Page 19 of Love Off-Limits
“Just asMomas ever. Daffodil just had a set of twins, so she’s over the moon right now.”
“I will never get tired of seeing baby goats in diapers snuggled in Mom’s arms,” Lennox said, his tone even.
“Amen and amen.”
“So what’s up? I’ve only got about five minutes before I’m at the restaurant, so you’d better talk fast.”
I sighed. “You asked about Mom and Dad, but you didn’t ask about me.”
“Uh-oh. I’m guessing that’s your way of saying you aren’t okay?”
I reached the corner of the east orchard and stepped into the shade of one of our most mature apple trees. The apples were already good-sized—this tree was growing galas and those were some of the earliest to ripen—but they still needed another couple of months. Growing apples took a lot of patience.
“I’m...not okay,” I said evenly. “Perry just told me that Dad asked him to run Stonebrook. Permanently.” Perry had couched the news a little differently, but Dad wasn’t one to mince words. If he’d asked Perry to run things? It’s what he wanted.
“Whoa,” Lennox said. “That’s huge.”
I breathed out a sad sigh. “Yeah.”
“Did he say why?”
“Perry didn’t. And Mom doesn’t want us to talk about it with Dad.”
“She doesn’t want it to stress him out.”
“No, and I get that. He wasn’t ready to retire. How horrible would it be for him to have to listen to us bickering about who gets his job?”
“But it was always going to be you, Liv. We all knew that.”
A tear finally spilled over onto my cheek, and I had a sudden, unexpected urge to call Tyler. It didn’t make any sense for me to want comfort from a man I hardly knew. But he’d just seemed so...safe. So certain. And I could use a little bit of that certainty right now.
“But it’s not going to be me anymore.”
“Now wait a minute,” Lennox argued. “Things aren’t exactly normal around the farm right now. Maybe this isn’t forever.”
I shook my head. It was too scary to risk hoping for anything different. “Perry made it sound pretty permanent.”
“Perry is a grouch who likes to be in charge. He wouldn’t lie to you about what Dad said, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t take advantage of the moment.”
“I don’t think so, Len. Perry left a great business to come here. Why would he give all of that up unless he had to? I’ve been struggling to figure out why he’s still here. He’s obviously unhappy. Why couldn’t he just give the farm to me and go back to consulting? Except, now I know why. Because Dad asked him to stay.”
“Perry liked consulting, but his divorce hit him pretty hard. I hear you, and you’re right to be upset, but I’m just saying, there might be more to what’s going on inside Perry’s head, you know?”
I reached up and tugged a leaf off the closest tree, rubbing it between my fingers. “You think he might actually want to run Stonebrook?” I had never considered the possibility of having to work with one of my brothers, much less compete with him for a job.
“Maybe,” Lennox said. “But even if he does, that doesn’t negate the importance of what you want.”
“Or whatyouwant,” I said.
During grad school, my capstone project had been a business proposal for a farm-to-table restaurant on Stonebrook. We’d tossed the idea around as a family for years, but my research had convinced me it wasn’t just a good idea, it was an almost guaranteed success.
We already had a catering kitchen that serviced the special events and retreats which utilized the farmhouse, but it was otherwise closed to the public. It would be a lot of work to expand the kitchen to include a full-service restaurant, but it was definitely possible. I could see it all so clearly in my mind. Whenever I did, certainty filled my gut. It was a good idea. Awinningidea. If we also opened up the guestrooms in the farmhouse to the general public when it wasn’tbooked for weddings or other events, we could truly make the farm a destination. People could come for the weekend, enjoy a farm-to-table dinner, a night tucked away in a cozy farmhouse, followed by the most beautiful breakfast they would ever see. They could feed the goats, gather eggs from the chicken house, meander through the orchards... it was exactly the kind of farm-life experience people would love.
The market was primed for it. And most importantly, Lennox would make an incredible executive chef.
He’d loved my idea when I’d proposed it to him.
The rest of my family, on the other hand, had been less enthusiastic.
