“We’re not gossiping,” Ron says. “Who says we’re gossiping?”
“Nothing up here but us hot dogs,” Isaac adds. “Oh, look, there’s someone I’ve been wanting to talk to.”
“Me too,” McCauley says.
They scurry off, leaving me and Ron. Ron abandons me with, “This cooking is really getting hard. I need to focus. Sorry, Pane, but you’ll have to excuse me.”
Rowe smiles softly at me. “Come on. There’s someone I want you to meet.”
Meet?There’s someone she wants me to meet? She hasn’t spoken to me of her own free will in days, and now she’s introducing me to someone?
She reaches out and tugs on my fingers, and that’s when I know she must be tipsy, because she has also avoided touching me since the kiss.
She leads me to a tall man in his early thirties with dreadlocked hair pulled into a man bun. He has a sculpted beard and wears a linen shirt that’s open to his navel. Braided leather necklaces hang halfway down his chest.
He looks like a sex god, and I instantly feel the bite of competition hitting my veins like adrenaline.
Rowe motions to the man. “Donner Wright, meet Pane Maddox.”
“Nice to meet you, man,” Donner says, shaking my hand. “Rowe tells me that you’re responsible for the renovation.” His gaze sweeps up and down her in way that makes my blood turn to burning lava. “The farm looks great.”
“It’s shaping up,” I say coldly.
Rowe glares at me but smiles at Donner, which really pisses me off. “Donner runs the off-grid yurt community outside of town. He says some of the men out there have been looking for a project to help with.”
“Yeah.” He runs a hand down his sandy beard. “We need supplies, like lumber. We’ll take scraps—and the men are willing to be free labor for it.”
“Off-grid community? How’s that work?”
He chuckles, placing a hand to his flat belly. Skin keeps peeking through his unbuttoned shirt—and Rowe keeps glancing at his chest.
“Well ...” He runs a hand over his head. Rowe studies his every movement. I can practically see the drool dripping from her mouth. “We’ve been trying to figure out a way to bring in electricity that’s not intrusive to the natural surroundings.”
“So no solar panels.”
“Right, or wind. We’ve just been living without, but the whole point of the community is to live sustainably, and one of the things we want is environmentally friendly power. It’s just taking a while for us to get it.”
Rowe keeps staring at this man’s chest. It’s burning me up. Driving me nuts. She keeps looking, and he keeps smiling at me and at her. It’s maddening.
All I want to do is button up his shirt and send the man packing, but I need bodies to get this project complete.
I fold my arms, nod hard. “Do your guys have building experience?”
“Oh yeah, I do for sure. I’ll bring a few that I know do, too.”
Great. He’s a sex godanda man who can use a hammer. Perfect. Just what I need.
I attempt to tame the scowl that I know is smeared across my face. Rowe keeps pumping her eyebrows at me, silently telling me to put away my mean face.
I do what I can to school it and extend my hand. “We look forward to you helping. There’s only one thing ...”
Donner shakes my hand, smiling with his set of perfect sex-god teeth. “What’s that?”
“We have a dress code. No open shirts.”
With that, I walk away.
