Page 33 of That One Night
“How?”
“I don’t know. I’ll think of something.” He took a deep breath. “But in the meantime, you need to go home.”
Chapter
Nine
I’ll sign awaythe lien at the end of the summer. Once you’ve followed through on our agreement. Please send a ‘Y’ to confirm you understand. – Trenton.
Emery stared down at her phone, fuming. She’d been trying to call Trenton for days, to discuss the stupid lien and work out how they could resolve it.
And of course he’d been ignoring her calls. He must have eventually gotten annoyed at her, deigning to send her a text message. One that looked like something you’d get from a doctor’s office, not from the man she used to love.
Reply ‘Y’ to agree? He could go take a running jump into a river.
God, she wanted to kill him.
Since the night of the storm she’d spent most of her time making phone calls, trying to work out a way she could put the farm on the market with the loan attached to it.
The short answer was, she couldn’t. She’d even looked into getting a loan of her own, but she couldn’t get that much moneyunsecured. Whatever route they took, it was going to delay the sale considerably.
There was no way she could get everything done before the summer was over and she had to go back to work. It had already taken her almost a month to get all the documents she needed. Time ran slower in West Virginia, especially when it was this hot. Nobody was in a hurry to get things done.
Gritting her teeth, she deleted the message. She wasn’t going to let him get to her. Not when he seemed to want to control everything else. And then she shoved the phone in her pocket and wandered down to the yard to check on the chickens, smiling when she saw Hendrix outside his cottage.
Since the storm, she’d only seen him a couple of times. She’d gone to his house the next morning to check on Frank. The vet had just left and given Frank the all clear – with the suggestion of putting a bigger lock on the shed. Her eyes had met Hendrix’s when he recounted that particular conversation and they’d both laughed.
She had a feeling that nothing would keep Frank from getting out of that shed if he desired to escape. He could probably learn to pick the lock if he wanted to.
The only other time she’d seen Hendrix was when he’d called her over and given her a gift to say thank you for her help in finding Frank. It had made her smile that he’d given her a bottle of whiskey.
“You can hide it underneath your bed,” he’d told her. “In case you ever need to get drunk again.”
But apart from that, he’d barely been home. Too busy working on his uncle’s farm, she assumed. You didn’t get through a storm like the one they had without needing to make some repairs.
Hendrix noticed her outside the chicken coop and walked across the lane, leaning on her fence as he smiled at her. He had a blue cap on his head to block out the beating sun.
And yeah, her heart did a little pitter patter at the way he was grinning. Like he didn’t have a care in the world.
“How’s Frank?” she asked him.
“Still an asshole.”
Her mouth twitched. “Glad to hear he’s back to normal.” She tipped her head to the side, shading her eyes with her hand. Because the sun was really hot today.
“What are you up to this morning?” Hendrix asked her.
“Avoiding working.” It was stifling inside and her mom was throwing a fit about the chickens refusing to lay eggs, so sitting on the porch had been her only option. She was almost to the end of the farm finances. But now that she knew where the black hole in them came from she had less enthusiasm for them.
Still, they needed to be done. Loan from Trenton Montclair or no loan from Trenton Montclair, this farm still needed to be sold.
“Sounds like a good way to spend the day.” He had this little smile that made her pulse heat up. “Want to do some avoiding working with me? I’m heading into Ashford Gap. Gotta pick up some supplies.”
“I thought we weren’t supposed to be spending time with each other.” She smiled to let him know she was teasing. Because they were over that.
He ran the pad of his thumb over his jaw. “I have an ulterior motive. I said I’d make it up to you, remember?” He lifted a brow. “My friend Jack runs a tattoo shop in the Gap. He’s usually booked out for months but I called and he said he could fit you in. I figured you might want to tick off another item from your bucket list.”
She blinked. Yes, he’d said he’d make it up to her, but she hadn’t expected this. Or the way he looked at her with such stupidly boyish enthusiasm.
