Page 5 of Tempting Promises
Back and forth we go until I’m at the point where I’m not going any higher.
Olivia’s eyes are wide as she watches this go on, bouncing in her seat.
I’m holding as the winner, the announcer says going once, twice, and I wait for her to take her shot, but she doesn’t, and it’s over.
I turn to Olivia. “We won.”
“Good job.”
I nod, not really agreeing since I’m paying about three hundred dollars more than it’s worth, but I won.
Charlotte stands and I turn to face her, and the normal hostility when she looks at me seems muted. Then she gives me a slow, evil smile. “I didn’t want him anyway, congrats on spending way more than he’s worth.” She looks to Liv. “Bye, Olivia.”
Then I watch her walk away, wanting to scream.
two
CHARLOTTE
“Iunderstand that, sir, I really do, but I’m asking for two weeks. I swear, we’ll have the money by then.”
At least I hope so. I plan to sell off a few more calves that were just born. While I need them, I need to pay my mortgage more. I feel like I’m robbing Peter to pay Paul, but Peter is about out of cash.
“I understand your issue, Ms. Sullivan, and I want to help.”
“Then, please . . . give me two more weeks. If I don’t have the money by then, I’ll . . . I’ll have to sell.”
And that makes me want to die just thinking about, but I won’t have a choice.
“Two weeks.”
I exhale deeply. “Two weeks.”
Yeah, I have no idea how I’m going to keep doing this. My farm is in trouble, and it has been in my family for six generations. I can’t be the one to let it fall apart.
I sit back in the kitchen chair, not wanting to look at the ever-mounting pile of bills. “Think, Charlotte.”
Aurora and I both got ownership of this place when my grandparents died. I’d been basically running it when Pop got sick, though. Aurora never worked on the farm, just owned it. I love this place. It’s rich with memories of running around the fields andcatching fireflies, and then, as we got older, drinking and cow tipping.
Pop asked me to keep this farm alive. To do whatever necessary to not let it fail.
Little did I know that a month after that conversation, we’d lose them both only five days apart.
And with that came the farm and the bills. All the dreams I had of going to college, seeing the world, or finding love were ripped away from me, especially when my sister asked me to buy her out.
My phone rings, snapping me out of my thoughts, and I see my sister’s face pop on the screen.
“Hey!”
“Hey yourself! How are you?”
Falling apart. “I’m great! I’m just getting ready to make dinner.”
Which consists of Ramen because it’s all I can afford.
“Awesome! I’m heading out to dinner with Ryan, he’s taking me to some steakhouse he loves and then a rooftop bar somewhere in midtown,” Aurora says all dreamily.
My sister is living her best life in New York, refusing to come back to Sugarloaf, even if just to visit.
