24. Chapter 23
You don’t need the whole world to love you. You just need one person.
“Look, there’s no pressure to sell. I think Hank would have liked it if you stayed.
Or at least held on to it. But I also know that he wouldn’t have wanted to pressure you about anything.
I’m just passing along some of the numbers I’m seeing.
” Chelsea sat back in her chair, looking every bit the professional lawyer this morning in her black jacket and pale blue camisole underneath.
Hope glanced at the various numbers people had told Chelsea they would be willing to offer for her dad’s—her!—land.
“No real offers yet. These are mostly what people have been telling me they’re thinking about if you decide to put it up for sale. I believe about half of them.”
“Is that why you have poop emojis next to some of them?”
Chelsea grinned. “Yep. They’re the stinkers. But the others, I think you can take at face value.”
Hope noticed that Edward Killeen was on there too, and tried to keep her voice casual. “Edward Killeen? The guy whose son tried to break into my place? ”
“God, what a screw-up.” Chelsea straightened slightly as she sat up and leaned forward.
“I don’t particularly care for Edward, but I like his wife.
I don’t know how they went so wrong with that son of theirs.
I call him a kid sometimes but he’s a grown man,” she said, shaking her head in clear disgust.
“His offer is pretty decent.”
Chelsea shrugged. “Yeah, he’s been buying up a lot of land around here.”
“You know why?”
Another shrug. “I don’t know. I heard a rumor that they might be building a highway through here in a few years.
They’ve got ten years to make it happen.
But…I don’t know. The money from the sale of all the land can’t be that good for what he’s offering.
I have my suspicions about him… I think he might be wanting to build more beverage manufacturing plants.
There’s big money in that. Or start another farm.
Which brings money to the town, so I can’t complain. ”
But she didn’t look totally on board with Killeen either. “How did my dad feel about him?”
“Edward Killeen? I don’t know. Okay, I guess. Something happened between them years ago but whatever it was, they patched it up. I might not love the guy, but he puts a lot of money back into the town.”
“You hear anything about the charges against his son?” She was still waiting on anything and figured her lawyer would have a lot more insight than anyone else.
“Yeah. You probably won’t like it, but he’s not going to jail. He’ll end up doing community service. Which the little shit deserves at the very least. But he won’t serve any time—his dad is friends with the judge and it’s his first offense.”
“His first ?”
“First time being charged with real evidence.” Chelsea’s tone was dry.
“What do you think he wanted when he broke into my place?” Because Hope was still trying to figure that out.
“Who knows? To cause trouble. To steal stuff he doesn’t need.” She shook her head slightly and her gaze strayed to a picture of her and a teenage girl with a big smile, framed on one of her shelves.
“Is that your daughter?” Hope asked softly.
“Yeah.” Chelsea’s voice got a lot softer too.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t—”
“No. It’s okay. I can talk about her now. About…what happened. And I know you had a lot of issues with your dad. Rightfully so. But he was there for me after I lost her.”
“I’m glad he was,” she said, and meant it. No one should have to lose a kid.
Chelsea nodded, her mouth pulled tight as if she was fighting emotions.
“I’d never even been a drinker before. I never did the ‘wine after work’ thing, and for happy hours I usually just drank sparking water or Coke.
But once I lost her…I fell into alcohol.
Or maybe I dove right in is more accurate.
I also never understood how anyone could become an addict before I lost Gabriella. That was her name.”
“Beautiful name for a beautiful girl.”
She gave a small, sad smile. “Yeah, I named her after my abuela. Alcohol—vodka was my drink of choice because it’s hard to really smell—was my best friend for a while.
It was the only thing that dulled my senses.
In the beginning I just drank at night. I’d get blackout drunk, but I always woke up and made it to work so I told myself I didn’t have a problem.
Then slowly I started taking a little nip at lunch just to tide me over until I got home.
It took the edge off, but it wasn’t long until I was having a shot with my coffee in the morning.
” Chelsea shook her head in disgust. “I was an absolute mess. I thought no one knew about my problem, but I was also a fool.”
“And Hank really helped you get sober?”
“Oh yeah,” she said with a laugh. “Helped me detox, then forced me to go to AA meetings with him five days a week at first. And he showed up at my place on the two off days to bug me. I used to call him a menace, and he told me he was retired with nowhere to be so I could just deal with it… Fentanyl is what killed her,” she blurted.
Hope blinked once. She was well aware of the out-of-control opioid problem, specifically with fentanyl being added to other drugs. “I’m really sorry.”
“One of her friends got MDMA—Ecstasy—and they all decided to try it.” Chelsea shook her head, raw pain clear in her dark eyes. “They were all just sixteen-year-olds on spring break, wanting to have a good time. It was a stupid choice, but they were kids… Only one of them survived.”
Hope wasn’t sure what to say other than she was sorry again.
“Anyway…you didn’t ask to have all that dumped on you.”
“No, stop. Thank you for telling me. That’s a lot of trauma. Too much. But I’m glad you’re sober now.” And so damn sorry she’d lost her kid.
“It’s been ten years now. It doesn’t actually get easier. The pain, I mean. I don’t care what people say. But you learn to bear it. And that’s enough out of me. I just wanted to talk to you about the offers and let you know that if you end up deciding to sell, you’ve got a lot of options.”
It was clear she was done talking about her daughter, so Hope nodded. “Thank you for letting me know. And thank you for being so wonderful after my dad died. I was dreading coming here, but you and your group have made things bearable. I might actually stay for a little while.”
“Well I kind of love that. I’d love to see you outside of office hours. Maybe grab coffee or dinner or something.”
“I’d love that too. And do I owe you anything, or…?”
“Oh, no. Hank took care of that. He basically prepaid me out of the estate. And he was very generous in case you’re worried.” She gave a ghost of a smile and started to stand.
So Hope took the cue and followed suit. “I might have some friends coming to visit for a while,” she said, since Bradford had just texted her. Apparently something was going on and she needed to tell people that she had people coming to stay with her to keep herself safe. “For moral support.”
Chelsea nodded as she walked her out into the front of the building where her assistant was quietly talking on the office phone. “The place is huge enough. I told him more than once he could turn your homestead into a B&B or something. But he just laughed.”
After wrapping up with Chelsea, Hope stepped back out into bright sunlight, the oppressive heat once again rolling over her as she headed to her car.
She slid her Bluetooth in her ear and called Bradford.
“Hey, everything okay?” she asked as she walked past the parked Jeep without looking inside to see if he was there.
She knew that he was, felt his intense gaze on her. And she was grateful he had her back. Last night had been unexpected but wonderful. And she hadn’t run from him this morning, as his accusing stare over breakfast had implied.
She’d simply been hungry and he’d been in the shower. Ugh, whatever, she had to stop defending herself to herself . She’d done nothing wrong.
“Yeah, but someone is going to be following you.”
“Someone?”
“Someone not us. I’ll explain everything once you get back to your place. Just drive that way like normal. A gray Subaru Outback is going to be following you, but we’ll be following him in case he tries something.”
“Got it.” She wasn’t sure what her life had become, but she didn’t hate Bradford’s presence in it. Not one bit. Because if someone was following her with the intent of hurting her, she knew he would have her back. “Are you going to join me?”
“Yep. I’ll see you soon.”
She was counting down the seconds until she saw him again.