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)
“Oh,” she said. “That’s nice.”
I could tell she didn’t feel comfortable asking me how much the settlement was. It was an awkward question. I grinned. She didn’t ever need to feel awkward with me. Never again.
“Like, a lot of money.”
There was silence as she screwed up her face like she was debating asking me and eventually gave in to the curiosity.
“How much?” she asked.
“Well, after the money I invested and put in savings and then what I spent to move down here and get settled in, I have this.” I pulled out my phone and hit the banking app. I logged in quickly and handed her the phone.
“Whoa,” she said.
Her eyes widened, and she put her feet on the floor and sat up fully.
“Yeah,” I said.
“This is just sitting around in your bank?” she asked.
I nodded.
“I was going to try to make it a surprise and buy a bunch of the stuff for the wedding and then tell you, but I’d rather you not stress out this much.”
“I can’t,” she said, handing me the phone and shaking her head. “This is my farm. I can’t just take your money like that.”
“My money?” I asked. “Babe, this isn’t my money. This is our money. I want this farm to work, and I want you to be happy. And since you’re going to be my wife, that means we share everything. Including this,” I said, waggling the phone. “I want to help. So, tell me what I can do, and let’s get this thing going.”
Her bottom lip trembled, and tears formed in the corners of her eyes as she sat in stunned silence for a moment. Then, she stood, walked over to me, and climbed in my lap, wrapping her legs around me and hugging me tight. Tears wet my shoulder as she softly cried. I rubbed her back and kissed her neck and could nearly feel the relief in her body as she realized it was all going to work out.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Of course,” I said. “I did have an idea I wanted to run by you.”
“What’s that?” She pulled away from my chest and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Well, remember that patch at the other entrance we found?” She nodded. “I was thinking we could start the pumpkin patch out that way, and then we could run that during the fall for extra revenue.”
Her eyes lit up as she started putting things together.
“If I can use some of the money, we can have it running next fall,” she said. “We could cut a profit by the end of next year!”
“I am going to get you added to the account,” I said. “You should get a card by the end of the week, I think. Maybe two. But when it comes, I want you to go ahead and get anything you need to get the pumpkin patch started, okay? I’ll buy the paint and building materials and do all that stuff, but you get anything you will need for the actual pumpkins or decorations or anything.”
She smiled wide and kissed me. Her kiss tasted salty with the tears that were still on her lips.
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you too,” I said. “Now, let’s put on some stupid TV, cuddle up, and finish this dinner. I would love to go to bed early tonight.”
“But not to sleep, right?” She grinned.
I grinned back. “Nope.”
29
BETH ANN
I couldn’t help but giggle as I watched the TV commercial for the Christmas tree farm. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen it. In fact, it was making pretty frequent rotation and had been for a few days, but I just couldn’t get over the excitement of actually seeing all our plans coming together.
We’d been building up the reopening of the farm through word of mouth for a while, but as the season got close, Jason suggested it was time for a full-out advertising blitz. We needed to make sure everybody in Ashford knew the farm was opening up again and when, and if we could get the word out far enough, we might even draw in people from other areas of the state to experience it.
We started with a few interviews with local papers and newsletters. It gave me the chance to introduce myself and let people know who I was. I’d been in town for several months at this point, but I’d spent so much of my time working on getting the farm up and running again I didn’t feel like I’d really gotten out and met as many people as I could have.
I wanted them to know the farm was in good hands. It wasn’t just bought out by some nameless, faceless corporation that was going to commercialize it and take away all of its personality or by someone who wasn’t going to work hard and might run it into the ground.