Graham rolled off her and swept her up into his arms.Again. But Ro figured she was lucky he wasn’t tossing her over his shoulder.
He walked to a door on the right side of the room that Ro hadn’t yet noticed. He knocked on it, but when there was no answer, he opened it and carefully lowered her to the floor. She steadied herself with a hand on the counter and asked, “Where does the other door go?” Ro nodded to the door on the opposite side of the bathroom.
“Zach’s room.”
“He lives here, too?”
“We’ve lived together for a long time. It made sense to do the same here. We’ve all doubled up in the cabins.”
“Okay, thanks. You can go.”
“Holler when you’re done. Don’t even think about trying to walk on that ankle, woman.”
Ro huffed, and he left.
She quickly took care of business in what appeared to be a composting toilet.What hadn’t they thought of?She hurried to pull her sweats up, not thrilled about the idea of Zach barging in and seeing her on the toilet. Not a sexy pose.
Wait. Why did she care if Zach thought she was sexy?She tried to tell herself that the errant thought was an anomaly, but she didn’t like to lie, especially not first thing in the morning. It set the wrong tone for the day.
Ro hopped toward the door and opened it, finding Graham waiting on the other side.
As he leaned down to pick her up again, he said, “You don’t listen real well, do you?”
“Oh, I listen. I just still do whatever the hell I want. Thought you’d figured that out by now.”
She was a sassy one, Zach thought, as he met Graham and Rowan in the front room.
“You sick of being carried around yet?” he asked.
“I don’t do meek and helpless very well,” she replied, smiling.
“How about a ride instead?” he offered, making the motions to show that he meant a piggyback ride.
Zach caught Graham’s glare, but focused on Rowan instead.
“Ummm ... sure. Might as well mix it up.”
Zach figured she’d go for it, if for no other reason than to needle Graham. He crouched down in front of where Graham held her in his arms and felt her climb on. Graham didn’t say a word in protest, just made sure she was settled before he let her go. Graham was a good man; one of the very best he’d ever known. And even Graham had to realize Rowan needed to be comfortable with both of them if she were to ever get on board with the plan that was collectively percolating in their brains.
“Hold on tight, sugar. Let’s go get some grub.” She gripped him around the shoulders and neck tighter and wrapped her legs around his waist. He turned to throw a triumphant look at Graham, but Graham was just shaking his head, as if to say,you tricky son of a bitch.Which would be well deserved, because Zach was a tricky SOB.
As they headed out of the cabin, he pointed out some of the various buildings to her.
“Over there is the bathhouse, which you saw last night.” He gestured off to the right. “And beyond that, closer to the outside wall, is the greenhouse and the livestock barn.”
He could feel Rowan craning her head for a better look. “We can check it out after breakfast, if you’d like.”
She didn’t respond. “You nodding back there? I can’t hear your head rattle.”
“That’d be fine. What kind of livestock do you keep?”
“A small herd of dairy goats and chickens, mainly. There are a few pigs in a pen just outside the walls, but those won’t be around much longer. It’s almost butchering time. And then there’s the deer.”
“Deer?”
“We’ve got about eighty total. We were just gearing up for hunting season when the grid went down. Another few days and we would have had hunting parties bunking here, too.”
“Hunting season? That doesn’t start until October first. Right?” Ro asked.