He smirked at her, shook his head and carried the small load to the river. She fell into step behind him, determined to earn her way. She’d cooked a good dinner. At least, she was taking the fact that Jericho had eaten two of the fish himself as a good sign. But part of being outdoors, camping, was the cleanup and she wouldn’t walk away from a job half done.
“Seriously, I’m cleaning up.” She caught him at the river, took the plates and pan from him and dropped to her knees in the sand beside the rushing water. He crouched, too, and waited until she met his gaze to speak again.
“Accepting help doesn’t mean you can’t do it yourself.”
“I know, but you’re the one who said it was all up to me and I want to do this. I want to prove to you that I can do this job.”
“You already have.”
That stopped her. “Really?”
He shrugged, glanced away, then looked back at her and gave her a reluctant smile. “You’re a good campfire cook.”
“Yeah?” Ridiculously pleased, Daisy grinned. “Thanks, I did notice you ate a lot.”
He laughed shortly. “Yeah, well, I’ve never had pan-fried trout with an herb sauce on the trail.”
“Well, I brought along a few things from the lodge kitchen. With the right spices, you can make any meal a banquet…”
“So I’m learning.”
It only took a few minutes to clean up the dishes and then they were walking back to the campfire, a companionable silence stretching out between them. Once the supplies had been put away, she sat down across from him. And the quiet lingered, becoming a tension that felt almost brittle. Daisy spoke up finally, because she never had been able to be quiet for long anyway.
Besides, it was time to find out exactly where she stood. She took a breath and faced the hard truth. She wanted to bring up the subject before he did, so that she could put her own spin on her less-than-stellar performance on his series of “tests.”
He’d admitted that he was considering giving her the job, and if his decision was going to be based on her skills at his tests, then she wanted to defend herself before he made his final decision.
“About the rope bridge,” she began. “I know I didn’t go very fast, but I did eventually make it.”
“You did.”
“And I think if I’d had a little more time—” like a million years, she added silently “—I probably could have made it over the climbing wall on my own steam.”
“You did better than some I’ve seen.”
That was a bit lowering, she thought. Not good, she told herself, but better than some. Remembering just how poorly she’d done at the climbing, she could only feel sorry for whoever was actually worse than her.
“All in all, you did a good job,” Jericho said and Daisy’s thoughtful gaze narrowed on him. He shrugged. “Frankly, I didn’t expect you to hold up as well as you have.”
“Oooh. Big surprise.” She smiled though, giving him silent encouragement to keep talking. If he was feeling generous toward her, she wanted to hear it.
“Right. Well.” Firelight danced across his features, tossing shadow and light over the sharp planes of his face, making his guarded eyes even more difficult to read than they normally were. “Like I said, you’ve got spine. And that’s important. Maybe more important than being able to climb a wall on your own.”
“So I didn’t lose points because you had to give me a boost?”
“No,” he said. “You didn’t ask for help, after all.”
“True,” she said eagerly. “And I wouldn’t have.”
“I know.”
“So you said earlier, you were considering giving me the job.” Daisy took another deep breath and blurted out her question. “Have you decided? Because if your mind still isn’t made up, we can go back to the wall. I can try it again. I’m pretty sure I could do it with enough time…”
He chuckled briefly. “You really don’t know the meaning of quit, do you?”
“Not when I really want something,” she admitted.
“Yeah, I get that. So we don’t have to go back to the wall.”
“You’ve made your decision, then.”
“I have.” He nodded. “If you still want the job, you have it.”
“Really?” Bubbles of excitement burst into life inside her. Funny, but she hadn’t realized just how stressed she’d been about this. If he hadn’t offered her the job, she’d had no backup plan. No way to convince him to let her stay. No strategy for getting him into bed and making her pregnant. Now, thankfully, one wouldn’t be needed. She’d be here, on the mountain with him, every day. Every night.
And soon, she’d have the baby, the family she wanted so badly. All she had to do was say yes.
“Of course I want the job,” she told him.
“All right then, it’s settled.”
But he didn’t look happy about it. “Can I ask you something?”
“Why not?”
“Why are you being nice to me?” Maybe she shouldn’t push her luck. Maybe she should just accept his job offer at face value and count her blessings. But Daisy had to know why he’d decided in her favor. “We both know I never would have passed your tests if you hadn’t helped me. So why did you?”
He scrubbed one hand across his face and blew out a breath. Then he shifted his gaze to the flames dancing in the fire ring to avoid looking directly at her. “I came out here expecting you to fail, like I said.”
To be honest, so had she. “And…”
“And you didn’t.” He looked directly into her eyes. “You didn’t quit. Didn’t whine. Didn’t give in. You kept pushing yourself no matter what.”
Daisy smiled. “So blind stubbornness earns points with you?”
One corner of his mouth lifted briefly. “You could say that.”
“Well, yay me.”
“We’ll see.”
“About what?”
“How you’ll work out around here. Yes, you’re hired, but that’s not saying you’re going to want to stay.”
“I won’t quit.” Not until she had what she’d come here for. Not until she was pregnant. Her gaze drifted to his mouth, his firm, soft lips and everything inside her tingled, as if her whole body had been asleep and was suddenly waking up. Then he started talking again and those tingles subsided just a bit.