Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 57897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
He shook his head slightly. “It’s alright.”
“No,” I said insistently. “It’s not alright. You didn’t deserve me talking to you like that. Or ignoring you when you called and texted. Or leaving you in the middle of the night without saying anything. I shouldn’t have done any of that. I should have asked you about the panties when I saw them and let you explain. Or at least been willing to answer your calls and let you tell me what was going on. I’m sorry for the way I acted and what I said to you. I was just so afraid of getting hurt.”
Jason nodded. “I understand.” We pulled back from each other just enough to be able to look into each other’s eyes. He stroked a piece of my hair away from my face. “I was afraid of that too.”
Heat flickered between us, and I couldn’t deny the intense tug that still existed toward Jason. He leaned forward slightly toward me, and I reciprocated. We met in the middle, our lips brushing softly against each other at first. The kiss grew deeper and more passionate. Soon we were pressed together in the middle of the couch, our arms wrapped around each other, kissing deeply. Things got hot quickly, and I forced myself to stop and pull away from him.
I was breathless and took a second to make my mind clear. Jason looked at me with questions in his eyes, and I flattened my hands on his chest to keep his attention and let him know everything was alright even though I stopped us.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head. “Nothing’s wrong. I just think we need to take a step back.”
“Why? I don’t want to take a step back.”
The grin on his face was such a heart-melting combination of adorable and sexy I nearly gave in to it but forced myself to stay under control.
“You said you were sent here on official business by your cousin Carter. You should probably go ahead and get on with that. Since it’s your first day, you don’t want to disappoint him already,” I said.
Jason let out a sigh. “You’re right. Okay.” He straightened up and cleared his throat, going into his professional mode. It made me giggle, but I figured I should try to be professional about it as well, so I settled in to listen to him. “As you know, Carter owns a logging business with a couple of his best friends. They do a lot of work up on the mountains and have gotten really successful. They are very interested in your land.”
I nodded. “The attorney who called me to tell me I’d inherited the farm from my mother’s aunt mentioned a logging company offered to buy the land.”
“Officially, Carter has sent me to offer our services to clear the land and get rid of the excess trees. Then to also ask if you would be interested in selling some or all of it to them,” he said.
He didn’t sound like he was trying to be particularly persuasive. There was no strength of belief behind his words, but he was there to deliver the message because it was what his cousin, now his boss as well, wanted him to do. I nodded and stood.
“Come on,” I said.
“Where are we going?” Jason asked.
“I think we should take a walk around the land. I want to show it to you. And there’s a lot of it I haven’t even seen for myself yet.”
We left the trailer and made our way along a path in the woods toward the rest of the farm. As we walked, Jason looked around, taking in his surroundings the same way I had when I came out to look at the house.
“You said this place used to be a farm?” he asked.
It wasn’t so much a question as it was an invitation to tell him more about it. I nodded.
“Christmas trees. When it was in operation my mother’s aunts owned it. None of them ever married, so this was their whole life. It’s really big. Bigger than I even realized it was. I mean, the lawyer told me how many acres it is and everything, but I couldn’t really wrap my mind around it, you know? It’s not like I’ve ever owned that much land. Or any land. I couldn’t even process how big that much space would look when I was actually standing in it. There are several fields where the trees were grown, an open area where there used to be a shop and a bonfire ring. A lot of woods. And that big, beautiful house,” I said.
“Have you gone into it?”
I nodded and looked over at him with a hint of a smile. “I had to do something to fill my weekend.” Jason rolled his eyes a little, and I laughed. “I wanted to see it. I didn’t know anything about it other than what I’d seen when driving past it. It’s amazing. Overgrown and definitely suffering from not having anyone living in it for so many years, but there’s so much potential there.