“I want to help with your chores today,” Gia declared.

Elijah stilled from where he’d been tending his vegetables. “I’m happy to do it.”

“I don’t like sitting around being useless. And I figure there’s a lot to learn.”

Elijah considered her for a long moment and Gia squirmed under his gaze. Would he refuse? Would he judge her and find her wanting? A useless ornament, just like Ray?

Instead, he nodded. “Okay. I could do with more soap. Have you ever made it before?”

She blew out a breath of relief, relaxing tension she hadn’t realized was there, and shook her head.

“The lye should be done. Let’s see.” He stood, took her hand, and led her over to a large barrel set on stone. Beneath it was a bucket catching leakage from the barrel.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“Basically, you put the ashes of a hardwood at the bottom of the barrel—I have a mix of them—and then you run rainwater through it. You need straw and such for the base, but the most important thing is the ash and water. And in the bucket here…” He pulled it out and showed her the lye.

“Oh. And you make soap with that?”

“Yep. I should test it first, though.” He set the bucket down and headed to the chicken hutch, digging around until he produced an egg. When he was back, he cracked the egg on the edge of the bucket and dropped the raw egg right in.

Gia blinked in surprise as the egg barely floated on the surface.

“Yup, it’s ready.”

“Okay.” Overwhelmed and on the back foot though she’d barely started, Gia swallowed and stared wide-eyed at what she’d gotten herself into. Chores out here weren’t simple, like she was used to.

“Normally I’d make the soap straight from the lye like this, since it doesn’t matter if it’s only for me and I’m used to it. But for you we’ll crystallize it. Makes it a lot easier to work with.”

“Okay,” she said again. She was starting to regret offering to help. She thought he’d ask her to make bread or sweep the cabin or something familiar, but all this was foreign to her. “How do I do that?”

“Basically, you boil it until it turns to grey crystals. By way of black ones.”

“Oh, so watch it?”

“Yes, for now.”

Gia breathed a sigh of relief. She could watch a boiling pot without too much trouble. Hopefully.

Elijah set it all up for her on an outdoor fire and Gia sat. At first, she enjoyed warming herself by the fire and soaking in the crisp outdoor air. Soon, she was bored. She was used to stimulation. Phones, TV, people, constantly something happening. A boiling pot didn’t have the same entertainment value.

She picked at her nails. She’d broken one sometime recently but hadn’t noticed. Before, this would have been a major disaster. Now, Gia didn’t care. It was freeing to be out here, forcibly away from everything familiar to her. Though she had an occasional urge to check her phone or browse the internet to see what was going on in the world, in other ways it was nice to be away from it. Peaceful.

But she wasn’t quite used to the silence yet.

“Is there something I can do while I wait?” she asked.

Elijah glanced up from feeding the chickens scratching at his feet. He used scraps from the kitchen to keep them fed instead of commercial feed. Of course.

“Well, what kind of soap do you want to make?” he asked.

She blinked. “There’s options?” She knew better than Elijah that there were endless choices of beauty products on the market. But out here she hadn’t considered that would be the case.

“Yeah,” he said, then strode closer. “It’s easier for me to make it from lard, but—”

“Wait, the soap we’ve been using has lard in it?” She made a face.

Elijah frowned in confusion. “Yes. What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s gross,” she said.

Now he looked really confused. “You eat animal fat. How is it different?”

“I don’t know, it just is. It’s weirder putting it on your skin.”

Elijah sighed. “Fine. I have some vegetable oils. You can use those.”

Gia relaxed. “Okay, that sounds good.”

He rolled his eyes, but didn’t seem too put out by her vagaries. As a city girl, Gia had been wholly removed from the gross parts of consuming meat. It always came conveniently packaged for her. And she was certain her expensive, organic beauty products, didn’t have lard in them.

But Elijah was right. There was no difference. Just that she’d never had to think about what she used, and she had someone else to do the dirty work for her. Someone like Elijah.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know it’s silly. This is all so new and different for me. More raw, if that makes sense. I never expected this.”

Elijah exhaled and gave her a small smile. “I know. I’m sorry if my way of life freaks you out. Let me know if you need me to take over, or do any of my chores away from you where you can’t see them, because it grosses you out. I forget life isn’t like this for everyone.”

“That’s sweet, thank you. But it’ll be good for me to learn. I mean, I don’t want to be in an ivory tower for the rest of my life, cut off from the realities of the world. Even knowing where my food comes from. If I’m not prepared to see an animal be killed I shouldn’t eat it, right?”

Elijah shrugged. “That’s up to you.” But his eyes shone with admiration.

She squared her shoulders. And while her stomach roiled in disgust, she was determined. “I’ll use the lard. And I won’t be weird about it. At least, I’ll try not to be.”

Elijah grinned and shook his head. “Nah, use the vegetable oil.” Gia slumped in relief that he let her get away with it. He continued, “It’s better for sensitive skin. And yours is very soft.”

His eyes were intense when they met hers. All the breath left her in a rush and her stomach dropped like she was on a roller coaster. That gaze of his was potent. And the fact he’d noticed her skin sent sparks of pleasure racing through her.

“Thank you,” she said, tripping over the simple words.

He inclined his head in acknowledgment. Then, apparently unaffected by their moment, he changed the subject.

“Would you like a scent in your soap? I remember that being a feminine thing.”

She almost called him on the ‘feminine thing’ comment, but decided it was too much trouble. “What did you have in mind?”

He shrugged. “What smells do you like?”

“Cinnamon,” she said immediately. That scent always reminded her of baking comfort food and the most perfect hot chocolate recipe she’d ever tasted.

He grinned and strode back into the cabin. Seconds later, he reappeared with a small jar and held it out to her. She twisted it open and sniffed.

“Oh,” she said in pleasure. “Cinnamon.”

“You can use it in the soap. Though it’s meant to be in oil form,” he said with a frown. “I’ll have to think how to do that.”

“Why do you have this? Cinnamon is a very…frivolous spice for you.” Considering the only flavor he added to his food was small amounts of salt, cinnamon was a spice she hadn’t expected him to own.

“It was my ma’s favorite,” he explained. “I saw it in the general store one day I couldn’t resist.”

“That’s so sweet.”

He shrugged and that delightful blush stained his cheeks above his beard again.

The chickens found their way over and clucked at Elijah’s feet, demanding his attention.

“I better get back to it. I’ll think about the oil while the lye boils.”

Gia got up, too. She limped around the yard tidying things to occupy her mind. Elijah needed some books. Something to do in his downtime that wasn’t more work. And he also needed to put her to work, too. Properly, not watching a boiling pot. Now that she wasn’t sleeping all day, and they were only waiting for her ankle to heal, she didn’t want to sit around useless and bored while he did all the labor. She’d had enough of that being married to Ray.

Finally, the lye was the grey colored crystals Elijah had described. “I think we’re done,” she called to him with a rush of excitement. He strode over and peered into the pot.

“Looks good.”

He explained what to do next. Then, he stood by as she heated the ingredients, mixed them together in the correct order, and finally poured it into a mold.

“I only make one at a time,” he explained. “Since I don’t use much of it.”

She nodded and covered the mold with the blanket he handed her.

“You could sell soap, too, you know,” she told him.

“With my leatherwork, you mean?”

“Exactly. There are all kinds of handmade beauty products you could make. Face wash, face mask, facial moisturizer, hand moisturizer, body moisturizer, body butter, lip balm, all kinds of soap—” She broke off. “What?”

His expression was blank. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Again.”

She laughed. “I suppose that’s more my area of expertise,” she told him.

“If there’s anything else you want to make, feel free. You can experiment.”

Gia perked up. That actually sounded like fun. She could recreate some of her daily beauty routine with some practice. And if she had excess product, she could leave it for Elijah to sell alongside his leatherwork. It truly was a shame he lived so far from civilization. There must be markets in the area which would love to have stuff like that.

She studied the soap she’d made, lightly covered in cloth. “And that’s it?” she asked. “So simple?” If so, she could definitely see herself doing it again.

“That’s it,” he confirmed. “We’ll leave it covered for about a day, and then uncovered for a while—two to four weeks is standard.”

Gia deflated. “Oh. I won’t be here to use it.” Who knew soap took so long to make?

Elijah stared at her for a long moment, as if he wanted to say something and was assessing whether it would be welcome. But then he shook his head. “Maybe we’ll get lucky,” was all he said.

“Maybe.” But the sadness, the wrongness, didn’t quite leave her. She was already attached to this place. Despite the challenges with the soap-making, she’d conquered them. There was a deep satisfaction that came with doing something difficult, with your own hands, and succeeding at it. Particularly in a place like this where messing up could be deadly.

This is what it must be like for Elijah like every day. The satisfaction of working hard and making things with your own hands. More so, even. Gia had started with something easy. Soap was safe. They had enough lye to make a few batches if she messed this one up. But what if he ran out of that, or oil? She’d heard once that hygiene was one of the most important factors of staying alive in the wilderness.

Gia didn’t have any particular urge to leave this place. She liked it here, and she liked Elijah. She could almost see herself staying here forever. Helping Elijah during the day, working side-by-side, and warming his bed at night.

Not that he gave any indication he wanted that, but her heart was already yearning for this simpler world, which this smart, simple, sexy man embodied.

She could picture it now. The two of them living in perfect harmony, making money by selling handmade leatherwork and organic beauty products. Coming home and tearing each other’s clothes off. It would be so idyllic.

There was nothing for her once she left here. Worse, Ray might be searching for her. She hadn’t even considered he might be, but from what she knew of Ray it would make sense. He would want his money, and he would want her back. His wife. His property, as much as his money was.

Gia couldn’t help a glance through the trees. Surely he wouldn’t find her here. They were so far from anywhere, anything.

A shiver ran down her spine. She knew firsthand how determined Ray was. If he wanted to find her, he’d move mountains to do so. And he had a frightening amount of resources at his fingertips, amassed through a lifetime of being on the wrong side of the law. Of being one of the most feared men in the city.

A lump formed in her throat. She had to remind herself he wouldn’t look for her here with Elijah. She was safe, hidden away.

Hopefully for a long time.