by Tia Siren
“Helen?” I called out my open office door.
Yes, I was one of the biggest real estate sellers in the county, but I kept a small office. There was no need for a big, fancy office to eat up profits, taking money directly out of my pocket.
“You called?” Helen said, popping her head in the doorway, her notepad in hand.
“Yes. Can you get the developer on the phone and set up a time to go over numbers within the next couple days?”
She jotted the request down on her notepad and looked up. “Anything else?”
I shook my head. “Just let him know we need to get this deal firmed up right away. I expect to have some challenges, and I want as much detail as we can get so we’re in a position to move forward quickly.”
She gave me that look. It was a look of condemnation, but I knew she would never say the words. I paid her too well.
“I can do that. Why the rush?” she asked. “In case the developer asks,” she quickly added.
I raise an eyebrow. She wasn’t asking for the developer. We both knew that.
“I expect his family will put up a bit of a stink over this whole deal. It’s a fight they can’t win. It’s only going to waste time. I don’t want the developer thinking I can’t uphold my end of the bargain and get that land secured,” I said.
“Oh.”
“Oh?”
“Nothing. I’ll go make the call.”
I watched as she walked out of my office. She was trying to make me feel guilty. Helen was a good woman. She had lived in the area most of her life and was fond of the Parks. Everyone was. I knew I was making myself a bit of an enemy of the state with this deal, but people would forget eventually. They wanted the growth, and for that to happen, we needed housing.
The deal had to be close to done before Ashley got into town. I just knew she would throw a wrench in my plans. That was what she did. She came in, ruined my life, and then ran away. Not this time. This time I was going to be the one who ruined her life. I wanted to hurt her as badly as she had hurt me. This was the only way I knew how to get it done.
It was probably wrong, immature, and a little nasty, but I didn’t care. My heart still had a hole in it—a hole she had bored into it. She didn’t get to run away, start a new life in New York, and forget all about me and our time together.
A sound at the door grabbed my attention. It was Helen.
“Yes?”
“I spoke with the secretary. She says you can meet him at his office tomorrow. His schedule is full, but he can squeeze you in for about fifteen minutes. I took the appointment. Is that going to work for you?”
I nodded. “I’ll make it work.”
“Do you need me to put anything together for the meeting?”
“No. I can take care of it. Do I have any appointments today?” I asked, hoping she would say no even though that meant I was hoping not to get paid.
“Your schedule is clear. I did have one person call and ask about that one old house at the edge of town, the one you’re trying to sell as a commercial property. The woman asked a lot of questions but didn’t want to see it.”
“Okay. If she calls again, try to get her to meet me out there. That house is an eyesore. The sooner someone buys it and fixes it up, the better it will be for my other deal. People will have to drive by that place to get to the condos that will be built,” I said, thinking about new ways to market the property.
She rolled her eyes. “It would just be a shame for them to have to look at something that wasn’t pretty and perfect.”
I laughed. “We are selling a dream. That place can go either small commercial or residential. It would be great if someone bought it and turned it into a market or something that would help attract residents to the condos. They want the convenience of everything close by but still want country living,” I said, shaking my head.
“I wish they’d see they are ruining the country by making it the city. Wonder when they’ll figure that out,” she said with disgust.
“Hopefully not until the deal is done and we get paid.” I winked.
She waved a hand at me. “You’re terrible.”
I laughed. “Terribly rich.”
Another eye roll, then she turned to leave.
“Thank you, Helen.”
“You’re welcome,” she said in a voice that made it clear she was not happy to be a part of this deal.
She’d get over it when she got a fat bonus when we closed the deal. I knew I was looking forward to a windfall of cash and building up my nest egg. Helen was a good woman, and I knew I was pushing her moral compass a little beyond what she was comfortable with, but she also knew the Parks’ farm was going under. Either I bought it or someone else did. I didn’t give Tanner cancer. I didn’t ruin his farm. That had been his children, a series of bad choices, and some shitty luck.
I sat down and got to work crunching numbers and doing what I could to gather all the information the developer would need. The more legwork I did, the less he would need to do. I started to pull water records, zoning laws, and every other bit of information he would need to complete the deal.
It was all so close I could taste it. I just needed the ink on the paper. I thought of Ashley’s face when she saw her family home taken away. Would she cry?
Ouch.
Okay, I couldn’t be that mean. But I wasn’t going to feel that bad about the house being sold either. It wasn’t like she needed the house anyway. She hadn’t been back home since she’d left me standing in her daddy’s field underneath that stupid white arch wrapped with sunflowers. I had felt like such a fool. Her family had tried to make excuses, but they were just as surprised as I was that she’d chosen to cut and run at the last minute.
Ashley hadn’t shown her face in town since that day. Her sisters and brother all had their own houses. It was only Tanner rambling around that big old house, saddled with a farm he couldn’t take care of. I felt bad about the cancer but had no doubt in my mind he would pull through. The guy was a tough son of a bitch. It would take more than cancer to take him out.
The money from the sale of the house would help Tanner out. That was what I focused on. I was helping out a man who was in bad financial shape. The money would help pay for his rising medical costs. His kids would be fine.
Watching the farm disappear would be like watching the end of an era, but I hoped it would bring me closure. No longer would I think about the day I stood there waiting and hoping she had just gotten the jitters and would join me under the arch. I didn’t want to have to look at that house and think about the kisses stolen in the shed or sneaking into her bedroom window when I just had to see her. I could erase the past.
Erasing the past would erase the pain—I hoped. It had to. I had to find a way to forget the day I ever met Ashley Parks.
Chapter 3
Ashley
Leslie was pissed, but things hadn’t gone according to plan. I had hoped to fly in on the weekend, but then I had a client refuse to budge on his booking. Plane tickets weren’t cheap. I needed the money, and since I was taking two weeks off, I wasn’t in a position to turn down the job.
Nothing was going to change in a matter of six days. Dad wasn’t going to be miraculously healed and the debt wasn’t going to evaporate. Shit could wait. Jasper was jumping all around in the back seat of my rental car. He had loved his first plane ride and couldn’t wait to see his grandpa. I hoped Grandpa was ready to see him. Jasper was a bundle of energy right now. At least I knew he could run it off on the farm. It would do him good to have space to run free and enjoy the mountain air, even if it was a bit on the warm side.
The drive through town was proving to be a real drag. Everywhere I looked, Brock’s face was there. He must have bought every billboard within twenty miles of the place. His face was on every bench, on signs posted in various vacant lots, and, as I drove out to the farm, on the old Hanson place.
The man had changed little in the looks department since I had seen him last, wh
ich made me both a little mad and sad at the same time. He was gorgeous. I remembered the way those dark blue eyes would look at me moments before he kissed me. I remembered the smell of his aftershave, the feel of his thick, silky hair and, most importantly, his strong, muscular body. I’d been sure we’d be together forever. We had started dating when I was sixteen, something my dad hadn’t been pleased about since Brock was eighteen, but I couldn’t be told no.
I had fallen head over heels in love with the older boy from the wrong side of the tracks. When he asked me to marry him, I didn’t think I could get any happier. I knew he would take me out of that town and we would have a life filled with adventure. Then I found out I was pregnant. I knew he would want to stay put and be around people who could help and support us. He would have wanted to settle down right there and raise a family. We never would have gotten to fulfill our dreams of getting out of our rural town and into the big city.
Making a decision for both of us, I chose to go without him. I never told him about the baby. I didn’t want him to drag me kicking and screaming back home. I was glad he did well for himself, but I didn’t regret leaving. It was what I had needed, and it had made me very happy these past six years, even if it had been extremely hard.
“Roll down your window, Jasper. Smell the air!”
I shut off the AC and did the same. The warm summer breeze drifted through the car windows. I had my hair pulled back in a loose bun to keep it out of my face. The wind pulled some of it out, but it felt good flitting around my face.
“What’s all that, Mom?” Jasper was looking out his window.
“Those are corn fields. Hundreds of acres of corn,” I told him.
“Wow!” he exclaimed. “That’s a lot of corn.”
I laughed. “Wait until those stalks get tall. It’ll be way up past your head, even taller than me!”
“Grandpa grows corn?” he asked.
“Yep. Not this much, but he grows a lot,” I told him, wondering if he had been able to get his early spring planting done. My dad was an excellent farmer. Most seasons he got two crops. One never knew when a cold winter was going to stretch into spring, but this winter had been mild and spring had come early.
“It smells funny,” he said, wrinkling his nose.
I laughed. “That’s clean air, dirt and fertilizer, and trees.”
You never realized how much it smelled until you were away for some time. I was suddenly aware that I’d missed the smell of home. It was a distinct aroma, very different than the city streets of New York that always smelled like food and exhaust. I loved my home even though I hated it at the same time. I had always felt caged when I’d lived here, but now I realized how nice it was to be back home—temporarily at least.
“Are we almost there yet?” Jasper asked.
I smiled. It wasn’t all that long of a ride, but to a five-year-old, I imagined it felt like an eternity. Going back to my childhood home was like going to Disneyland for him. I had told him plenty of stories about my time here and he was excited to see his grandpa. I realized then I had kept Jasper away from the family that loved him.
“We’re almost there. Remember, Grandpa isn’t feeling good, so we need to be quiet. Okay?”
“I know, Mom. You already told me a whole bunch of times,” he said, clearly irritated by my constant reminders.
“Here we are!” I said, turning on my blinker at the old dirt road and turning down the long driveway that led to my father’s farm.
It had been a long time. My heart skipped a beat. I was a bundle of nerves as the car bounced down the driveway. It had been too long. I couldn’t wait to see my dad, even if the thought of seeing him sick scared me to death.
When the driveway curved and my childhood home stood before us, I slowed the car to a crawl. I wanted to take it all in. My big sister, Leslie, came out of the house to stand on the large covered porch that wrapped around three of the four sides of the house. She was smiling and waving.
“Who’s that?” Jasper asked.
“That’s your Aunt Leslie,” I told him.
I parked the car and got out. Jasper undid his belt and crawled out as well.
“Hi!” Leslie greeted. She stepped off the porch and opened her arms. Jasper ran to her, and she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close. “You’re so big!” she exclaimed.
I smiled at the scene, happy to see Jasper and my sister close even though they had never met. A twinge of regret for keeping him away from my family drifted through my mind again. I could feel guilty later, though. I needed to see my dad.
Leslie hugged me. “How was the flight?”
“Good. Pretty easy. Jasper did great.”
“Dad’s inside,” she said in a more somber tone.
I nodded. “Let’s do this.”
The three of us climbed the porch. Leslie opened the screen door, which squeaked like it had for as long as I could remember. We walked into the living room and I saw my dad for the first time in years. He looked smaller and much older than he had the last time I’d seen him.
I bit back my tears and walked over to greet him. He managed to get out of his recliner and stand. I wrapped him in my arms and hugged him tight. I could feel how much weight he had lost. It hurt my heart to see him in such bad shape. I should have been here for him.
“Dad, this is Jasper,” I said.
My dad’s eyes filled with tears, but he quickly blinked them away.
“Good to meet you, young man,” he said, extending his hand.
Jasper looked at the hand and ignored it, going in for a hug instead. My dad seemed to love that and returned my son’s hug. Leslie and I stood back and watched as my dad lit up. Jasper was talking to him at a mile a minute, asking questions about the farm in such rapid succession that my dad wasn’t able to answer any of them.
“Well, aren’t you a curious boy? I think you were born to be a farmer,” my dad said.
Jasper shook his head, pushed his glasses up on his nose, and promptly replied, “Nope. I’m a geologist.”
I laughed. “You want to be a geologist. You’re not there yet, buddy. You have lots of school to do first.”
Jasper nodded. “That’s what I meant.”
Leslie stood close to me and, in a low voice, whispered, “It’s too bad Dad doesn’t really know him.”
I rolled my eyes. And so it began. My family was pissed that I never came home, never brought Jasper home to meet them. Never mind they never came to New York to see me or my son. It was the same argument we had been through a million times in the last five years.
“Do you have that paperwork?” I asked her, changing the subject.
“Yes. Let’s get some coffee and we can go over it.”
I nodded. “Dad, are you and Jasper okay in here while we go look over some stuff?” I asked.
He laughed. “I’m not dead and I’m not that frail. I can handle sitting and chatting with my grandson about rocks.”
I smiled. “Okay. I’m in the kitchen if you need anything.”
“I’ll take care of him, Mom,” Jasper said in an authoritative voice.
My dad and I exchanged a look before we both smiled. “Thank you, Jasper. I appreciate that.”
When I got into the kitchen, Leslie was popping a K-Cup into the machine. She gestured to the small table in the breakfast nook. A file sat there, and I went to investigate. I sat down, opened it up, and felt my stomach drop.
“What the hell?” I whispered, not believing what I was reading. “Brock?” I asked no one in particular.
Leslie walked over and delivered my cup of coffee. “Yes, Brock.”
“What the hell?” I repeated. “Why?”
Leslie shrugged. “Because that’s what he does. He buys up real estate in foreclosure or distress and then sells it for a profit.”
“Why didn’t you tell me Brock was the one trying to take our farm?”
She raised an eyebrow at my use of the word “our.”
“Because I kne
w you wouldn’t come if you knew.”
I started reading the paperwork. This was far worse than I had thought. My dad was in a giant hole, and I couldn’t see any way for him to climb out. I was shaking my head as I read, trying to make sense of it all.
“Brock?” I said again. “Why would he do this?”
Anna yanked open the screen door to the side porch and scoffed as she came in. “Uh, maybe because you left him standing at the altar and took off without telling him he was going to be a father.”
My eyes widened in shock and then dropped into small slits in anger. “Shut up, Anna. No one asked you.”
She laughed. “Oh, no one ever does. It’s always perfect little Ashley this and Ashley that. Now Ashley is the one who’s going to cost Daddy his home.”
“I didn’t do this!” I argued.
Anna glared at me. “If Brock wasn’t so pissed off and hell-bent on revenge, he wouldn’t be trying to steal the farm away from us.”
Leslie, always the voice of reason, looked at each of us. “Calm down. Ashley has nothing to do with what Brock is doing. This is what he does. He has bought up land all around us. He isn’t targeting us specifically.”
I wasn’t quite so sure of that. I had a feeling Brock was definitely going after the family farm in order to get back at me.
“What are we going to do?” I asked Leslie.
She shrugged. “I have no idea. I was hoping you would have some suggestions. I don’t see a way out of the deal. The money Brock is offering is certainly low, but I don’t see anyone else willing to buy Dad out before it goes into foreclosure. The real estate developers blowing into town are like vultures. They have been circling the farm for a while now. If it’s in foreclosure, they’ll get it even cheaper. Brock wants to get his hands on it first and is willing to pay a little more to do that.”
“No!” I slammed my palm on the table. “I’ll be back. Can you watch Jasper?” I asked Leslie, who nodded.
“Sure,” she said, a sly smile on her face.
I needed to take a walk. I didn’t want Jasper to see me this angry, especially the minute we’d arrived. A walk around the farm would help me think and give me a chance to cool my jets. The man had always had a way of knowing exactly what buttons to push to piss me off. He had really done a bang-up job this time.