Awakened by His Touch by Nikki Logan Read Free Book Online Page B

today wasn’t going to be all about him and Laney. ‘Many hands make light work?’
    ‘Owen and I work together on the remote hives,’ she said. ‘We’re checking two off-sites today.’
    If there had been any question that the intimate truce of last night was going to continue today, he’d just had his answer. Laney Morgan was all about business this morning.
    ‘We’re going to take the back gate out of our property so you’ll get to see more of Morgan land. Come on.’
    She stepped past him and brought a white stick out from behind her leg. The first time he’d seen her with one. The first time he’d actually thought of her as blind. And instantly he understood why she didn’t use it more often.
    ‘No Wilbur today?’
    She swept the stick ahead of her as though it were a natural part of her body, pausing only to slap the folded overalls and hood she’d been clutching towards him.
    ‘Captain Furry-Pants has the day off. I think three guides would be excessive.’
    Owen was already in the front of the Morgans’ branded utility.
    ‘So what will we be doing today?’
    His question paused her just before she turned and felt her way up onto the tray of the truck, and she waited as he clambered up behind her. Once they were both on board, safely wedged between large, empty hives, she knocked twice on the window of the cab and Owen hit the accelerator. Hard.
    They lurched up to speed.
    ‘Today we’re checking for beetle and propolis. We do these hives once a month.’
    ‘Propo what?’
    ‘Bee spit. They produce it to patch up any tiny holes in their hive and keep bacteria out. Humans use it for everything from treating burns to conditioning stringed instruments. Every one of our hives has a single propolis frame in it and the bees will totally cover it a couple of times in a year. We’re exchanging those frames today.’
    Bee spit. The potential for new markets was greater than he’d imagined. And as long as those obscure markets were buying, Morgan’s was selling.
    Man, they were so the right client for him.
    They rumbled through the back roads of the property between fields full of bright, fragrant wildflowers and then skirted the edges of dense, tall forest.
    ‘National Park,’ Laney said when he queried. ‘Between it and our own lands, it means our bees have a massive tract to forage in and we can leave hives right on our perimeter.’
    The ute hit a dip in the road, sending Helena crashing across his lap. A man could get used to this catching and steadying thing. She slid to sit at right angles instead, bracing her feet and her back on the hives packed either side of them. The move meant she wouldn’t lurch into him again—a loss—but it meant her long legs bridged his.
    Surprise benefit.
    ‘You really couldn’t get a more idyllic location—’ he started, over the sound of the motor.
    ‘Thank you. That’s what I think.’
    He’d been about to add ...for your business, but is that what she’d meant? Or did she just love and value the property because it was home? She couldn’t see its beauty, so what was it, exactly, that she loved about it?
    ‘Someone knew what they were doing when they started farming here.’
    ‘My great-grandfather—though Morgan’s was mostly a dairy operation then. Mum and Dad focussed on the apiary side of things when they went organic.’
    When their daughter was born sightless.
    He filled the rest of the journey with questions about yields and methods and percentile measures and she spoke as comfortably about numbers as she did about bee husbandry. There wasn’t a single question she couldn’t answer.
    ‘You’re being amazingly open today.’
    ‘Given how amazingly closed I was yesterday?’
    Well...yeah . Before their big discussion under the half-moon. ‘Yesterday I felt sure you were going to send me packing.’
    ‘I see no harm in helping you understand our business. Besides, I’m under instructions from Dad to be civil.’
    Oh. Right . ‘Not my