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)
“She’s gone back to school?” I asked. “I didn’t notice.”
“It’s online. She’s doing really well with it. Anyway, take a seat.”
We were in an office that was clearly Carter’s own personal one. Pictures of Lauren and Carson were everywhere, and a few pieces of memorabilia from Carter’s time in the service were on the wall, including his various medals. They impressed me every time I saw them and reminded me of the sacrifice he’d given to his country.
It also reminded me that Lauren overlooked those, and they seemed tremendously happy. Maybe one day I could find someone to overlook my own scars, even if they weren’t nearly as interesting or had a heroic story behind them.
“So, you said you had a surprise,” I said. “What’s up?”
“Well, I had an idea, but I want you to meet the guys first. Oh, here they are.”
I looked over to the door, which was still standing slightly ajar as two other men came in.
“Morning,” one of them said, then saw me. “Hey, you must be Jason. Nice to meet you. I’m Deacon, and this here is Everett.”
I stood and shook both of their hands. They took up residence on a couch along one wall, and I sat back down in the chair in front of Carter’s desk, turning it slightly so I faced them as well.
“You tell him yet?” Everett asked.
“Not yet,” Carter said. “Waiting for you schmucks.”
“Alright, well, we’re here. Hit him with it,” Deacon said.
Carter grinned and turned to me.
“So, the girl you met, Beth Ann, we thought since you were already kind of in with her, you could go over and meet with her and offer our services for clearing out the land. Maybe even make an offer for buying out part or all of it to us. What do you say?”
Immediately, I realized how bad an idea this was, but at the same time, I couldn’t express it. This was my first job with the company, and I couldn’t rightly turn it down. But at the same time, I was not the right guy to ask her right that moment. There was a high chance that she would turn it down just because it was coming from me.
At the same time, she had expressed a couple of times that she had no idea where to even start with the land or the things on it. Maybe she would see this as a way of me offering a bit of an olive branch, and I could get a chance to ask her just what the hell the deal was with her leaving someday. But it would have to start with the more formal nature of the offer from the business. A business I was being chosen to talk to her about because I had an informal relationship with her.
Shit.
I couldn’t just say no. I had to try. I couldn’t turn the very first thing they gave me down, no matter how bad an idea I thought it would be, especially when it might be helpful for me if I played my cards right. I just had to play them exactly right. Exactly.
“Sure,” I said. “Yeah, I can do that. I just… I don’t know if she’ll go for it. I don’t think she will, actually. She seemed pretty attached to figuring out and connecting with her relatives that lived there when we talked about it last.”
“Wait, you talked about us doing something with the land?” Everett asked.
“No,” I said. “I just talked to her about the land itself. It’s how we met. I helped her get her car running again and then followed her up to the place to drop it off.”
“You saw it?” Deacon asked, his eyes getting wide. “What’s it like up there?”
“Cluttered,” I said. “Lots of junk around. Lots of remnants of some kind of business. There’s a big, abandoned house on the lot too. I really want to help, but I think she’s probably going to say no.”
“Well, if you can give it a shot, it would be a hell of a thing if she says yes,” Deacon said. “Worst she can do is say no, and we’re right back here tomorrow. But if she says yes, boy, that’d be a great spot for us to get cracking with.”
“Here,” Carter said, pulling out a pad and a pen. “I am putting down some figures here on this page, and then some more on this one. The first page is the offer I want you to give her. Then the second page is the one I will settle for if she keeps pushing back on selling. I’ll go up to those numbers, on top for a material site, then for purchasing half of the property and then the final number for buying it all out. Just let me know what she says.”