‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘It means it feels as if you don’t like people knowing you too well.’
‘I’m private. There’s nothing wrong with that, or is that illegal in these parts?’
‘No. But if you’re planning to stay, you might want to consider being a little bit less—’ He bit off the rest of the sentence.
‘Less what?’ I prompted him.
‘It doesn’t matter. I need to go and see the blokes and make a plan.’ He took a step to the side to go around me and I matched it. ‘Felicity…’
‘I’m waiting for an answer.’
‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘It does to me. I like to know where I stand with people.’
‘Right now, you’re standing in my way.’
‘And I have no intention of moving until you finish your sentence.’
The idea that I was holding Jesse up was laughable. As he’d already pointed out, he could in fact have swung me over his shoulder with very little effort. For a moment, I’d lowered my guard but now it was securely back in place. I had a pretty good idea what the man actually thought about me, but I wanted him to have the balls to actually say it.
He gave a heartfelt sigh.
‘Jesse? You there, mate?’ A call came from outside.
He looked down at me. I raised a brow and stayed in place.
‘Reserved. OK? A bit less reserved.’
‘Is that a polite way of saying stuck up?’
His brows quickly drew together. ‘No.’ And with that, he stepped around me before I could block him again and pulled open the front door.
‘Frank.’ I heard him greet the other man. ‘Thanks for coming so quickly.’
I shook off my surprise and hurried to the front door to follow Jesse out.
‘Hello.’ I raised a hand in greeting, suddenly feeling very much the outsider as I took in the faces of several men who had all been looking up at my roof. ‘I’m Felicity. Thank you all for coming.’
‘No problem. Jesse’s always doing stuff for other people and it’s rare he ever calls in his favours so our pleasure, love.’
Jesse was squinting at the roof and determinedly not joining in the conversation or looking at me.
‘I’m Frank.’ The man stepped forward, holding out a meaty hand, which I shook. ‘Sorry. Probably not supposed to call people “love” these days. Old habits die hard.’
‘It’s fine.’ I waved it away. And it was. Let’s face it, I’d been called far worse than that in my time.
He smiled and began introducing me to the other men.
‘Not the greatest welcome to the area, was it?’ one of the men said, indicating the rogue tree with a side tilt of his head. ‘Hope it’s not put you off us?’ he added with a wide, cheeky smile.
His mate gave him a shove. ‘Ignore Romeo here. Thinks he’s God’s gift to women, he does. But we’re glad you’re all right.’
‘Thank you. Me too, although I think that most of the credit goes to Jesse.’
Jesse shook his head. ‘Not at all.’ My words were instantly dismissed. ‘Right, shall we get on with this, then?’
