Page 21 of Every Beat of My Heart

Daphne smiled at him. “That sounds good to me. Anyone have an issue with that?”

Teddy leaned his elbows on the table. “I’ll reserve my opinion for later.”

“That’s fair,” Cole said.

I’d observed Cole and Daphne enough over the last few months to know that he was here for Daphne and Izzy. He wouldn’t let anything or anyone come between them.

“Now that that is settled, we can talk business. Profits are down.” Dad handed out a spreadsheet. “Now, if you don’t care, we can continue doing what we are and probably dissolve the business when I’m ready to retire. But if you want it to continue operating for another generation, we need to make some changes.”

I took the spreadsheet and examined the numbers. They were on a steady decline.

Cole leaned on the table, interlacing his fingers. “What if you hired a marketing guru. I know I’m not supposed to talk about the Monroes, but everyone knows that Marley has been instrumental in increasing revenue streams.”

Dad eyed him thoughtfully. “You have a guru in mind?”

Cole shifted in his chair. “Actually, I do. My sister lost her job a year ago, and she’s been working at the inn, helping at the store on the farm, but her first love is marketing.”

“No,” Teddy said firmly.

“Just like that. You’re not even going to listen to what he has to say?” I asked him, fed up with Teddy acting as the head of this family.

Teddy gestured at the spreadsheet in front of me. “You’ve seen the numbers. Where would we get the money to hire someone?”

My jaw tightened as it did every time I tried to talk to Teddy. “We have another source of income—our jobs. We could pool our money and hire someone.”

Wes nodded. “I’d want to see her resume and talk to her. But if she checks out, we could make her job contingent on results. Give her six months to turn things around. If she can’t, then we let her out of the contract.”

Ryder looked around the table. “I don’t want to give up on the farm. It’s something we might want to hand to our kids one day.”

Teddy leaned in and lowered his voice. “Do you even get an opinion? You’ve been gone for years.”

“I think he does. He’s a Calloway. He has Faith to consider,” Dad said.

“If you’re just going to leave again, and we won’t see you until that girl in there is eighteen, then I say you don’t get a say.” Teddy gestured in the direction of the living room.

“Watch your tone,” Ryder said, his jaw working.

“You’re not the one who makes the decisions around here,” I said tightly.

Teddy waved a hand at me. “And you are?”

Dad cleared his voice. “I think we should all vote on what to do. Who wants to keep things as they are?”

Teddy was the only one who raised his hand.

“Who wants to see if we can do better?” Dad asked.

Everyone else raised their hand.

Fiona tipped her head to the side. “Look how Marley and Aiden renovated the inn and brought it back to life. There’s nostalgia and memories here. Maybe we should play up the family-owned tree-farm aspect. Frame some pictures of us as kids around the farm, put them in the barn.”

Dad nodded. “That’s not a bad idea.”

“Aren’t the Monroes already doing that?” Teddy asked.

“It doesn’t mean that we can’t too. We have the benefit of being closer to town. That has always meant more sales for us. But the last few years, we haven’t increased our offerings. We have to give people a reason to come here,” Fiona said.

“I think we should at least talk to Charlotte. See if she has any ideas and if she’d be willing to consult with us,” I said.

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