"It's a long story," I said lightly tracing the seatbelt shaped bruise that ran diagonally across his chest. "Does this still hurt?"
"You're avoiding my question," he smiled. "And yes, it still hurts, but less since Verity gave me that ointment to put on it."
"Did she give you arnica?" I asked running my fingers down the length of his arm and twining my fingers with his.
"I don't know what it is, but it's helped with the pain and the swelling," he said as he squeezed my fingers. "Grace, are you still in love with Gabe?"
"What?"
"Are you still in love with Gabe?" he repeated.
"Oh my God, no!" I cried as I threw my head back and laughed. Adam watched me with a dark look on his face until I said, "Gabe and I were sweethearts when we were kids, but that's been over for a long time. He's like a brother to me, but he believes that I've just taken a wrong road and that if he's patient enough, I'll return."
"Will you?"
"No, it's not like that, Adam," I said searching his eyes as I tried to decide whether to tell him the whole story or not. There was part of me that didn't want him to know about my other life, but I wasn't sure why that was. "It's complicated."
"Isn't it always," he said looking away. I knew I was perilously close to shutting him down if I didn't say something.
"Adam, how can I help you do what you came down here to do?" I asked trying to push the conversation in another direction.
"Nice diversion tactic," he said with a small smile. He kissed me again and then said, "Look, I need to sell at least ten of these turbines in order for my company to be able to sign a contract with the manufacturers, but your bishop doesn't want anything to do with this project. So unless he changes his mind, we're done."
"What would it mean to sell twenty of them?" I asked, uncertain about what the whole process involved and scared that he'd aimed too high. Most Amish people didn't have a whole lot of extra cash laying around to invest, so asking them for money would be pointless.
"I need to be able to place at least twenty turbines on farmland to get the wind farm going and be able to sell the excess back to the power company," he explained as he stroked my arm with his thumb. I could feel the heat rising between my legs as he talked. "The crazy part is that it doesn't require any investment from the people who agree to let us put the turbines in their fields. We pay them rent according to how much energy is generated on their land."
&
nbsp; "So, what are we talking about? A couple hundred dollars a month?" I asked as I reached up and stilled his hand.
"Oh, Grace, no! We're talking five to eight thousand dollars a year," he said adding, "Per turbine."
"Wait, you're telling me that you simply want permission to construct the turbines on farmland and that you'll pay the people who allow it?" I said stunned by the revelation.
"Yeah, didn't I tell you that before?"
"No, you most certainly did not," I laughed. "How much land do you need?"
"If we do it on farmland, we only need five-hundred fifty feet between each turbine," he said lapsing into the specifics of the project and tracing the outline for wind farms on my bare skin. "In residential areas, there has to be fifteen-hundred feet between each turbine and any buildings. That makes it almost impossible to generate any real power in the suburbs."
"So how many could you put on our land?" I asked as a spark of an idea began burning in my mind.
"How many acres do you have?"
"About twenty-five acres," I said holding my breath as he did the calculations in his head.
"That's eight turbines, so conservatively you could make about twenty-four to thirty-thousand a year from the turbines alone," he said. My heart skipped a beat as I realized that this could be the solution to our problems.
"Is that guaranteed income?" I asked.
"Well, it should be, but there's always an 'act of God' clause in every turbine contract," he said as he brought my hand up to his lips and kissed it. "Stuff we can't predict and that might mean the payments are delayed or rolled over into the next year's installment."
"So, in other words, it's guaranteed until it's not," I said as I calculated what this might mean for the farm and the store.
"What are you thinking, Grace?" Adam asked as he watched me closely.
"I'm thinking that I think I need to help you sell the turbine idea to the community," I said. "I want it on our farm, but we won't be big enough to meet your goals."