Organically Yours: Sanctuary, Book Five by Abbie Zanders (classic books for 11 year olds .TXT) 📗

to move to New York City. However, instead of getting Heff off his ass, as he’d intended, it had the opposite effect. Heff had argued that Doc’s analogy was only relevant if Doc’s feelings for Tina were similar to the ones Heff had for Sandy.

Which, of course, was a ridiculous comparison. By the time Sandy had gone to New York, she and Heff had already created a bond. They’d spent time together. Gotten to know each other. Slept together.

Doc had spoken to Tina three times. Three extremely limited, topical exchanges. Nothing on par with the level of sharing Heff and Sandy had engaged in. In fact, Doc had had longer, more revealing conversations with the checker at the grocery store in town than he’d had with Tina.

More importantly, when Doc had suggested something more, something as innocuous as coffee or dinner beyond the Sanctuary property line, she’d shut him down.

So ... yeah, he was steering clear of the dining room, the greenhouses, and the orchard on Sundays, hoping to avoid any further awkwardness.

Keeping Tina out of his sights was easy. Keeping her out of his mind? Not so much. Just knowing she was nearby was like a siren’s call, and that bothered him, not that he’d admit that to Heff or anyone else. How had she managed to get under his skin so quickly and with such minimal effort?

He stood and stretched, welcoming the tiny pops of pain as he attempted to get his spine and neck back into proper alignment. Perhaps he’d just go for a walk, see if her truck was still parked in front of the main building. He’d stick to the trees, nothing but a shadow among shadows. If anyone did happen to see him on the security cams, he could just say he was doing a routine perimeter check.

If he spotted Tina’s truck in the front lot, he’d continue on his way, maybe head over to the new weight room and get in a quick workout. If he didn’t, he’d go inside the main building and see what kind of progress Cage was making on that 3-D mine map. They’d explored several offshoots the prior week, one of which seemed to lead dangerously close to the small lake on Sanctuary property. After that, maybe he’d see if anyone was up for a game of pool or something.

Doc grabbed a flannel shirt from the half-dozen or so hanging just inside the door, prepared to do just that. But when he opened the door, the object of his current obsession was standing there, hand raised, poised to knock.

“Hey,” she said, stepping back off the wooden stoop in surprise.

Naturally, he reached out to keep her from falling. “Hey. What’s up?”

“I thought we could talk.” She held up a box, one of those reusable takeout containers Kate sent him back to his trailer with sometimes. “I brought food. Can I come in?”

His first thought was to say no because being alone in a trailer in the woods with Tina didn’t seem like such a good idea. It was his personal space and decidedly more intimate than the public diner he’d considered taking her to.

And yet ... she was looking up at him with those pale blue eyes, and curiosity won out over good judgment.

He stepped back, giving her room to enter. “Sure. Come on in.”

She wiped her feet on the mat and stepped up into the trailer, stopping just far enough inside for him to close the door behind her.

“How’d you find this place?” he asked.

“Sandy walked me out.”

He would be having a word with Sandy about that later. Heff, too.

“Nice,” she said, taking in the space. “So, this is where you live, huh?”

He nodded, wondering what she really thought. It was a modest trailer, nothing like the main building or the custom cabins Smoke, Heff, Mad Dog, and Cage had built for themselves and their women. And probably nothing like she was accustomed to. “It’s not much, but it works for me.”

“I like it. It’s cozy. I like cozy. I live in a caretaker’s cottage myself.”

That was news to him. When analyzing the satellite scans, he might have zoomed in on the Obermacher farm homestead. It was practically a mansion with numerous outbuildings. Naturally, he’d assumed Tina lived in one of them.

“Why a caretaker’s cottage?”

Her lips curled upward as she tossed his own words back at him. “It works for me.”

He gestured toward the table and remembered his manners. “Please, sit down. May I take your coat?”

“Yes, thanks.” She put the box on the table, then peeled off her jacket and vest, and handed them to him.

He hung them up next to his shirts, quietly appreciating the clean, fresh, feminine scent that clung to them.

As before, she wore jeans and a top that accentuated her fit, athletic physique. He willed himself not to think about that. Whatever unusual energy he’d felt around her before seemed even more potent in the enclosed space, making his heart beat a little faster, his blood run a little warmer. That didn’t happen around anyone else. Only her.

She made no move to unpack the food, which suggested that she was more interested in talking than she was in eating. That was fine with him. He’d take his cues from her, especially since he had no idea what this unexpected visit was about.

“You said you wanted to talk to me about something?” he prompted.

“Yes.” She seemed almost as nervous as he’d been when he first asked her out. “I’ve been thinking about what you said. About going out, I mean. I don’t think I gave you a proper answer.”

“You said you were busy,” he reminded her, careful to keep any hint of disappointment out of his voice.

“I am. Running The Mill and the orchards is more than a full-time job; it’s my life. I don’t have a lot of free time, so I tend to be protective about the little bit I do.”

If she was trying to lessen the sting of rejection, telling him