Page 11 of The Forever Formula
Mom wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “With interest.”
Whatever Mom thought, I needed to put any fantasies about Rachel out of my head because we had bigger things to worry about. Austen was set on buying the Tyson property. Unfortunately for us, last night Rachel had made it sound like she was interested in sticking around.
I made sure to keep my mouth stuffed while Mom kept poking at the issue.
“You’ve considered it,” she told me with the certainty only a mother can have.
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not that simple.”
“Sure it is, sweetie pie. If you like her, ask her out. Don’t let her get away. What’s complicated about that?”
I snorted at the irony. There’s no way I could tell Mom about Austen’s plan. She’d never sign off on trying to convince Rachel to sell her property.
The bottom line was that it was either my family’s business expansion or Rachel’s happiness. They were mutually exclusive. Someone was going to lose, and I didn’t want to be caught in the middle.
The best thing I could do was stay away from Rachel. If she stayed, that was on her, but at least it wouldn’t be because of me.
“Mom, can we just drop it and eat our lunch in peace?”
She rolled her eyes.
• • •
When I got home, Austen was practically bouncing off the walls. He pulled me aside by waving his hand obnoxiously until I went out back with him, out of Mom’s earshot.
The joy on his face meant we were about to have the conversation I’d been worried about all day.
“We got approval from the bank for a loan to purchase the neighboring property.” The words tumbled excitedly from his lips.
It took all my effort to balance my expression. “But it’s not even listed yet,” I said to remind him.
“I know.” Austen sounded a lot like a kid who’d just inherited a candy store. “Which is why the timing isperfect.”
He drew out the wordperfect, emphasizing it with his hands as he continued.
“We’re not going to wait for it to go on the market and have someone potentially outbid us. This is the time to talk to Rachel.” He rubbed his hands together. “And since you two have a connection, I want you to be the one to handle this for us.”
My heartbeat pounded in my ears.
Everything was happening so fast. Sure, it was what we had been dreaming of, finding accessible land that we could manage. It was a sad loss to see Paul go, but I admit I was excited about the idea of buying the land when Austen brought it up. That’s partly because I never expected Rachel to show up and announce she wanted to stay.
I had to think fast because there was no way I could pitch this idea to her. “Why not you? You’re the one who wants this property so bad.”
Austen shook his head. “I want it to secure a future forus. For ourfamily. Expanding means more money, means we can keep pouring money into this brewery businessyouwant to work so bad.”
I sighed, knowing I’d lost.
Austen was right. He was the one who had been successfully selling farm equipment. He had been making a good living and loved the job. And he’d left that all to help me run this business. I owed him.
“Okay, I’ll talk to her. You happy?”
Austen snorted. “I’ll be happy once she agrees to sell and heads her pretty little ass back to Houston.”
I rolled my eyes, unable to hold it back.
Of course, Austen didn’t let that tell slide. “Why would this matter to you now? You sure you’re not overreacting to your history with her?”
“What? No. Of course I’m not. It wasn’t much of a history, anyway ... just some teenage fantasies come to life for a few months.”
