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A new text came in from Danica, and I grinned as I opened it.
Looking forward to dinner. Where are we going?
I opened up a browser, found the restaurant’s website, then logged in to show my reservation already booked. I took a snapshot of the reservation and sent it to her.
Hope this is okay.
A series of heart-eyed emojis came back, and I laughed again, eliciting a grunting chuckle from Cameron.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Cam said. “It’s just I don’t think I have ever seen you on your phone for more than five minutes total before today, and now you’re lying there giggling like a teenage girl. It’s adorable.”
“Shut up,” I said. “You’re just jealous.”
“Don’t get your panties twisted,” Cam teased again. “I’m perfectly fine.”
“Methinks the lady doth protest too much,” I muttered. Alex laughed at that one, and I went back to the conversation on the phone.
“What are you laughing at?” Cam asked.
“Nothing,” Alex said. “I just think he might have pegged you there.”
“Don’t you start with me,” Cam joked. “We are collectively picking on Kane here. Those are the rules we lived by since we were eight.”
After a bit of time, I got a chance to actually go over things with Cameron and weaseled a little bit more for my investment budget. He was predictably curmudgeonly about it, but eventually with enough reasoning, I got him to allot another five percent to my total, helping clear the way for some of the things Danica had suggested but I didn’t get a chance to implement because it was too costly.
It was extremely helpful that I didn’t have to dip into my own funds to get it done. None of us wanted to invest our own personal money into the business, but we had all already gone in for a fair bit.
There were a few days left until Friday, so there were other things to do and get done before then. As much as I wanted to just sit around and text her all day, I had to get to work and make sure that the next inspector was just as impressed with what we had done as Danica had seemed to be when she was there last. Though, granted, she may have been distracted a bit.
Still, the next person wouldn’t have any reason for leniency on me and would likely be looking under every rock to find something to ding me about if they found out about Danica and me having a relationship beforehand.
So, I set about knocking out everything on Danica’s list that I hadn’t done yet. It was a pretty heavy list, but I was good at my job, and I wanted to prove that. Not just for myself, but for Danica too. I wanted her to be proud of me. It was weird to feel that, but it was true. I wanted someone else to be proud of me that wasn’t my family.
It had been two days since I had been in the office, and I had my phone connected to a power brick that used suction cups to stick to it. It charged it wirelessly, which was nice, but the primary purpose was to keep them together. I often listened to music while I worked, and now with Danica and me texting as often as we did, I was burning through the battery much faster than before.
I sat the phone and the charger down on my cooler and asked the virtual assistant to play eighties music. No matter what kind of mood I was in, eighties music had the ability to perk me up a little, and considering my mood was pretty good already, I hoped it would just energize me to get things done even faster.
There was soil to till and grapevines to prune as we prepared for the harvest. I was excited about it in more ways than one. Not only was I excited to simply have the grapes available and the wine to be crafted out of them, but it was the first set to be completely made up of suggestions of my own with Danica’s. I wanted to harvest them and make a new blend, one that could be named after her.
I got down on my knees in the dirt and began working on the soil. My mind wandered as it tended to when I thought about Danica, and I tried to let myself focus on what we would do when we finally got a chance to be together while my body did the work in the field. It turned out pretty easy, and I got through most of the day’s work without seeming like it took forever.
Considering how quickly the day seemed to go, I was somewhat surprised at how tired I was when quitting time came. A good hot shower and a long night’s sleep were in order. I wanted to be rested and ready for the morning.
