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Her defenses melted and she leaned against the white bark of a cottonwood for support. “Are you always going to fight me?” she asked.
“Only when I have to.” He waded out of the stream and stood next to her, kicking off his boots.
She tried not to notice the way the sweat ran down his throat, or the way his hair curled at his neck, or the fluid movement of his shoulder muscles when he leaned back against one of the lower branches of a scrub oak. “And when is that?” she asked, her throat suddenly tight. “When Caleb tells you to?”
His jaw hardened and he stretched out an arm along the branch to break off a small twig and rotate it between his fingers. “Contrary to what you think, I don’t do everything Caleb suggests.”
“You could have fooled me.”
His eyes stared deep into hers and her chest seemed suddenly tight. Breathing was nearly impossible. “Why do you hate him so much?”
She smiled despite the tension charging the summer air. “Hate’s too strong a word,” she said, remembering that Cody had accused her of hating her neighbor earlier in the morning.
“What would you call it?”
“I don’t trust him.”
“So I gathered.” He cocked his head to the side. “But you never really said why.”
“He’s done a few things that, though I can’t prove . . . I’m convinced—Wait a minute. Why should I tell you?”
“Because I asked. Look, Dani, I’m not against you.”
“That’s hard to believe.”
“Is it?”
She stared into the honesty of his clear blue eyes and wanted to trust him with all of her heart. Instead she shrugged. “I thought I already explained all that.”
“Not really. Why are you so dead-set against Summer Ridge?”
“I’m not against the resort, not really. I’m against the fact that come hell or high water, Caleb Johnson thinks he can manipulate me into selling my property. It might sound corny, but this land means a lot to me.”
“Meaning that you want a higher price.”
She ran her fingers through her hair and sat near the edge of the stream. Linking her arms around her knees, she stared at the rushing water. “You’d better watch out, McEnroe. You’re starting to sound like him.”
Picking a blade of dry grass and chewing on it, he sat next to her with his bare feet sticking out in front of him, his thighs nearly brushing hers. “So if it’s not money, what’s the problem?”
Dani glanced into his concerned eyes. “Did Caleb tell you I was willing to sell some of the acreage to him?”
“No.”
“About two years ago, I think,” she said remembering the meeting at Caleb’s house. “He’d even agreed to the sale. But then he
changed his mind, he wasn’t satisfied; he wanted the whole farm.”
“And you didn’t want to sell.”
“Not all of it. My great-great-grandparents homesteaded here and I wanted to keep it in the family.” She picked up a handful of dirt and let it slip between her fingers. “This land is all my folks ever had and they worked until they dropped to keep it.”
“So you’ve been preserving the heritage—for what, your son?”
“If he wants it.”
“And what if he doesn’t?”
Dani frowned and clasped her hands together. “I’ve thought about that, and I suppose if Cody inherits it and wants to sell, he has that right.” She pushed the hair out of her eyes and smiled. “It certainly won’t matter to me then.”
