Page 111 of Call It Love

“Emma Callahan,” she announced with a flourish.

I shook my head. “Should I know that name?”

“CEO of Calla Skincare? Obsessed with all things organic?” She lifted an eyebrow when I still shook my head. “Seriously? Nothing?”

I shrugged, feeling a little helpless.

“She’s been featured inForbes, Anna,” Mal deadpanned. “Anyway, she tried your soap, and she loved it. So much so, she wants to talk to you about licensing a custom line through her company.”

My mouth fell open.

Mallory leaned forward, eyes bright. “She wants to schedule a call with you next week. She’s serious. This could mean national distribution, royalties, a contract with an actual lab to scale your formulas—real money, real growth.”

The world tilted slightly.

“You’re serious?” I asked Mallory.

She nodded, suddenly earnest. “Dead serious. You wouldn’t have to navigate anything alone. Vince already said he’d represent you. You know he’ll take good care of you.”

I laughed, a shaky, stunned sound, and buried my face in my hands for a second, overwhelmed. Everything was happening at once.

The farm.

The committee coming.

A new opportunity cracking open.

Mallory set her drink aside. “It’s the real deal, Anna. Not just some nice words. She wants to know what else youmake—soaps, lotions, scrubs, anything. I might have told her a little about your upbringing, which thrilled her even more. She thinks you’ve got the kind of authenticity people pay crazy money for.”

My stomach twisted in a blend of excitement and wariness. I picked at the hem of my sleeve, thinking. “She’s based in Nashville, though,” I said slowly. “Right?”

Mallory nodded slowly. “Yes. Here’s the thing. Her brand might look like small-batch, but she moves fast. If she’s serious, and I think she is, this wouldn’t be a side project for her. She’d want to get it into development soon. That means lab work, packaging meetings, marketing input, and I don’t know what else.

“So, not something I could do from here.”

Mal bit her lip. “She’d want you from the ground up,” Mallory finally said. “My guess is you’d have to relocate. At least for a few months. Maybe longer, depending on how fast it all moves.”

The words landed like a stone in my chest.

I looked around the house, then stared out the window toward the garden and the fields. Thought about Chase and Jordan. Cam and Bristol. Other new friends. All the roots I’d started letting myself believe in.

Mallory bumped her foot lightly against mine, jolting me back to the moment.

“I’m not saying you have to decide today,” she said, softer. “I’m just saying, for once, you’ve got options. You get to pick. Nobody else gets to tell you where your life goes.”

Chapter 38

Chase

The committee wasdue to be here at ten.

I wasn’t nervous. Not really. We’d done the work. The farm looked solid. Healthy. The same as it did any other day, with a few spruced-up places. Only the tree lot looked different, and only those of us who fixed it knew that. If the committee liked what they saw, great. If not, we’d still be here tomorrow. Still planting, still growing.

I sipped my coffee and leaned against the porch rail, watching the light shift across the fields. It was a good day to have people see the place.

Anna moved through the kitchen behind me, quiet but efficient. She double-checked the brochures I’d printed and wiped down surfaces that didn’t need wiping. Everything about her was calm on the surface, but there was something in her eyes that looked unsettled. Not anxiety exactly. Just…distance. Like a part of her was somewhere else. I wondered if she missed Mallory, who’d returned to Nashville yesterday, and with her, her unmistakable energy and humor.

“You good?” I asked, catching her eye as she walked past with a tray of glasses, which she set on the spotlesstable that she’d wiped down three times already this morning.

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