“Power washing’s done. I’ll get started on the next item on your list before the guys come back with the food. You’re in charge of the paperwork while you rest, ice, and elevate.”

He started for the doorway but then paused.

“Oh, and, Mags? If I catch you stomping around, trying to tackle some job you’re already paying someone else to do, I will tie you to your chair.”

LeafBritneyALoan: Maggie’s toe legit looks like it’s going to fall off. SO GROSS!

FlowerGurl4Life: OMG! The pics of Maggie with the little girl she met in town. Dying! The cutest! Maggie Nichols is the NICEST HUMAN EVER. Also so excited to see the first episode of the new house!

DaaaaaamnGirl: That toe is definitely broken. You need this new healing paste from Organiks For Life. It’s lifechanging. DM me for a sample!

18

18

For the rest of the weekend, Maggie followed physician assistant’s orders and rested, iced, and elevated. Besides giving the promised tour to Mateo, his wife, and Isabella from the restaurant, she’d used the unscheduled downtime to crack open A. Campbell’s first novel. Historical western fiction had never made it onto her To Be Read list before. But she’d found it entertaining all the same, even going so far as to put a plug for Sunset on the Horizon up on Instagram.

May began, and the cure to a Silas Wright Lust Fugue, Maggie found, was to never be alone with the man. To be fair, it wasn’t difficult, since he was still just as mad at her as she was at him. It had been over a week since their fight-kiss. And Sy’s stupid ultimatum.

They glowered at each other whenever the job required them to be in the same vicinity. Though Maggie wasn’t sure how much of it was mad and how much of it was a ridiculous desire to rip each other’s clothes off. Either way, it seemed safer to avoid the man.

Elton, Bitterroot Landscapes’ second-in-command, had taken over the daily walk-throughs, since his boss and Maggie couldn’t seem to get along long enough to not take a few swipes at each other.

Thanks to her jacked-up toe, she’d had a lot of downtime to think about all the wild and wonderful ways Sy could use those big hands and hard mouth on her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d ever been this hung up on a guy. They weren’t even dating. It felt like an out-of-control teenage crush. On steroids. In an inferno.

Even when he wasn’t on-site, she was thinking about him. It was fucking annoying. She wasn’t going to apologize to him for looking out for herself. Not even if an apology meant Silas would get off his high horse and into her pants. She had morals. She had ethics. She had…lady blue balls.