I’d completely forgotten to buy any beauty products or face lotions. After buying tampons and pads in the feminine care aisle, I felt burnt out and overwhelmed, so I opted to check out instead. While I had a few oils and lotions, there wasn’t much else—nothing like I’m sure she was used to.Maybe there was something I could make her from one of my apothecary books.
Her gaze flitted to the cot beside me. A look of relief spread across her face.
“I’ll sleep here,” I hurried to say, hoping she wouldn’t think I meant the cot for her.
She stood a little straighter, blinking away any trace of her previous vulnerability.“You’d better,” she bit back.
There’s the Betty I knew.
I gave her a half-grin and knelt to push a few more things under the cot. Her soft footsteps moved across the room, making their way to the wall of books. I stole a glance over my shoulder, watching as her fingertips traced the spines.
There was a long bout of me staring at her ass and her searching books before she asked,“Is this how you learned to do all this?”
I quickly hid the way I was checking her out before she looked over her shoulder at me, trying to appear as though I were absently tidying instead.“Yes. There isn’t much to do out here but busy myself with projects.” I sat on the cot to face her.
She nodded and hummed in understanding.“And you’ve been out here for how long? You mentioned a decade-ish?” Her attention went back to the bookshelf.
Unable to help myself, I continued to catalogue her tall, lean physique. She had an elegant, slender neck like that of a dancer, and the pose to match. Her hips had a curve like that of a pear, tantalizing and juicy in all the right places with a narrow and defined waist.
“Ten-years, give or take,” I finally replied.
She tipped a book from the shelf—a well-worn volume about levers, pulleys, and construction methods. It held a series of Egyptian-era designs meant to assist a single person in lifting heavy things. After reading it, the pyramids’construction was no longer a wonder to me. The book simplified moving massive objects, such as the iron stove. I wouldn’t have gotten this far without it.
Betty opened the book and took in a few of the pages and drawings. I stood and moved toward the kitchen, where I began fumbling with the string-lights, wondering if there was a better, cleaner way to hang them. Under the counter, there were a few candles, and I lit them. They had a pine scent that I’d extracted from a few fallen branches of Balsam Fir, and it slowly filled the cabin with a soft, natural smell of the woods.
She eyed me when I began pulling down a few pots from the chain above the stove and set them on the hot surface. I moved to the fridge, found some elk tallow and began planning a meal for dinner.“Are you hungry?”
She gave me an exuberant nod, shutting the book in her hands.“Yes,starving.The granola bars you gave me earlier have worn off,” she joked, tucking the book back onto the shelf.
“Do you like potatoes?”I asked.
“Who doesn’t?” she scoffed.
True. I retrieved a bag of nuts and dried fruit out of the pantry, pouring her a small bowl to help tide her over while I cooked us a full dinner. I slid the bowl across the counter, gesturing for her to help herself.
“Do you want to see the greenhouse?” I offered, thinking it a good idea to give her a run of the place while I was at it.
She nodded.“Sure.”
Before heading that way, I juggled a handful of eggs from the crate and put them beside the tallow. She tossed a few handfuls of nuts and berries into her mouth. I gestured her toward the back door.
Betty moved where I instructed, approaching a basket near the door filled with sheepskin slip-on shoes.
“Grab a pair,” I said.
I had several, always buying a new pair when I went to town but never getting rid of any old ones unless they were falling apart. She chose a newer pair from the basket before I picked out a pair for myself and put them on. When I glanced down at her feet, the slippers were huge on her, but adorable.
I led her out and around the porch, past the compost bin, and toward the back of the cabin. We turned left, and the porch became a walkway that ended at another door. This one led to a massive greenhouse, almost as big as the cabin itself.
The greenhouse had its own solar panels, separate from the cabin. This dedicated grid provided extra light for the plants during the short winter days and powered the heaters that kept things warm when the temperature dropped below a certain point. They also powered all the aquaponic pumps. Everything cycled beautifully in the little world I’d built. It was my proudest achievement.
She paused at the door to wait for me, hugging her arms around herself to stave off the chill in the air.
Undoing the latch, the door swung into the space, and I located the light switches and turned them on. The UV bulbs flickered to life, and a gasp came from behind me as the room became fully lit. I looked back, not wanting to miss her expression.
“Oh my God, Gray!” Betty’s hand went to her mouth in disbelief.“It’s a jungle in here!”
Oval galvanized tubs of water lined the walls all around, spaced two feet apart. From the center of each, white pipes climbed to the ceiling, draped with edible plants. The gentle sound of water cascading through the towers and back into the tanks was soothing and gentle, like a rainforest.
