Sure enough, the moment their palms touched, her body became very aware of the man.
To make matters worse, Dameon closed her hand between both of his. “You’re freezing.”
“It’s not exactly warm out here.”
He did the squeeze thing with her hand before letting it go. “At least you’re wearing a coat this time.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “I have gloves in my car.”
Once she dumped her purse in the trunk and put her keys in her pocket, she gloved up and grabbed her clipboard and pen.
“Tell me, Dameon, what do you hope to accomplish today?”
He opened his mouth, closed it . . . put a hand in the air and didn’t utter a word.
In that moment, she knew he was not thinking about the jobsite.
“With the property,” she clarified.
“Right.” He dropped his hand. “The land. For a minute there I thought you’d changed your mind about dinner.”
She turned away from him to hide her smile. “That is not why we’re out here.”
When he was silent, she glanced over her shoulder.
“Right.” He walked in front of her in the direction she’d just come from. “We really need to know the scope of infrastructure to carry out our plan. What pitfalls and problems you foresee that we haven’t taken into account.”
For the next thirty minutes they walked the land, and Grace found herself doing all the talking. She pointed out the road improvements. Considering much of the canyon off the main road was gravel and dirt, it was a given that a big part of the build would be concrete. None of the homes were on sewer. The city hadn’t built the area with that in mind. The small strip mall that was half occupied was as close as the sewer system ran. “But your desire is to add a commercial space at the far end. That’s going to require tying into the city system.”
Dameon nodded several times. “Some of the properties have wells.”
“And almost all of them are used for irrigation, if at all. While the water table is high through this area, that doesn’t mean the wells capture much of anything. I wouldn’t count on them. Not unless we have ten years of heavy rain.”
They both looked up at the sky that had turned dark gray and threatened exactly what she had said. “And speaking of rain, this is a bigger ordeal.” She pointed to the wash.
“The watershed from the canyon,” he said for her.
“Right. We’ll need soil reports, but I can tell you now, this is a big reason why this canyon hasn’t been developed to the extent you’re trying to do.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He was scanning the landscape as if he knew exactly what she was going to say. “You need to give the water a place to go. The people who live in the homes on the other side of this often go for weeks at a time without crossing it. The residents out here have tractors and big trucks for a reason.”
“We’re going to need bridges and culverts to deal with the drainage,” he said.
“I hope whoever you paid to scout this area knew what they were doing.”
“They did.” He looked at her and smiled.
She moved her gaze to her feet and avoided his eyes.
“What about the zoning changes?” he asked.
“I’m sure you’re aware that this is residential with an agricultural overlay, giving the residents the right to have farm animals or grow their own grapes.”
“I don’t see a lot of farming here.”
“No, but many have a handful of chickens, the occasional horse or goat. But they can have cows or alpacas or any of the like if they choose. If you attempt to take that away from the neighbors that are here, you’re going to get kickback. And chances are you’ll lose. Not to mention it’s going to take time to work the system.”
“We really want to break ground by spring.” His voice had dropped and his eyes didn’t stop taking in the landscape.
“Removing the agricultural overlay in the housing development you’re putting up is doable. Or you can leave it and put it in the HOA that barnyard animals are against the rules. Which brings us to the next concern. The amount of homes you’re proposing.” She stopped walking and looked at the space around them. “In the past ten, fifteen years, houses have sprung up like weeds. Each subdivision crammed in closer to the next. As people inch out in areas