Page 124 of Tempting Promises
“I never thought you were a quitter.”
“Fuck off, Rowan.”
“Let me help,” I plead with her. “We can merge our farms, it’ll allow me to expand, you’ll keep your house, and we can be a team.”
Charlotte’s eyes lift, and the green irises flash with some emotion I can’t decipher. “What?”
Anger it seems. Okay, exactly like I thought. “I need help. I’m growing, and this contract is going to set me back. I need land, help, equipment, all the things that, if we worked together, we’d be able to accomplish. You’re certified, and I’m held up again, so if we work together, we can make this profitable for both of us.”
Maybe if I appeal to her more realistic side and that she’d be helping me, it’ll go my way.
“You’re kidding, right? Your solution to this is to merge the farms?”
“Tell me your objections.”
She gets to her feet. “My objections? I don’t even know where to start. How about for one, until about three weeks ago, we hated each other. Second, I don’t need you to come in and fix my life for me. You got the contract because your farm is better. Mine is completely a shambles.”
“Well, us merging would fix that,” I toss back.
“No it wouldn’t. It would destroy everything. I’d have, what? The part of my farm where the house is and maybe an acre around it while you get the rest? You’d own my cattle, my falling-down barns, and all the broken equipment. I’m a burden, Rowan, and I’m notgoing to let you come in here on your white horse like I need saving.”
She’s so fucking stubborn. “Fine. Then I’m going to turn the contract down.”
Charlotte turns, her jaw clenched. “The hell you will.”
“The hell I won’t.”
“I won’t take it if he comes to me.”
I raise one brow. “Sure you won’t.”
“Don’t!” she warns, pointing her finger at me. “Don’t you dare do that. If I’m going to lose this farm, then I’ll do it the way Pop would’ve been proud of. It’ll be on my own back.”
I laugh because she’s ridiculous. “Stupid. Completely stupid. I knew your pop and he wouldn’t have wanted you to go down in a blaze of glory. He would’ve wanted you to fight, and if that meant taking a deal with the devil, which I’ll play in this scenario, then that’s what he’d have done. Do you really think that, in all his years, he didn’t have to make the same choices?”
Charlotte crosses her arms over her chest. “You don’t know anything.”
“The fuck I don’t! My family bought part of your farm when my grandparents owned it. And guess what? My grandparents sold it back when they got into trouble. It’s what people do here, Charlotte. They step up and help people out.”
It’s her turn to laugh. “Where were you and all your help last year? What neighborly thing did I mistake that happened?”
“I didn’t know you were in trouble.”
She shakes her head. “It wouldn’t have mattered, Rowan. We weren’t friends and we sure as hell weren’t whatever this is.”
The softening of her voice calls me. I walk to her, pulling her into my arms. “I won’t let you go without a fight.”
“You can’t win this battle.”
“You can,” I say, pushing her hair back behind her ear. “You can let me in, let me help. I need you to be here, Charlotte. I need you.”
Her forehead drops to my chest, and I pray this means she’ll take me up on my offer.
I feel her muscles tense a second before she straightens. “I need time.”
“Time for what?”
“Time to get my shit together. Time to think about what the next step is. Aurora wants me to move to New York. She has a two-bedroom apartment, and I can easily find work there. This farm, it was a dream. A silly dream that young girls have and it’s clearly one I meant to live. I need to accept whatever my new life will be. I can’t do that with you...making me want the dream.”
