Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 57897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
I can’t tell if he’s really into me…
Or if he’s just doing his boss’ bidding.
He offers to help when I decide I want to get the farm going again.
I really want to trust him, but my track record in relationships leaves much to be desired.
The only place I’m not totally overwhelmed is in his arms,
A misunderstanding threatens the happiness I’ve found with Jason,
But his persistence turns the tide.
Now with the help of him and many new friends,
My dream is about to become a reality.
Happily ever after + a successful business + a surprise baby makes three!
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
BETH ANN
“Thank you. I’ll call you back. Goodbye.”
I ended the call and sank down onto my favorite chair in my living room. I stared at the wall for a few moments, contemplating the conversation I’d just had. Life suddenly felt completely different than it had when I woke up this morning.
I’d just been thinking about whether I wanted to go all the way to the grocery store to get something to make for dinner or if I would scrounge through the cabinets and get creative when the phone rang. In an instant, everything shifted. The biggest decision of my life one moment was how much effort I wanted to put into what to eat tonight, and in the next moment, I had to decide whether to change the entire direction of my future.
The phone call left me stunned, but in a way, it was just what I had wanted. For a while, I’d been very aware of the feeling that I was just drifting through life. From day to day, there wasn’t much difference, and I felt like I wasn’t doing anything that actually mattered. There wasn’t really anything to look forward to. It wasn’t as bleak as that sounded. I wasn’t doomsday about my life. There wasn’t anything to dread ahead of me either. It was just that I didn’t feel like I was moving forward.
I wanted a direction, some kind of purpose. Now, suddenly, I had one. Or, at least, I had the option of one.
When the lawyer who called introduced himself, I didn’t recognize his name. He said he was calling about a family matter, but when I tried to think back through people I’d met or even just heard of in connection to my family, I came up blank. He told me he represented Maisie Turner, and the lightbulb clicked. Maisie was my great-aunt, the older sister of my mother’s father, and my only living relative.
As it turned out, she wasn’t even that anymore.
The lawyer, Matthew Warren, was the executor of my aunt’s will. She’d died a week ago, and he was tasked with settling her estate for her. It wasn’t much of a shock to hear she had died, considering the last I’d heard of her she was already very ill.
That was the first shift. The next one came right after that when Mr. Warren informed me I was the sole beneficiary of Maisie’s estate, which consisted primarily of the Christmas tree farm she owned in Tennessee. I had some faint memories of my mother talking about her aunts owning a Christmas tree farm and her having many happy seasons there when she was younger, but that was all I knew about the place. I had never been to it or seen any pictures. I didn’t even realize it was still in the family.
Now it was mine. Along with the tens of thousands of dollars of debt attached to it.
And there was the kicker. In that quick moment, I went from a twenty-four-year-old clutching an accounting degree and searching for my dream, to a landowner saddled with massive debt. I barely even knew about the family business I was apparently now at the helm of, and it was already deep in the hole.
The sudden rush of news was a bit overwhelming, and I’d asked Mr. Warren to give me a few minutes to process it all before we continued the conversation. Staring at the wall wasn’t giving me nearly the reassurance and answers I’d hoped for, so I picked up the phone and called him back.
“I apologize,” I said when he answered.
“No apology necessary,” he said. “I’m sure this is coming as a shock to you. Allow me to extend my deepest condolences for the loss of your aunt.”
“Thank you,” I said, feeling a little bit strange accepting the sentiment about someone I barely even knew.
“Were the two of you close?” Mr. Warren asked.
By the inflection, I could tell he’d heard the uncertainty in my voice and was curious about the details.
“Not exactly,” I said. I hesitated. “Not at all, actually. It’s been years since I’ve heard from any of my extended family. The occasional birthday card or Christmas card was really the only connection I had to them when I was growing up, anyway. I know my mother was close to her aunts when she was younger. Her mother died when she was really young, and her father worked so much he didn’t really have a lot of time to spend with her, so she was with his sisters most of the time.
When she got older, though, they didn’t always approve of the decisions she was making with her life. She just didn’t want the same kind of life they had. She didn’t want to join them on the farm and live her life out in the country the way they envisioned. She wanted to see more of the world, have experiences. So, they kind of drifted.”