“Whoa there, cowboy,” she giggled as she looked up at him.
Brandon wasn’t one to ever take things too seriously, but he gazed at Lenore now without a smile in sight. “I missed you,” he said.
“It sounds like you’re just now realizing it.”
“I am,” he said. “And I really missed working here and being here.”
She reached up and fiddled with the collar on his shirt. “How was the funeral?”
“It was good,” he said. “It’s sad, but it’s also joyous, you know?”
Lenore nodded, but Brandon wasn’t sure if she understood. She kept her gaze focused on her fingers at his throat. “You’re not wearing the gauze, and this scratch looks pretty good.”
“You should haveseenZona fussing over me.” He chuckled. “It’s basically a surface wound.”
Lenore looked up at him and smiled, and an alarm bell went off in Brandon’s mind. “I just want you to—” he started, his mouth getting ahead of his thoughts.
She tilted her head slightly. “You want me to what?”
He’d released the beast now, and Brandon wasn’t sure how to stop it. “I just want you to know that I’m serious about us,” he said. “This isn’t some game or joke to me.”
Lenore’s eyes widened. “Okay,” she said. “I didn’t think it was.”
“Good.” Brandon swallowed, wanting to ask her out again. “I know we don’t have a lot of time to be going to dinner and movies and all that,” he said. “But maybe you could come over to my place tonight and I’ll make you dinner and we can watch a movie on my laptop.” He raised his eyebrows. “What do you think?”
“I think you probably eat dinner about the time I go to bed,” Lenore said. “It’s ten-thirty in the morning already, cowboy.”
“Yeah, I was thinking like eight-thirty.” He grinned at her. “Which is not that late.” He leaned closer. “I’ll let you fall asleep on my couch if you want.”
She scoffed. “You’re not selling this.”
He laughed, glad when she joined in. “Well, think about it, okay?” He stepped back. “I have to get to work before my boss fires me.” He threw her one last flirtatious grin and stepped past her.
“That whole box in the back is for you,” he said over his shoulder. “Load it on top with your logs there and skid-steer it over to your place.” He turned around and walked backward, grinning at her. “Everyone will be here tomorrow at nine to help raise the chicken coop, and Zona is going to be here at ten with the birds.”
Lenore, once again, wore a look as if he’d just hit her with a two-by-four, but she nodded.
“Your garden area looks amazing, Lenny,” he said. “And it looks like you cut enough wood to start the mobile mini coops and your gardening shed.”
“Maybe,” Lenore said, having to yell the word so he could hear her. “I’m gonna finish the last raised bed, fill them with dirt, and then I’ll do some more measuring.”
“Can I come for lunch?” he called.
Lenore finally smiled. “Yeah, I’ll see you at lunch.”
With their reunion out of the way and a date on the horizon, Brandon turned around to walk forward, his goals for the day suddenly clear: finish the chicken coop, start staining the barn, and figure out a plan for his first kiss with Lenore.
“Areyou going to stop for lunch?”
Brandon looked up from where he’d been painting the chicken coop a bright white. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been working since returning to the homestead, but in that moment, his stomach growled and he realized he’d finished the entire coop. So it had been a few hours.
Lenny held a sandwich in her hand, and she extended it toward him.
“I only have a little bit more to go,” he said.
“You need to take a break.” She glanced up into the sky. “Are you wearing sunscreen? And I don’t see any water out here.”
Brandon’s mouth definitely felt a little dry—but that could’ve been because of the sexy woman in front of him, demanding he take a break and come get a drink.
