Page 59 of Love Off-Limits
“You are. It’s plain as day.”
I leaned onto the counter while Mom moved to the goat’s milk and started slowly stirring in the oils she’d been warming on the stove. Was I really so transparent?
“It just feels like if I jump into a relationship right now, all it will do is tell Perry and Dad that I’m... complacent. That I don’t really care about running the farm.”
Mom scoffed. “What kind of hogwash is that? No one ever said you can only have one or the other.”
“But you know how I am, Mom. You know how my heart works.”
She looked up. “You fall big, and you fall hard?”
I nodded. “And I get distracted. I know I’m capable of balance, but what would it say to Daddy if right after he put Perry in charge of the farm, I had a summer fling with a farmhand? It would just confirm he made the right call, wouldn’t it? He obviously doesn’t think I’m ready. I don’t want to give him any proof that further confirms that belief.”
“Well, the stupidest thing you just said was calling Tyler a farmhand and this thing between you a fling.” She shook her head. “Real love doesn’t come along every day, child. You’d best grab it while you can.”
I sighed. “Do you remember the summer after I graduated from high school? It was the year the strawberries were so good. Remember? They bloomed early and we got almost double the harvest that year.”
“Oh, right, right. I do remember. What about it?”
“One of the farmhands that summer, Dillon, we sort of had a thing for each other. It was nothing serious, but Perry caught us kissing in the goat barn and I think his exact words weretypical Olivia.”
“Typical? Was it? How many boys did you kiss in the goat barn?”
“Only that one. But it wasn’t just the guy. Perry accused me of being... absent. Distracted. Of prioritizingfunover my responsibilities at the farm.”
Mom furrowed her brow.
“What if that’s what Dad thinks, too? What if that’s why he put Perry in charge?”
“Oh, honey. Is that why you’ve been dressing like a funeral director lately? You’re trying to show Perry—all of us—you’re serious about the farm?”
I shrugged. “What else can I do?”
“And you’re keeping Tyler away because you’ve got something to prove, and you’re worried he’ll make it harder.”
“He never would on purpose. But that wouldn’t stop Dad or Perry from making assumptions.”
Mom stirred the soap slowly, her lips pursed. “I’ve been trying to figure out what’s been different about you since your father’s stroke. But you just told me. Your vibrancy, your passion, has always been what’s made you special. And now you’ve put that under a rock. You’ve dimmed your light. I hate that.”
“But it’s my passion that’s the problem. Perry said so himself. Dad doesn’t need me blustering in and changing things up. He wants Stonebrook to stay the same, and he doesn’t think I’m the person to make that happen.”
She shot me a pointed look. “Are you?”
I stilled. “Am I what?”
“Are you the person that would keep Stonebrook the same?”
A vision of my farm-to-table restaurant flashed through my mind. I bit my lip.
Mom chuckled. “I didn’t think so.”
“But I have to be that person, Mom. You know how much I’ve always wanted this.”
She shook her head. “Enough to change who you are to get it?” Something flashed behind her eyes. “I’ve been in that position before, Liv. Trust me. Better to be true to yourself than to change for anything. Or anyone.”
If Tyler hadn’t been waiting for me, I would have pulled up a barstool and made Mom unpack that statement right there in the moment.
“I think you’re wrong about how your father feels about you, but that’s a conversation you need to have with him. As for Perry, well, he’s always had a little bit of a stick up his butt. If he’s judging you, he’s wrong.” She put down her spatula and moved to stand directly in front of me. “But no matter what those men think of you, child, don’t you put out your light for them. You want to open a farm-to-table restaurant,do it.You don’t need Stonebrook to make it happen.” She squeezed my shoulders. “You could do anything you want, Olivia. You’re that brilliant. You hear me?”
