caleb loved.
At forty years old, he’d finally found the life for him. His brother, being two years younger, felt the same way. The only problem? They were … lonely. It had been an unexpected variable. When they were kids, living off the grid was perfect. They never thought about women, too busy helping their father build and farm.
It didn’t take long after moving back home as adults to realize something was lacking. But they didn’t just want any woman.
It would have been easy to phone up an escort, meet her in town, and then go back to their life, but they didn’t want that.
They both wanted a woman to share, and who’d love to live their life with them outside of the parameters of society where they could make their own rules. What woman would want that life? He doubted they’d ever find the woman for them.
“Come on, Damon,” he said, starting to lose his patience.
Finally, his brother came out of the shop, carrying their letters with a huge smile on his face.
“Took you long enough,” Caleb said the moment he got in the truck.
“Stop your whining. If you’ve got an issue with how long I take, next time you go in, and stop fucking riding my ass.” Damon chuckled. “She was flirting with me, and so I was flirting back with Dana.”
“She’s married with three kids.”
“And I’m this strange guy from the wilderness. Give me a break, will you?” His brother sat back. “I heard they’re doing one of those self-discovery camping trip things again.”
Caleb cursed. “Why do they fucking bother?”
“It’s big money. A bunch of rich people pay to think they’re one with nature,” Damon said.
“Most of the time they end up lost and we’re the ones that have to find them, and I don’t want to be the one to have to deal with that.”
“At least they’re not doing it in the dead of winter this time. I nearly froze my dick off because of them last year,” Damon said and rubbed his crotch.
“We don’t have time for a bunch of people who are out of their depth. We’ve still got to finish canning the fruit.”
“Please, do not say canning while anyone can hear. I don’t want the guys in town to know that while they were chasing women, we were learning the dangers of canning the wrong way.”
Caleb burst out laughing. Even though they’d been with their uncle, he’d known he was going to go back to his parents’ way of life one day, and so he spent every available second learning what he could. He remembered a lot from when they were teens, but hadn’t paid attention to many of the important elements of survival.
“Maybe there’ll be a woman in this group, and we can, you know, lure her into our cave. Convince her that being around us is better than the whole world, make her fall in love, and we can have lots of sex and babies.”
Even though Damon tried to make a joke, Caleb still heard the yearning in his brother’s voice. They both wanted a woman together. To love, to cherish, and to fill her with their child.
They’d shared women in the past, and it felt right to the both of them to have a woman between them. They hadn’t found one worth keeping.
“We’ll find her, Damon,” he said.
“Yeah, we will.”
Each time they came to town, his brother lost a little more hope along the way. Caleb hadn’t lost hope yet. He did truly believe there was a woman out there who’d like to live their lifestyle.
Neither of them spoke for the rest of the drive, arriving back to their cabin, and working in silence.
They carried out the large abundance of cans, tubs, dried pasta, rice, and everything that would keep them going.
Once their pantry was full, and organized by date, he liked to keep everything in its appropriate spot. Then he headed out into the garden to finish harvesting potatoes while Damon got the canner ready.
For a couple of weeks, they harvested the ripe fruits and vegetables from their garden, and preserved them with their canner.
He loved this life more than anything else, leaving the smallest footprint possible, but each night he fell asleep holding on to a pillow. He’d remember his parents and the love they shared. They were taken away too soon. Now it was just him and Damon.
This was what he wanted, but he’d not planned for the loneliness, or the need for a woman’s touch against his skin, or the sound of her laughter filling the air.
He couldn’t give up hope, otherwise he’d failed his brother. Even though there were only two years between them, his father always told him to take care of, and look out for his brother, and he’d keep doing that.
They’d find a woman, and then their dream would be complete.
****
“You’re too fat, Opal. You need to lose weight. There’s nothing you can do about being ugly, but you should lose the weight. Are you thick or stupid?” Opal Clark held on to her hiking bag as she made her way through the forest, wondering if she actually was thick and stupid. At least talking to herself made her feel less alone.
She paused near a tree, leaning against it and wiping the sweat from her brow. She didn’t believe coming out to the wilderness would help her in any way. All of her life she’d been told what a waste of space she was, how useless, and pathetic, and annoying she was. That she’d never be good for anything, and it had all taken her to the edge that one Friday night. She’d gotten drunk and started to take some pills. Only they hadn’t worked fast enough, and so, slamming her fist in her bathroom mirror, she’d grabbed a shard of glass, and placed it against her wrist.
For thirty minutes, s
he’d sat poised and ready to end her miserable life.
Then, through her thin apartment walls, she’d heard the subtle sound of a baby cry, and something snapped inside her.
She’d cleaned up the glass, tossed the pills and alcohol out, and entered into this camping trip that helped people shed off the layers of control from modern day society. She thought it would be a really great way of finally finding herself, but right now, she just felt miserable as she grabbed her bottle of water.
I spent my life’s savings on this?
So for the past two weeks, she’d been around a bunch of strangers, who happened to be wealthy men and women, who were looking for a good time. Trying to pretend their wealth meant nothing to them, when the truth was, they’d never had to go a day without anything in their lives.
There was no way she was bonding with people who didn’t understand what real struggle meant. They were spoiled and arrogant, and made her feel worse about herself.