Page 68 of Sweatpants & Sweet Tea

“Yeah, I did.” Her head tilted to the side, and a crease appeared between her brows. “How did you know that?”

“You have a very entrepreneurial mind. Is that the only business you had when you were a kid?”

A wide smile spread on her face, and she dipped her chin, her gaze dropping to the bowl in front of her, and a blush spread on her cheeks.

“What?” I asked. Judging from her reaction, I was guessing whatever her other business was, it must have been embarrassing. “What was it?”

She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and licked her lips. “Um, I had a few, actually.”

“How many?”

Her tongue slid across her perfect lips as she licked them once more, then bit her lower lip between her teeth. It was clear she was nervous to reveal just how many businesses she’d had.

“How many?” I repeated the question encouragingly.

Her nose scrunched in the most adorable way. “I moved a lot.”

“Okay.”

“Remember, I told you, by the time I graduated when I was sixteen, I’d been to fourteen schools.”

“Yeah.” She had mentioned that the first night we hung out. It blew my mind then, and it still did. I was born in Firefly and grew up on the farm. I went to two schools before I graduated. Firefly Elementary, which at the time was K through eighth grade, and then Firefly High. Ours was the last class that graduated from eighth grade at the elementary school. The year I was a freshman, they opened Firefly Middle School, which was grades six through eighth.

I couldn’t begin to fathom attending fourteen different schools and moving to fourteen different towns. It had been hard for me when I’d gone away to college and played in the minors and then the majors. But I’d always had the farm to come back to. Not only the farm, but also the community for support.

“I can’t imagine how hard that must have been.”

She lifted her left shoulder in a shrug. “It was always easier if I had something other than being the new girl, which is why I think I had so many businesses.”

I nodded. “So, how many did you have?”

“The lemonade stand was in kindergarten. Then on the first day of first grade, we had to write our names on sheets of paper and then tape them to the front of our desks. I knew how to write in cursive, so that’s how I wrote my name. When the kids saw it, they asked me to write theirs. Since I knew I didn’t have money for lunch, I saw an opportunity. I sold name sheets for five cents a pop, or ten if I added stickers or glitter.

“When I was in second grade, my parents had a Halloween party for their friends; no kids allowed, and they bought a bunch of candy that never got eaten. Not the crappy candy; I’m talking full-size Snickers, Baby Ruths, Almond Joys, Hershey’s Bars, KitKats, I mean, the cream of the crop. We had a fridge in thebasement that they put it all in and forgot about it, so every day, I’d bring a variety to school and sell them at lunch for a quarter.

“The summer before third grade, I came here, and Grammy Moore taught me how to sew. She sent me home with a sewing machine and a ton of scrap material, and I started making scrunchies. I sold those for fifty cents each to all the girls in third grade.

“In fourth grade, my mom got really into nail polish, but then my dad got mad because he didn’t like the smell, and he threw them all away. I dug them out of the trash, and I took them to school and would paint girls’ nails during recess.” She took a deep breath. “It was just stuff like that. Not real businesses.”

I stared at her as admiration filled me. “You really don’t know how amazing you are, do you?”

“I’m not.” She shook her head, dismissing the compliment.

“You are. I heard what you did for Caroline Shaw and Mrs. B, not to mention everyone on the pier. You have a real talent for seeing potential in businesses.”

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she lifted her left shoulder in a shrug. “I double majored in journalism and business and marketing.”

“It shows.”

Her big blue eyes met mine. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“It’s just…well, I’ve been working on Moore Farm Moonshine today trying to streamline the business, and it sort of got my marketing juices flowing.”

I ignored the direction my head went when she said the phrase ‘juices flowing’ and cleared my throat, not sure where she was going with this. “Okay.”

“I might have taken a look at your TikTok, well, Farm Strong’s TikTok and Instagram.”

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