Page 71 of Loving Decker

But the man was now fuming and leaned back against his desk in silence.

“Typically a landowner here owns their property all the way to the center of the earth, including all minerals that might be found there, oil, gas, gold, if there was any.”

People all over the room started talking.

“But.” Decker held up his hand, and they quieted.

“But, if the seller wishes to keep the mineral rights, they must be listed specifically in the contract. And they aren’t in yours, right?”

“Not in mine!”

Randall shook his head. “It’s standard practice to sell the rights when you sell the land. No one wants oil drilling machinery on their property put there by past owners.”

“Except, Randall, there’s more to the story, isn’t there?”

He crossed his arms, apparently silent again.

“The developer has no use for the rights. And from what I heard, they would have left the rights in the hands of the original owners, until Randall intervened. So now those rights are going to be signed over to none other than Randall McKinney, himself.”

The noise in the room escalated.

“He has already talked to Staar Natural Gas who are coming out to survey the properties and give estimates on shale drilling.”

The noise was almost too loud to be heard over.

“But the good news is that the predicted income of this gas and the oil that is also purported to be here in our land, is more, much more, than any of us would make on the sale of the land.”

“How do you know?” Mr. Hansen called out.

“I have all the paperwork right here. I didn’t want to tell anyone until I was sure.” He smiled. “And so now, you can still sell if you like, but I would recommend a new contract in which you keep the mineral rights. But you don’t have to sign at all. We can work with Staar Natural Gas ourselves, or anyone we choose, and have enough to stay right where we are for a long time.”

The people in the room talked quietly with each other. And Decker felt a great peace about where things stood.

Randall came over to stand in front of him. “You will regret this!”

“They should have been told.”

He opened his mouth and then closed it again. He didn’t look like he would agree with Decker any time soon, but at least he wasn’t going to continue to argue the point.

Everyone seemed a bit undecided, which Decker found curious. And then Faith came forward to stand beside him. “I have something to say.”

People quieted and all eyes turned to her.

“I’ve been giving this sale a lot of thought. And hearing I don’t really have to sell is sort of upsetting something I had already talked myself into thinking would be a good thing. And I’m not saying it’s not a good thing. I think selling or not selling can both be good for Willow Creek. But during all this, I’ve been noticing something really important.”

She took a deep breath. “I think I’m going to sell anyway and keep my mineral rights.” She turned to Randall. He just nodded in return.

“But the reason I’m doing it now is not for the money. It’s because I don’t think we should keep Willow Creek all to ourselves. There is plenty of land here, there is plenty of room. And if we sell, then more people can experience some of the Willow Creek magic. More people will shop in our stores. More people will get their hair cut. We can bring in fun things to do, and more people will enjoy them. We can all still live here. And we can share with more people. We will keep the important vibe and we will still have each other. But honestly, we will be much more successful and happy because we shared.”

She rocked back and forth from her heels to her toes. “And I know that maybe the Dawsons might prefer to look out their east side at all our pasture land and the hills behind, but if they look out there and see some more neighbors, that can be good too. And they’ll have friends for our kids. And more people to teach in our schools, and it will be a vibrant and growing place instead of the opposite.” She smiled. “You can do what you want, of course, thanks to Decker who found us all a solution.” She came to stand beside him and took his hand. Under her breath and through her smile, she said, “We have got to work on your communication skills.”

He sighed. “Am I forgiven?”

“Of course. You saved the town.” She smiled.

Everyone agreed to sleep on it and return the next day to sign Randall’s new and improved contracts. And at long last, he and Faith were left alone, standing in front of his truck. “Can I take you for a drive?”

“Yeah, where are we going?”

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