Page 26 of The Forever Formula
“Rachel, you’re a smart girl.”
“Woman,” I quickly said, correcting him. I found myself going from curious to annoyed in a big ol’ hurry.
He held up his hands in surrender. “Apologies.Woman.”
I clenched my teeth. I had never been so irritated at Austen in my life. This was the man he had grown into? One who stomps over to my house and makes an offer to buy my family home? I was furious.
“You need to start making sense,” I said, my voice trembling.
He folded his hands on the table in front of him. “You have no business in Kodiak Canyon anymore. We both know you aren’t a small-town girl. You belong in a city. With people. With jobs for someone like you. You hated it here for eighteen years. Now you have the chance to make good money by selling—”
It was my turn to hold up my hand. “I’m going to stop you right there. This is my family home, and my hometown. And you don’t know the first damn thing about me.”
I didn’t mean for my voice to get as loud as it did. But that didn’t deter Austen. He raised his voice to match mine.
“We’re giving you a fair price. You can’t hack it in the wilderness.”
“I did it for eighteen years,” I said, practically snarling at him.
“Did you? Or were you a little girl living with Grandpa? Didn’t he take care of everything, really? If you’re actually going to stay here, you’d better get to winterizing. Splitting wood to feed the woodstove all winter long, and having your propane topped off before the truck can’t make it up the icy hill come October. Stocking the pantry for the days you can’t make it down the hill in that old truck, getting the tire chains on yourself. You think you know how to do all that?”
I was so mad at this point, I was shaking. My nails were digging into my palms.
Seething, I said through clenched teeth, “I think it’s time for you to leave.”
Austen shrugged and nodded to the folder. “I’ll leave that here for you to think over.”
I grabbed the folder and chased him out the door, tossing it at him. It rose in the air, papers flying out in every direction before floating to the ground as I slammed the door shut.
Throwing my back to the door, I gulped down air, adrenaline rushing through my veins. The worst part was, he was right.
It was only September, but I didn’t realize these were things I needed to be thinking about now. Quite frankly, I’d forgotten they needed to be done. I’d been focused on the cosmetic aspects of fixing the place up, so it was suitable for me. I felt like an idiot now.
Was Austen right? Should I go back to Houston? I could get an apartment somewhere ...
That didn’t feel right, though. And I was mad that I’d let him get under my skin.
But why did he want to buy my land? That had come as a total shock.
I pulled open the door, and sure enough, the papers were still there, blowing slowly around my driveway. I picked each of them up and saw it. His pitch for expanding their fields onto my land.
So, it was a business decision. The business he and Noah ran.
A new wave of anger coursed through me. Was this the reason Noah had been playing nice—the fried chicken, bringing up our first kiss at the fall festival—was it to butter me up and get me to sell?
I barely had time for my pulse rate to lower before there was another knock at the door.
“If you think I’m selling the only place on earth I feel at home, you are dead-ass ...” I pulled open the door. “Wrong,” I said in a stunned tone.
Noah stood before me.
I shook my head at him with a deep scowl on my face. “How could you?”
“Austen just told me what happened. Listen, he wasn’t supposed to—”
I didn’t let him finish. I slammed the door in his face.
He knocked again politely and called through the door. “Please, Rach, I promise it’s not what you think.”
