***
It should be illegal for a manStone’s size to cuddle a little puppy the way he was right now. The action was extremely heartwarming, filling her with a weird, fuzzy feeling.
“What … umm …aboutthe future?” Stevie asked, doing her best to hold his gaze and not watch as his big, work-rough hands gently petted Jäger’s head.
She was kinda jealous. No, make that a lot jealous. Since Friday night, she’d been jonesing to feel this man’s hands on her. She’d gone so far as to declare that the next time she was in the same room with him, she was going to ensure he had the opportunity.
Of course, she hadn’t intended to see him in her office. But, hey, no one ever said this place was off-limits.
“I finished the business proposal.” He reached for something beside him, then held out his iPad.
She took it from him and placed it on the desk, surprised by the disappointment that filled her. He’d honestly come here to talk business, and she was already undressing him with her eyes.
“I was hopin’ you’d look it over. Change what you think needs to be changed. Maybe give me some advice.”
She shoved down the disappointment and resigned herself to being an adult for a little while. “This is the one for Curtis and Lorrie?”
“Yeah.”
Stevie tapped the screen, and it brought up the keypad for his password. She held it out to him.
He looked up. “I’ve got nothin’ to hide. The password’s the date of the night the three of us were in the barn.”
Her eyebrows snapped up. “Seriously?”
He smirked. “Is that you stallin’ because you don’t remember the date?”
“No,” she blurted. “It was May fifteenth.”
“Two digits of the year,” he added when she started to type the password.
She keyed in the number, including09for the year, and found the presentation was already pulled up. It surprised her. She’d expected to see a half-finished Word document outlining a few things he intended to accomplish if he got the land.
That wasn’t what she found.
Stone had put tremendous effort into compiling this information. His business acumen was far more developed than she would’ve given him credit for.
“It could probably be more in-depth,” Stone noted. “But I was considering my audience. I didn’t want to overwhelm my aunt and uncle at the beginning. I figure my best option is to give them enough information to make a decision, but then I’ll keep them in the loop as I move forward.”
“No,” Stevie said, still staring at the screen as she flipped from one slide to the next. “This is actually… wow. It’s really good.” She looked up. “And these numbers are accurate?”
“Based on my calculations, yeah. Start-up will be slow, obviously. Crops take time, but I thought we could offset the lack of revenue by building the farmers’ market and allowing people to rent space. It won’t supplement all the potential revenue, but it’s something.”
Stevie wasn’t sure what to say. She wasn’t even sure why he wanted her to review it. The man had created something far more in-depth than anything she’d done before.
She flipped to another slide, and a gasp escaped her.
“Did you draw this?”
Stone stood up, leaning forward to look at the screen. “Yeah. There are several pages. It was just my initial idea of what it could look like when we’re done.”
Forget building a farmers’ market; the guy needed to do something with his drawing skills. He’d created a 3D mockup of the farmers’ market and the surrounding land. He’d even incorporated D & S in the drawing since they occupied a portion of the land he would acquire.
She squinted before remembering she could zoom in on the image, which she did. This allowed her to see a smaller section adjacent to the property she and Nico were leasing from Curtis Walker.
“Are these…?”
“Greenhouses,” Stone supplied, once again sitting with Jäger in his lap. “I thought that would be the best location for them. Depending on what you wanted to grow, you’d also have access to them for the landscaping company.”
