Caleb

Chapter Fifty Six

***Last chapter before epilogue***

Caleb ~

Caleb and Lainey had spent five incredible days together. Five days of complete and utter contentment. There was no stress or worries, no threats or sadness, just each other and the love they shared.

Every morning he and Lainey cooked breakfast together and helped Wade around the ranch doing various tasks, tasks that had once been chores to Caleb, but had become new experiences and memories with Lainey. She loved every second of being at the ranch and all Caleb could see when he looked at her was happiness. He had stopped picturing the scary outcomes that had once been their reality and started picturing their future together.

He had taken her into town and over to introduce Lainey to his aunts and uncles who adored her as much as he did and they spent the evenings laughing over dinner until the cicadas sang them home.

The late evenings had become Caleb's favorite time with Lainey because they were truly alone and it felt like they were the only two people on Earth. Each night he loaded a small cooler with drinks and snacks into his jeep and drove her to the far side of the property that overlooked the pasture. They would lay on a huge blanket with nothing but the stars and a few flashlights and talk and laugh until their sides hurt.

"It cracks me up that your family had no idea that you could speak any language other than English. When you and I started speaking to each other in Spanish, I thought they were going to fall out of their chairs." Lainey laughed. 

"There's a lot that they don't know about what I do Darlin'" Caleb said, chuckling at their reaction as well. 

"Well I'm impressed with your linguistic skills." Lainey said proudly. 

"Yeah, well my Spanish isn't half bad, but my Arabic is shit. Complete shit." Caleb chuckled. 

"I bet it's not that bad." 

"No really, we were working a job overseas and I was trying to give first aid to a man who had sustained a few bullet wounds to the leg. His pants were getting in the way and instead of having him peel them off his bloody leg, I was trying to tell him that we were going to cut the fabric of his pants, but my Arabic sucked so bad, he had no clue what I was saying." 

Lainey giggled and smile, clearly picturing the communication break down and imagining Caleb speaking broken Arabic. 

"I had no choice but to start using hand signals with the guy to try and communicate with him, basically playing a game of medical charades with the dude, who clearly wasn't understanding." 

Lainey's smile grew even bigger at the new images Caleb had provided her with and covered her mouth to stifle her own laughter. 

"Anyway, I used my fingers to pantomime scissors opening and closing, trying to tell him I was about to cut the fabric of his pants, but he completely lost his shit. The guy thought I was going to try and cut his damn leg off with the scissors." Caleb laughed, causing Lainey to burst into laughter as well. 

"He even took a swing at me, which is obviously Pierce's favorite part of that story. Pierce came in and helped me get the guy back down onto the table and communicate with him, but told me I was never allowed to act as a translator ever again." 

"He tried to hit you?" Lainey squealed with laughter. 

"I mean yeah, wouldn't you if some random ass guy who didn't speak your language came to cut your leg off with a pair of dull scissors." Caleb joked, loving the flutters of laughter that were escaping from Lainey's sweet lips.