She waited while he refreshed his memory.
His lips moved as he read, and then suddenly he reared back and his eyes went round. Oooh, such a pretty color, even if he was looking at her strangely right now. “Husband for hire?”
“That’s why you’re here, right?”
“Why would you need to pay for a husband?”
“Not pay, per say. We would split the duties around my homestead as helpmates to begin with, and after a week or two, we can marry.” She nodded definitively.
“We can marry,” he repeated in an odd tone.
“Yes. And I won’t be trading money, more like a barter for you coming here to be the man of this house. I have cattle, and you’ll have a say in the running of this place and a safe cabin to live. I’m a loyal sort and will have your back. And…you’ll have me.”
His animated eyebrows jacked up. “You? You mean…”
Cheeks heating over the thought of sex with a titan like him, she cleared her throat and delved into more favorable conversation. “Were you born in Alaska?”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want one of those mainlander men who think it’ll be fun to homestead for a few seasons, then leave me high and dry once they grow bored with it. This isn’t some Alaskan reality show, mister. I need someone to stick around for me.”
The man frowned down at a folded piece of white paper he held clutched in his hand. Slowly, he tucked it into his back pocket and said, “Let me see your freezer.”
“My freezer?” she asked, utterly baffled.
“Yes, woman. Let me see how much meat you have stocked up. I want to know your situation. This is some sort of interview, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, doesn’t it seem fair that I interview you, too? Picking a mate—” The man shook his head and tried again. “Picking a spouse sure seems like a big enough deal that both parties should be agreeable, don’t you think?”
Huh. She licked her lip and thought on that. He was the first to ask her any questions back, besides the normal, “How many acres do you own?” and “Will I inherit the land if you die?”
Feeling vulnerable, and a little more than embarrassed, she twitched her head. “The freezer is this way.” She led him around the outside of her cabin to the back porch where she removed the padlock from her deep freeze and stood back.
The man cast her a quick glance before he opened the lid all the way. He locked his arms against the edges and stared down into the nearly empty depths, then wiped his beard against his shoulder, as if it was a habit he did when he wasn’t happy. “Is this your only freezer?”
“Afraid so. I had a man, but he gave everything to his brothers, and I’ve been just trying to get by for a while now. That’s why I put an ad in the paper, you see. I don’t want to just survive anymore. I need help so I don’t lose this place. It’s been in my family for a long time.”
He cleared his throat and wouldn’t meet her eyes. Instead, he stared into the abyss of her freezer as he said, “Your man. What happened to him?”
Cole’s slap burned across her memory like a brush fire. “He wasn’t very nice to me, so I asked him to leave. He died four months back from a bear attack.”
“Four months, and you don’t think this is too soon to look for a husband, or helpmate, or whatever it is you’re doing?”
“What are you doing here?” she asked angrily, tired of the judging.
The man scratched his head in an irritated sort of way, then set those biting blue eyes on her. He rubbed his hand thoughtfully over his beard, then lifted the newspaper as an answer.
“Then why are you asking me if it’s too soon?”
“Because I want to make sure you’re stable enough to do this before I consider your offer.”
“My offer?” The nerve. She hadn’t made anyone any offer.
“Yeah,” he said, standing to his full, imposing height. “How many have responded to this?”
Smartass. She lifted her chin primly. “A dozen.”
“And of that dozen, how many were under the age of sixty and fully capable?”
Zero. Elyse glared and clamped her mouth shut.