He let her go and lifted a chain saw off the ground. “I was coming by to see what needed to be done to the grounds. You’ve got a tree mostly down there.”
So he apparently had one more stop on his to-do list, because he was pointing toward an oak that was probably older than her grandparents. The tree leaned at a crazy angle, resting on the roof of a vacant cabin. A roof she’d already written off as unsalvageable.
“And?”
“And I’m going to see what I can do here.”
“You run out of jobs in town?” She instantly regretted sounding so snippy. It was too late, though, because the words were out there.
“You don’t want the help, tell me to get lost.” Calmly ignoring how she’d spoken to him, he walked back and forth in front of the cabin, eyeballing the tree. She had a feeling the offer was made out of courtesy only. He’d decided he was fixing this, and that was that.
“Be my guest.” She gestured toward the chaos. “Have at it.”
“You up for helping?” She shouldn’t rise to the challenge in his eyes, but she really liked him, and that was trouble right there. Despite his outer tough-guy image, he was as deliciously soft as the marshmallows he’d roasted for her that night in her cabin. He was a good man at heart.
She was in real trouble here.
“You bet,” she said, because of course she had to accept his challenge, and she had to think about something other than sex with Daeg.
He grinned. “You ever use a chain saw before?”
Without waiting for her answer, he produced a pair of safety glasses and leather work gloves. “The new tools of your trade.”
His big hands carefully adjusted the strap over her head, tucking a loose strand of hair back into her ponytail.
“No,” she said. “Teach me.”
That was just one more thing she liked about Daeg. You either knew how to do something or you learned. Can’t didn’t seem to be in his vocabulary. It was that simple.
“This is your kickback zone.” He pointed to the front tip of the serrated chain. “You don’t use this part to cut, okay? You do, and the blade is going to come back at you. Not good.”
She nodded, and he stepped up behind her, his arms coming around her. Heat sizzled through her that had nothing to do with the summer day and everything to do with the man. One night had definitely not been enough.
“Get a good grip here and make sure you’ve got your thumb wrapped all the way around the handle.”
His hands positioned hers, strong and confident on the chain saw’s grip. It was so not fair that he was so sexy when he was teaching her something. Not when this lesson was supposed to be about safety. Concentrating would be good.
“How are you fixed for shoes?” He eyed her feet, but she was smart enough to be wearing her sturdy, sensible boots. They’d survived the storm...well, just barely.
“I’ll do.”
He pointed to some smaller trees scattered over the drive. “Let’s start you on these. Begin at the bottom and move to the top. Branches first and then the trunk.”
He coached her through it, watching carefully as she made her first cuts. To her surprise, they worked well together. As she limbed the smaller trees, he moved the pieces to the side of the road. The more she cut, the more space he gave her, letting her decide where and how to tackle the branches.
“You got it,” he said eventually. He stepped back and watched her chop another set of branches. “You’re ready to go pro.”
Forty minutes later, they’d cleared the main area and Daeg was eyeing the leaning tree again. The heat had his T-shirt sticking to him, clinging to his powerful shoulders like a second skin. When he threw a rope around the tree, the muscles in his arms bunched and she wanted to reach out and caress all that hard steel. She also needed to get her head examined. He hadn’t shown any interest in making their night in the cabin a repeat, let alone continue with their plan for a summer’s worth of nights.
She should ask him. She was scared.
She focused her attention on the rope instead. “What’s that for?”
“I’m going to make sure the tree lands somewhere other than inside the cabin. Unless you want to put in a new skylight?”
Okay. She was on board with that. She started her cut on the right side of the trunk, facing into the lean, and worked the blade slow and steady under his careful supervision. Soon there was nothing but the whine of the chain saw chewing through the wood and the soft rain of flying chips.