12. Lacey

CHAPTER TWELVE

lacey

T he front door bells chime while I'm sweeping the shop. We've had a busy start to June. I glance up from my task to welcome the customer and find Caleb standing at the door, his familiar grin on his face. I wasn't expecting him, but I don't mind that he stopped by. I can't help but smile when I look at him. He is full of happiness. It's almost as though the joy just spills out of him. I lean the broom against a chair and wrap my arms around his neck, hugging him. He wraps me up in his arms and lifts me off the ground, spinning me around.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"I wanted to see my girl," Caleb says. "What time do you get off work?"

"In about fifteen minutes. Why?"

"I want to take you somewhere." Caleb sets me back on my feet.

"Sounds great."

"I'll pick you up from your place in about an hour, if that's enough time for you. You need to wear warm clothes. Nothing fancy that you don't want to get dirty."

"Oh"—I wiggle my eyebrows at him—"I'm liking the sounds of this."

Caleb kisses me on the cheek and leaves so I can finish closing up. I'm enjoying dating Caleb. He's lighthearted and fun, always making me smile. Still, something is missing. But is that to be expected so early on? Is the missing piece something that will grow into place eventually?

Back at home, I change into a pair of old jeans and a T-shirt, then tie a sweatshirt around my waist. I pull my hair up in a ponytail and go outside on the deck to wait for Caleb. My eyes roam over the little home I've created for myself here, and my chest fills with pride. The closest thing I've done to this was moving to college, but even then, I had Jalynn living with me. Looking back, it feels like our move to college was a lifetime ago.

"This place is starting to come together," Jalynn announced, wiping her hands off on her pants. We've been unpacking our final few boxes in our new college apartment, two hours from home.

"I know! I can't wait for Ben to come see it," I added.

"That was awful convenient for him to be too busy to help while we were unloading all of our stuff."

Jalynn gives an exaggerated eye roll in my direction, and I feel the need to defend my boyfriend's honor yet again.

"You know Ben wasn't happy about me moving in with you instead of him. Give him some time to get over it."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. The green-eyed monster, always jealous of anyone who dares spend time with you. When I see him next, I'm telling him the apartment manager mixed up and gave us a one bedroom so now I'm sharing a bed with you, too."

Now it's my turn to roll my eyes.

"If you held onto any guys long enough, I'm sure they'd get jealous, too," I said jokingly, winning a nudge from Jalynn.

When Caleb's truck pulls into the driveway, the crunching of the gravel pulls me back from my college days. I hop up out of my seat and skip down the steps.

"Hey, beautiful," Caleb says when I open the passenger door and make the climb into his truck. He pats the middle of the bench, inviting me to slide over next to him. I hesitate momentarily. His smile warms me like it always does, though, and I scoot over next to my affable beau.

I'm not sure how long we've been driving when Caleb pulls off the road onto a dirt path leading to the middle of nowhere. Eventually, he slows to a stop. Caleb carefully leads the way, and we hike down into a canyon, to a dark opening at the base. He pulls a small head lamp out of his pocket.

"Now would be a good time to put that sweatshirt on," Caleb says. "It's only going to get colder from here."

I untie the arms of the sweatshirt from around my waist and pull it on over my head. Caleb takes the head lamp and straps it to my forehead, then pulls out another one and puts it on himself. He takes my hand and leads me into the opening, crouching as we go.

"What are you getting me into?" I ask, peering down into a dark hole about four feet across.

A rope is securely tied to a stake at the top of the opening. The incline down is sloped and frozen over with ice.

"You're taking me into a cave?" I ask, realization finally sinking in. My palms dampen from the nervous excitement that washes over me.

"Is that okay? I think you'll like it."

"We don't need special training for this?"

"This is a simple cave to navigate." Caleb reaches over and adjusts my head lamp. "It's perfect for beginners. You want to give it a try?"

"As long as we don't find any skeletons of lost spelunkers down there, I'm in."

"I'll go down first. You can follow me," Caleb says. "That way I can kick the skeletons aside so you don't see them."

"Hold up," I say. "You know that old expression ‘Hold my beer?'"

"I'm familiar," Caleb says, peering down at me.

I pat his hard chest and smirk up at him.

"Hold my figurative beer," I say.

Without waiting for a response so that he has no chance to disagree with me, I take hold of the rope and slide down feet first into the icy hole. Caleb's chuckle follows me down into the cave, and he waits at the top of the opening till I make it to the bottom and move out of his way. Once he makes it in, I'm patiently waiting for him at the bottom of the slope.

Inside the cave, the ground is solid ice, providing very little traction. The walls and ceiling are a combination of rock and ice. I continue to lead the way, since there is only one direction we can go into the cave. With a hand on each side of the passageway, I take deliberate steps on the ice, careful not to slip, as the width of the opening narrows down to only about two feet. Soon, the width narrows more, and I have to turn my body sideways to continue through. I look back at Caleb. He's somehow still able to follow even with his massive build.

The passage opens back up again into a larger cavern, but the ceiling drops abruptly in front of us, only a couple of feet from the icy floor. I carefully lower myself to my knees so I can peer through the opening. The height is just short enough for me to crawl through on my hands and knees, and I army crawl through the opening.

I easily slide down the dips in the ice, and after about ten feet of army crawling, I'm back in another cavern, able to stand again. I wait for Caleb to catch up.

We're able to navigate the rest of the way on our feet. At the back of the cave, the wall of ice slopes down. Another rope is secured several feet up the wall. I grab the rope and am able to pull myself up to a small shelf of ice, several feet up. Caleb slides onto the landing beside me.

"Now what?" I ask him.

"Now," he says, wrapping an arm behind me, "you slide." He gently pushes me over the ledge, and I squeal with delight as I go gliding down the icy slope.

After several trips down the wall, we begin our trek back out of the cave. Making it out is more treacherous in spots. Working against the slopes of ice, I search for something secure to grab onto as I crawl through the section of low ceiling. With no exposed rock within reach, I grab hold of a jagged lump of ice, hoping to have enough traction on it to keep my grip. Slowly, I pull myself forward, up the small incline of ice. Suddenly, my hand slips, and I fall back down the incline with a thud.

"Are you okay?" Caleb asks from behind me.

"I hit my head." I pause and touch my fingers to my forehead. I can feel it already beginning to swell. "I'm okay, though."

I try again, this time making my way though.

Finally out of the cave, we make our way back out into the dimming sunlight. We take off the head lamps and remove our wet sweatshirts.

"Wait," Caleb says, catching a glimpse of my forehead. He brushes the loose strands of hair from the front of my face. "Babe," he says, his voice full of remorse, "your head. You have a big goose egg on your forehead."

My fingers go to my forehead, feeling the large bump that has appeared, and I wince.

"It's not too bad," I assure him. "A small price to pay for that experience."

"No, it's not a small price. Do you have a headache or feel dizzy or anything?"

"No, Caleb, really, I'm fine."

Caleb turns his back to me, crouches down, and instructs me to hop onto his back. I do, after a slight pause, and he stands back up, holding onto my thighs to secure me. I wrap my arms tightly around him but protest him carrying me all the way back to the truck.

"This isn't necessary, Caleb. Really."

"It is necessary. I let you get hurt. The least I can do is make sure you're taken care of."

"It's too steep of a climb back to the truck, and I'm too heavy. You'll just end up hurting yourself in the process."

"Now I have to carry you back. You just called me weak," he scoffs, but the humor still in his voice tells me he's teasing. "I've got to prove my brute strength now."

Back at my camper, Caleb unnecessarily helps me inside and onto my bed, despite my insistence that I'm fine. He pulls a bag of frozen peas from the freezer and applies it to my head. Caleb climbs onto the bed beside me, setting off warning bells in my head. I suddenly feel clammy and closed in.

"Actually," I say, "I think I need some fresh air. Let's go sit on the deck."

Before he can reply, I'm off the bed and out the door of the camper. Caleb follows, and when I take a seat, he motions to the spot next to me. I nod, feeling more secure in the open space. Caleb monitors my symptoms while telling me stories about other caves he's visited. Eventually, I'm cuddled into his chest, enjoying the warmth of his body and the velvet of his voice until he's convinced that I'm not about to pass out or suffer from amnesia.

"I'll call and check on you when I make it home," he says.

"Caleb, I'm fine."

"I think so, too. But I'm still going to check up on you to be sure."

He kisses my forehead sweetly and turns to leave.