“How am I supposed to work here? The plants don’t like it either.”
Well, maybe she’s a little eccentric, I thought, glancing around. The plants seemed okay. But who knows? Maybe they were wilting a bit here and there…
“I’m sorry,” I said simply. “I’m just doing my job.”
She sighed, and I watched as the fight went out of her. She couldn’t stop this and we both knew it.
“Do you want a cup of coffee?”
I nodded and followed her into the house. Inside, my eyes were drawn everywhere at once again. Just like when I first saw her. Just like when I first saw her garden. It was a peaceful blend of color and charm. Her work table was strewn with green seed packets, each with the picture of a plant or flower printed on top, and an old tool box. But the compartments held seeds, not tools. I walked closer and leaned down to look at it.
“Suzanna’s Seeds,” I murmured.
“Heirloom seeds. That’s what I grow.”
“So, no pesticides or… what do they call it?”
“GMOs. Genetically modified.” She smiled sadly. “These are the opposite of GMO. Although farmers did sometimes create their own breeds with cross-pollination or encouraging rarer imperfections.”
I nodded, following what she was saying, for the most part.
“That’s cool.”
“You can sit,” she said, waving to a spot at the table. I watched her surreptitiously while she bustled about the tiny kitchen alcove, grinding coffee beans and pouring boiling water over them. She wasn’t old, but she was old-fashioned.
I realized I liked that. It felt familiar. It felt… right.
Not to mention, it was cute as hell.
I cleared my throat, trying to wrack my brain to solve this for her. I told myself it was because I didn’t want her interrupting my work site every day, but it was more than that. More than even wanting to take her to bed, which I did, extremely badly. I was surprised how much I wanted her beneath me.
It just wasn’t right. We were disturbing her, and it wasn’t going to stop. I worried about what that meant for her future.
“What if I throw up a fence or plant some evergreens? They make a great noise barrier.”
She glanced at me as she carried over creamer and a cup of sugar. She came back with two cups of delicious-smelling coffee.
Insanely delicious, truth be told.
“That costs money. Especially the trees. And it might not work anyway.”
“It won’t stop the noise entirely, but it should help. Your being up on top of the hill is augmenting the noise. And the trees out here are all seasonal, so it will get worse when the leaves fall. Evergreens will create a wind break too.”
“I can’t afford it,” she said flatly. But she wasn’t bristling anymore. She just seemed sad. I had to admit, it fucking bothered me to see her looking like that.
“I can probably snag some trees from the landscaping crew. And if you need anything else done around here, I could help with that too,” I said, gesturing to a window frame that appeared to be separating from the wall. This place was charming, but it was also two seconds away from falling apart.
She stared at me.
“You would do that? Why?”
“I know you tried to stop the build.”
Her pretty little mouth opened.
“It’s unfair, but you can’t stop the development. I think this whole area is going to be suburban in a couple of years. They want all the land.”
“They tried to buy me out,” she said, finally looking outraged again. “This land has been in my family for generations.”
“Well, it’s only going to get worse. And you are right. It is really loud.” I looked around, warming to my topic. “Lots of little things I could do around here. If you want.”
She chewed her lip thoughtfully. It was hard to explain what the sight of those white little teeth did to me. I wanted to bite her lip for her. I wanted her to bite me.
“Okay.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath as I waited for her answer. I wanted an excuse to come back here.
And it wasn’t just my sense of right and wrong. Well, not much. It was this fire inside me. I’d never been this hot for a woman before. Not even half this hot.
If I were here, I had a much better chance of getting her in the sack. I was sure it was a done deal once I got close to her. It had never been an issue for me before. I’d never even had to try to get a woman. Why would it be now?
I was pleasantly contemplating what the night might bring. Probably would bring, based on my former track record. Her. Me. Bonetown, USA.
“I’ll see you after four.”
She nodded shyly. I took a big sip of coffee and handed the mug back to her. I took one last look at her before leaving. It was still hard to wrap my head around how gorgeous she was. It was almost like she wasn’t real.