Chapter 36

CHAPTER 36

SLATE

J ess was not eager to join in the celebration. All the color had drained from her face as soon as she'd walked in and seen her parents holding paperwork from Oden. Her skin had a greenish tinge to it now. That mop of brown curls around her head had come loose from the bun she'd had it in after the amount of times she'd shoved her hands into it or simply ran her fingers through it.

After I'd helped her find a chair so she wouldn't collapse on the floor, I'd taken a few steps away from the kitchen table and I was still hanging back. I wouldn't weigh in on any of this unless or until they asked for my opinion.

I had to give it to Sawyer, though. The man had brought it this time. Whoever he was representing on this deal wanted this land.

Badly.

I wondered why they would offer so much when the assessment hadn't even been completed yet. The family started airing their thoughts. Jeanie had refreshed her coffee and Doug's, and she'd poured some for Austin and Jess.

She glanced at me, but I shook my head. I wasn't sitting down and having coffee with them while they were discussing a decision that would impact the Merricks for generations to come. If they took Oden's offer, Merrick Meadows Farm was gone and so was Jess's shot at managing it and raising her own family here.

I wasn't touching that with a ten-foot pole if I could help it.

Austin, on the other hand, was over the fucking moon. He couldn't stop grinning. "Why do you all look so depressed? I know this is a shock, but damn. It's the best shock we've ever had."

"No, it's not," Jess said, her voice quiet but strong. "He wants us to sell the farm to him for that price, Austin. It's not just a portion. It's the whole farm."

"Yeah, but you can take the cows and chickens with you," he reasoned. "Buy a new farm. Hell, buy two new farms. Or one new bigger farm and build two new houses on it."

"No," she said.

Austin's eyebrows shot up. "Are you serious about this? You don't think we should take this check and sell?"

"No, I don't. I know you don't have much use for it, but I don't want to lose the farm. I don't care how much money is thrown at us. This is our home . We won't leave, right?"

"It's my home too, Jess," he argued. "You know how much I love it. It's not fair to say I don't have much use for it. I didn't want to farm it, but that doesn't mean I ever wanted to lose it. I just don't see this as losing it. I see it as an opportunity."

"It is an opportunity," she said, finally lifting her teary eyes to look at her brother. "It's an opportunity to lose the property our family has been on for decades."

"A property that needs a lot of maintenance that we can't afford to do," he reasoned before he turned to his parents. "What do you guys think?"

Doug inhaled deeply, glancing at his son, then his daughter, and then sliding his gaze to the window and looking out over the farm. "We need to think about this, Austin. We'll consider this offer, but it's not a foregone conclusion that we're going to take it."

Jeanie, like me, just listened, shaking her head at her son when he arched an eyebrow at her. His eyes widened and he scoffed. "You can't be serious. This is the offer of a lifetime. It's a lifeline. Don't you get it?"

"A lifeline for what kind of life?" Jess countered, fire raging behind her eyes as she finally managed to straighten her spine and sit up. "Merrick Meadows is ours and it's not for sale."

Austin shook his head at her. "By the end of the season, there won't be a Merrick Meadows if we don't take this deal. Think about it, Jess. If we take this money, you buy a new farm. You equip it with everything you want and need. State of the art stuff. We move the animals and start over someplace else. Someplace where we can build a house for you and a place for Mom and Dad."

"We have a place for me here," she said. "My bedroom, and if we can afford it, one day we'll convert the hayloft."

He sighed, the fight bleeding out of him as he held her gaze. I could practically see him switching tactics. "You can't raise a family in a converted hayloft, Jess."

"Then I guess it's a good thing I don't have a family to raise, isn't it?"

"One day, you might," he said. "Isn't that what you want?"

"Sure, but here at Merrick Meadows. And what about the crops? Where do they stand in this grand plan of yours to up and leave? We can't take them with us."

"That offer more than covers what you would've gotten for this year's yield and you know it," he said gently. "Besides, this is a dairy farm, right? The cows are what's really important and those can be moved."

While they bickered, Jeanie stood up and came to stand by me, rubbing tiredly at her eyes. When she put her hand on the counter to steady herself, she missed, almost like she had no depth perception and I caught her arm.

"Are you okay?" I frowned as I looked into her kind brown eyes. "Maybe you should sit down again."

She gave me a weary smile. "I'm all right. Just tired. Lots going on up here. I've been sitting for too long. What I need is to move."

She tapped her temple on the words up here . Then she quietly padded across the kitchen to the laundry room. My frown deepened as I watched her go. Something about what had just happened felt off to me, though I couldn't put my finger on it.

Jess and Austin hadn't noticed since they were still going at it. Doug's head bounced from side to side as he looked between his children like he was watching a tennis match.

"This isn't the kind of money you walk away from, Jess," Austin was saying once Jeanie had disappeared into the laundry room. "It's what you want, isn't it? Freedom." Jess opened her mouth, but it seemed he was only just getting started. "You can build a new farm, sis. A smaller, more manageable one or a beautiful huge one. The best one in Firefly Grove."

He kept going, painting a picture that I, for one, saw a lot of sense in. "Just think about everything you can do with that kind of money, Jess. You could create employment opportunities and hire locals to help at the new farm. You could collaborate with school programs, daycare centers, and preschools. Just like you've always dreamed about. We'll be able to make sure that you have all the resources you need to continue growing forever."

I might've seen the sense in the picture he'd painted, but Jess was red-faced by the time he was done, looking like she was about to bite off her tongue if she kept holding it. "No. Way. We can't sell the farm. This is our legacy. Our life. Our family tree."

"But—"

Fireballs rocketed out of her eyes as she shook her head at him. "No. You had your turn. Now let me speak."

He nodded, dragging both hands into his hair and gripping it tight. "Fine. I'm listening."

"Generations of Merricks built this place, Austin. Sure, we can buy another farm or two, but it wouldn't be this farm and I don't think any amount of money is worth tossing it aside." She cocked her head at him. "Besides, if a buyer is this interested at this point when we don't even know what we have yet, we could be sitting on a huge oil deposit. It could be worth a lot more and there may be other companies willing to let us stay here while they extract the oil." She suddenly turned to me, shooting me an expectant look. "Right?"

I nodded, and at first, Jess grinned, but it soon melted into a frown. She looked deep into my eyes. "You're the expert here. What do you think we should do?"

Fuck .

"I don't want to get involved, Jess. This is your decision, but you should know that any offer from Oden Sawyer is solid. He's got the buyers who have got the money. If you accept, he'll arrange for payment to be made as soon as he has the signed offer in his hand."

"You don't want to get involved?" she asked slowly, her eyes widening in disbelief before she scoffed. "That's what you're here for, isn't it? To advise. To guide. That means getting involved."

Austin gave me a sympathetic look. "She's right, dude. That is literally what you're here for, so you're going to get a lot of heat if you're not willing to get involved."

Double fuck.

Finally pushing away from the doorway, I strode to the table and joined them. Folding my hands on the wooden top, I looked at each of them in turn. "If you want my advice, then take the money."

Austin grinned. Doug frowned thoughtfully, his head dropping to one side. Jess turned even redder than she had been before, her lips popping open before she snorted.

"Go figure, you'd say that. You're an oil guy. You?—"

I turned to her, drawing in a deep, calming breath. As Jess's eyes shot lightning bolts at me, I thought about the best way to say what I needed to.

"Here's the reality of the situation," I explained as clearly and gently as I could. "Even if you can extract and sell the oil, you won't see profits like you'd make from the sale very soon. Let's say you get everything right and there isn't even one hiccup. It would take years to make this amount of money."

"How many years?" Austin asked.

"Probably about a decade," I said truthfully. "And that's if there's as much oil as Oden seems to think. There could be a lot less, in which case, you'll never see a profit like this."

Austin gestured at me. "See? At least someone's reasonable around here."

"It's not reasonable if it involves us losing the farm." Jess huffed out a breath, shoved her chair back with a screech, and marched upstairs, leaving me alone with her brother and father.

Doug reached out and patted my shoulder. "Thanks for the insight, son. That's certainly something we need to keep in mind."

"Yeah, bro," Austin added. "Thank you for backing me up. She needed to hear it from someone she doesn't think hates the farm."

Jeanie had shuffled back into the kitchen as Jess had stormed out, and she sighed as her gaze drifted to the staircase. "She knows you don't hate the farm, honey. It's just that she also knows you don't love it as much as she does. This is her livelihood. You'd do well to remember that."

Doug turned in his chair to face his wife, then stood up and offered her his arm. "Take a walk with me?"

She smiled, immediately moving forward and wrapping her fingers around the crook of his elbow. "Gladly, darling. Some fresh air will do us a world of good."

As they left, I watched them go, admiring the way they were still clinging to each other after all these years. This couple was the very definition of getting through whatever life threw at them together.

No doubt they'd be discussing their own thoughts on this matter with much more level heads than their kids while they took their walk. In the meantime, Austin and I would be left to deal with an exceptionally disappointed and pissed-off Jess.

I winced when I met his gaze. "Do you think she's in my room, trashing my stuff?"

Austin shook his head slowly. "No idea, man, but I hope you didn't have anything in there that you're especially attached to."