pulled a folded-up paper from his back pocket and passed it to her. “I made a list this morning of what I could see needing fixing. Anything you want to add, just write it down. We’ll get the high tunnel up today, provided it really can be installed in one day, as the literature says. I also came across some chicken wire in the barn, enough for three small patches anyway, which will do for a temporary fix.”
“Where’d you find that? I thought I knew every nail and post stored on this property.”
“Tucked behind some old boards covered in spider-webs.” He took a sip from his mug, stalling before he broke some bad news. “Um, are you aware there’s a leak in your barn roof?”
She sighed. “Yes. Will a patch do for that, too? I can’t swing a new roof yet.”
“We can try.”
“It’s going to have to be you, not we. I don’t deal with heights well.”
He wasn’t fond of heights himself, and that ladder of hers looked pretty rickety. Apparently she thought he was a superhero who could do anything. He wondered how long he could stall the roof job. The chance of rain was slim at the moment.
“Had the place been abandoned for long before you got here?” Mitch asked, copying her stance of leaning against the counter.
“A year, but Rick’s uncle hadn’t been able to take care of it for a while before that, so no one had been working the land. It was a mess. It had taken Barney’s lawyer a long time to find us, because we moved around a lot. Rick was surprised to be Barney’s heir. He hadn’t seen his uncle since he was a boy.”
“Where had you been living?”
“When they found us? In Reno. We were both blackjack dealers, working different shifts.”
“I can’t picture that,” Mitch said, more surprised than he let on. “You seem like Mother Earth.”
“I took to this land instantly. I was so glad to get out of the casino, where you’re barely aware of day and night, much less actual time. And then there’s the noise and desperation. It got to be too depressing for me.”
“I’ll bet you were good at it, though.”
“I make it a point to be good at whatever job I’m doing. I’m kind of fanatical about that. But this land? I’m willing to work my fingers to the bone to stay here, to raise Austin where he’s outdoors a lot and in a real community, even if we have to eat beans most of the time. I’m finally home.”
Mitch admired her determination but was worried about her, too. Someone that driven, that single-minded, often didn’t see it was time to quit until they were broken, which made for a much longer recovery.
“Where’d you grow up?” he asked, sipping his cooling coffee.
“Everywhere—although always in cities. My parents moved all the time. I ended up marrying a man who lived the same way. By the time we landed here I was worn-out from it all, but more than ready to settle.”
She was still worn-out, but in a happier way, he supposed.
“I’m going to go read the instructions on the greenhouse,” he said.
“Really? A man who reads instructions?”
He leaned around her to set his mug in the sink, intentionally brushing her arm while trying to make it seem unintentional. She didn’t move out of the way. In fact, she went very still.
“I’m out of my element,” he said. She smelled good. Fresh. Female. “But I’m pretty good with my hands.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
He liked that she didn’t let him get away with trying to unsettle her a little. He also liked that she seemed to have the same attraction that he did.
Although he had no idea what to do about it.
“There’s a video on YouTube that shows a high tunnel being put together,” she said. “I can pull it up, if you like.”
“Yeah, sure. Thanks.”
She found what she was looking for then stood behind him as he watched. He was completely aware of her. If he angled back just a little, his head would rest against her breasts. He’d already deduced she wasn’t wearing a bra. On some women, that wouldn’t matter much, but Annie’s breasts swayed when she moved. At one point, she rested her hand on his shoulder and leaned closer to the monitor, the fluffy fabric of her robe brushing his ear. She pointed at something he couldn’t see through a sudden burst of desire, which affected even his vision.
“This is the part that confuses me,” she said. “Do we have to bend all those poles ourselves?”
The only reason he knew the answer was because he’d unwrapped all the parts and inspected them. “They were pre-bent at the factory.”
“Oh. Good.”
He turned around in the swivel chair. She didn’t move away, not one inch. He decided he needed to have some amount of truth between them, to be honest about how she was making him feel. “You plannin’ on keepin’ this up, Annie?”
“What?”
“Puttin’ yourself this close to me. Makin’ me want you.”
She stared back at him for a full ten seconds. “I didn’t mean to. But I can’t seem to control it.”
He appreciated that she didn’t apologize or make excuses or pretend innocence. “Well, if you want me to, you’d best be careful what you do. If you don’t want me to control it, that’s good, too. But I’d like to know where we stand on this.”
Her voice was quiet, and a little shaky. “I haven’t been touched in a very long time. And I’m attracted to you. That’s a hard combination to ignore.”
“You have a son in residence.”
“Which will keep me on the straight and narrow.”
“While I stay on the straight and up,” he said, then watched her drop her gaze to his lap. “Every man has a limit to how much teasing he can take, even a man like me who was raised to respect women and to step away when she says no.”
When she still didn’t answer his question, he pushed his chair out of range. “I think I need to watch the video again. Alone.”
“I’ll get dressed,” Annie said in a rush, retreating, almost running to her room, where she shut the door and leaned against it, breathing hard. She hadn’t recognized herself, coming on to him like that. She’d never been the instigator, having been rejected by Rick too often. They’d been almost strangers for the last few years of their marriage.
She covered her face with her hands, could feel the heat there, from embarrassment and desire. She’d wanted to drop her robe and climb onto his lap, to kiss and be kissed, to feel him, strong and sure, inside her. To feel desirable.
She was going to have to take big steps back, in thought and
