13. Summer #2
I turn to him, waiting for the catch. Jaxon Chance doesn’t say things like that.
“Why are you staring like that?” he asks.
“You just admitted you needed me. Possibly for the first time in our lives.”
He tips his glass, then swallows. “I can be nice.”
My brows rise. “Name one time you complimented me.”
He squints, thinking. “The day you fell off your horse. You were so…graceful.” His lips curve.
I shake my head and laugh. “That is just wrong.”
“Okay, I’m sure I’ve said nice things before,” he says, his grin widening. “I just can’t think of any when you put me on the spot.”
“Excuses,” I say, biting back a smile. For once, it’s nice to be wanted, even if it is for what I bring to the farm. “Why don’t you like Hank, though?”
“Besides the fact that he wants Lucky Chance?” He plays with the napkin under his drink. “Years ago, the Branfords cheated my family. It’s why I won’t do business with them.”
That explains so much. Miriam and John never seemed impressed with Hank, while the rest of the town was falling all over themselves to get to him.
“Then I won’t do business with him either.” And I mean it. The Chance family took a risk on me when nobody else did, and I have never forgotten that.
Jaxon studies me. “So, you’ll stay at Lucky Chance while we figure things out?”
“It’s the least I can do.” I pick up my glass. “As long as you’re nice to me.”
He leans on the bar. “I can do that.” Then his lips hitch up. “Might even throw in another horse ride with me if you’re lucky.”
I roll my eyes, fighting a smile. His gaze drops to my lips, lingering there a beat too long. “So that’s a no?” He gives me a teasing grin.
There’s the boy who used to charm every girl in school.
“It’s a no,” I murmur, my gaze lowering.
A strange feeling curls in my middle—not our usual heated rivalry, but something softer and wilder.
“Jaxon.” I clear my throat. “I know you didn’t come over here to flirt.”
His grin falls slightly. “I’m not…”
“I need you to be honest with me,” I interrupt, shifting toward him. “Is there something wrong with the farm? Hank mentioned something, and I need to know that if I stay, I won’t lose my job.”
Jaxon settles on the stool next to me. “We’re in financial trouble.”
“What?” I ask. “I thought the farm was doing okay.”
He exhales. “Dad made a couple of poor investments. And then we had our farm manager embezzling money on top of that. Between the two, let’s just say it’s not good.”
The news sucks the oxygen from my lungs. “I knew something was up with that farm manager when Earl came out of retirement. But I didn’t know the rest.” I rub my finger along the lip of my glass. “How much did we lose?”
“Bad enough that in the last year, Mom wasn’t taking an income from the farm. She was putting everything back in just to keep the bank from getting involved.”
“She paid me, though,” I say slowly, “and you’re saying she couldn’t afford to pay herself?”
“I’m afraid so.”
I stare at the shiny bar top. Miriam knew about my mother’s condition and the memory care facility. I’d confided all of my money problems in her, and she kept paying me out of her own pocket, without saying a single word about her own debt.
Tears spring to my eyes, and I blink them back before Jaxon notices. “I can’t believe she did that.”
“She did the same for everyone who worked at Lucky Chance. She believed in following through on her word.”
“What are you going to do about the debt?”
“My brothers and I are putting together a plan before they head out of town. Problem is, horses aren’t a quick turnaround. So I’m open to ideas—” He glances sideways at me. “If you have any.”
“Me?” I wasn’t expecting him to ask. “What makes you think I have ideas?”
“Summer,” he says, facing me. “You have never once in your life shied away from telling me what you think.”
“Bold move, trying blunt honesty,” I say around a laugh.
He shrugs. “If it works…”
“It didn’t,” I say, giving it right back. “That was about a four out of ten for effort.”
He offers one of his usual grins—the kind that’s highly effective on most women. “What would a ten look like, then?”
“Oh, I think you know.”
His smile falls. “I’m not begging, Summer.”
“Didn’t say you had to.” I draw the glass to my lips. “But groveling would be nice.”
He stares at me to see if I’m joking, but I’m not.
“Then I’ll do it.” He turns to face me fully and takes a deep breath. “Summer, I’m asking you to please help Lucky Chance.”
I wave for him to continue.
“Because if we’re going to save this place—” He pauses again.
I nod. “Go on.”
He swallows, then moves closer to me, and something changes in his eyes.
“I can’t do it without you.” His voice is low and rough, and I stare at him, my heart going soft at the center.
The entire universe shifted because Jaxon Chance just admitted he couldn’t do this without me.
And he didn’t hide behind a mask—he just let me see how desperate he is for my help.
He searches my face. “Well?”
“That was…” I blink rapidly. “Good.”
He straightens. “You’ll help, then?”
“With one condition.” I level my gaze at him. “Promise that whatever idea I bring to you, you’ll listen to the entire thing before you make a face.”
He frowns. “I don’t make faces.”
“You make one every time I say something you think is ridiculous.”
His lips press together. “Then I’ll try to keep an open mind.”
I take a deep breath. Here goes nothing. “Remember that business idea I had about the wedding venue?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I want to turn the old barn into a wedding venue.”
He pauses, trying to hide a grimace.
I point at him. “You’re doing it again!”
“What?”
“Making that face.”
He immediately schools his expression. “I just don’t understand how. The old barn needs work.”
“A little, yes. But it’s the perfect place. People drive three hours and pay tens of thousands of dollars a day for a building with half that character.”
“How much will it cost?” Jaxon asks.
“It doesn’t need a full-scale renovation.
The character is already there. If we clean it out, put in some lighting, and fix up the exterior with new paint, we could make it work.
You know what you can’t buy? A hundred-year-old barn on a working thoroughbred farm in Kentucky.
Couples will pay for that kind of experience.
Guaranteed.” I slap my palm lightly on the bar.
He stares at me. “But that’s crazy.”
“Brides don’t think so. They want a dream wedding. The quaint, romantic setting. We can attract couples from Lexington and Louisville with a venue like this.”
“How much does a wedding bring in?”
“Minimum ten thousand per event. But I think we could get more.” I grab a bar napkin and a pen and start scribbling numbers. “Could be anywhere from ten to twenty-five grand, depending on the package.”
He takes in the rough figures I’m sketching out: revenue, down payments, capacity.
“We’d need to find a catering partner and a way to handle parking. But the barn doesn’t need to be rebuilt. It just needs some TLC.”
He studies the figures again. “It’s a wild plan, Summer. But my great-grandpa didn’t call the ranch Lucky Chance for nothing.” He taps the napkin. “Can I take this with me?”
“Sure.”
He folds it before tucking it into his back pocket. “I need you to put together a proposal. Something I can hand my brothers before they leave.”
I stare at him. “You’re actually serious?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
I thought he’d push back more. Or that he’d find a small flaw in the idea, and tug on it like a loose thread, until it unraveled and my plan fell apart.
“I don’t know anything about the wedding business.” He picks up his drink. “But it’s better than anything I’ve come up with.”
“Why are you willing to give me a shot at this?”
He shifts on his stool. “Because of Hank. His offer reminded me that you stayed at Lucky Chance. So if there’s anything I can do in return, I’m willing to hear you out.”
He pauses like he’s waiting for me to say something. That’s when I think of Remi, asking if I knew anyone who could coach her hockey team. There’s one person, but he’d never say yes.
I turn to him slowly. “There is actually one thing you could do…”
He opens his hands. “Name it.”
“The Golden Springs youth hockey team needs a coach.”
His brow pulls down.
“Jaxon, you need the town on your side before we open that venue. Folks will be more likely to help our business if you help them first.”
He closes his eyes. “I was really hoping you weren’t going to ask me that.”
“Is that a yes?”
“It’s a maybe,” he grumbles. “One practice.”
“You can’t make any progress in one practice. How about four?”
“Two.”
“Three.”
He shakes his head, his mouth curving slightly. “You never give up, do you, Daniels?”
“No, cowboy, I don’t.” I pick up my glass and hold it up. “To Lucky Chance.”
He tips his glass toward mine. “To Lucky Chance.”