Chapter 16
CARTER
The following morning, I was at Honeyrose House, having coffee with Mrs. Presley while she told me all about the bake-off that would be happening tomorrow. My phone rang annoyingly. It was work, reminding me I wasn’t just on vacation out here.
I excused myself from the sitting room and went out onto the porch. “Brian from PR, what have you got for me today?”
He seemed flustered I remembered him, and I suppressed a chuckle, again reminded how different life in LA was compared to my time in Ferris. Back at Allory, my word was law. Here, Shelby ruled me with an iron fist and I could barely get enough of it.
Or of her.
That kiss had knocked me for a loop, making me forget all the reasons I shouldn’t hook up with Shelby.
I was in Ferris for good PR. Connecting with local farmers who would help out with the campaign was half the reason I was here.
The other half was to scope out smaller farms for acquisition, but so far I had only found one solid investment opportunity.
Ronnie Miller’s dairy with the decadent cheese.
We had already sent him the paperwork and he was reviewing it with his attorney. I had made sure to be generous, wanting to help him while still profiting. The terms of the deal were more than fair, in my opinion, and I anticipated Ronnie would send the signed versions back soon enough.
Shelby’s farm would make a good investment too, but I didn’t even want to suggest it. Her parents’ deal with Allory had cut her too deeply. There was no way she would partner with the same company that had torn her life asunder.
However, if Shelby were to bring up the idea, I would jump at the chance. With her knowledge and my finances, we could do great things together. It was too bad I had already muddied the waters of any future business dealings by kissing her.
I couldn’t bring myself to regret the kiss, though. Her lips had been sweet. Being so close to her, the scent of her wrapped around me like a seductive cloud. I wasn’t sure where I had found the willpower to stop before nature took its course and we tore each other’s clothes off.
“Mr. Allory, sir?” Brian from PR had been talking but I had been fully distracted.
I took a deep, bracing breath of cool country air and released it. “I missed all that. Bad connection. Give me the bullet points.”
“Oh, yes, sir.” He cleared his throat. “The social media team will be heading into town tomorrow. As per your email, transport has been arranged and you won’t have to worry about it.”
“Tomorrow, huh?” The bake-off was tomorrow. I was supposed to be a judge and I wasn’t about to back out now. Mrs. Presley would be crushed. The damn PR team would just have to wait until I was finished.
“Yes, sir. They wanted me to ask you for any contact info on locals who will be in the reels we’ll be shooting.”
“I have a couple maybes,” I said, which was mostly true. I was starting to second-guess including Shelby in the campaign at all. She wasn’t just a prop for a PR stunt. I liked her. I cared about her, crazy as it was to admit it to myself.
And she was still hesitant to be a part of it, clearly uncomfortable with the idea.
I didn’t want to pressure her into it, which was how I was starting to feel.
The original agreement between Shelby and me was she would think about helping out if I did some work on her farm.
To her credit, she had thought about it.
Plus, the work had ended up being fun. It took me right back to those summers with my uncle, not stuck in an office, sitting in board meetings, looking at spreadsheets.
I wouldn’t mind spending the entire spring season out on the farm with her, feeling the burn in my muscles after a hard day’s work, getting tanned, and laughing with the angry little farmgirl who teased me relentlessly.
I smiled as a thought occurred to me. So many people would kill to have my job, with my office, my salary, and my prestige. And here I was, dreaming about throwing it all away to go work on an egg farm with the girl I was crushing on.
The simple life didn’t seem so bad compared to the million fires I had to put out every day. I fully understood farming life wasn’t easy, but it was less complicated than my current life. Maybe when I retired, I could get me a little parcel of land and grow something. Get a couple goats and—
“Mr. Allory, sir?”
“Dammit, Brian, just send me an email.” I ended the call and shoved the phone back into my pocket.
I couldn’t even daydream for a minute without someone asking me for something. It was no wonder I was yearning to stay here in the sticks, where all I had to do was judge a bake-off and take orders from Shelby.
“Sorry, Mrs. Presley,” I said as I came back into her sitting room. “You were telling me about the Easter festivities this week?”
“Oh, yes,” she said, settling right back into her explanation of the local tradition. “The week leading up to Easter, Ferris has a spring festival with lot of events. The bake-off is just the first of them.”
I nodded. “That should be fun. I guess I chose the right time to come visit.”
“It’s a hoot. All the neighbors come out. It helps reconnect us as a community.”
I heard a truck pull up outside Honeyrose.
“That will be Jake,” Mrs. Presley said. “He’s here to pick up some signs I made for the bake-off.”
She got up to let him in and I went to say hello too.
“Allory,” he said, cocking his head. “Are you busy right now?”
“No, not at the moment.” I shrugged. “I was going to catch up on some paperwork, but I could be persuaded to play a little hooky if the right offer comes along.”
Jake nodded. “I could use a hand setting up the gym for the bake-off.”
“The gym? Are there physical challenges for this bake-off?” I glanced at Mrs. Presley, who laughed.
“No, it’s being held in the high school gym,” she said. “The only physical effort required is lifting your fork and marking down scores.”
Jake clapped me on the shoulder. “And helping me set up the tables and chairs.”
Was setting up chairs and tables at the high school gym the best use of my time? No. Would it win me some points with the community? Maybe. Would I lose my mind if I had to answer emails all day? Absolutely.
“You know what?” I asked. “Let’s do it.”
Jake’s truck smelled like coconut instead of the dumpster juice coming out of Tyler’s vents. Say whatever you want about Kentucky, but I had been introduced to a lot of interesting smells in the past week and a half.
“Is Shane ever coming back to Ferris?” I asked Jake as he drove.
“Oh, he’s been planning this visit with his folks for a while,” Jake said. “But I think he’ll be back in a few days. Don’t quote me on that, but I think Lila mentioned it.”
I ran a hand through my hair and let out a long breath. “I hope so. The stink from Tyler’s truck is starting to get in my pores. I’ll have to scrub it off with steel wool.”
We got to the school and a custodian let us in. Jake seemed to know his way around, presumably because he had been a student here. The place was a lot different than my high school, which was a private prep school.
Here, the ceiling tiles were water stained and sagging in spots. A few of the fluorescent lights flickered at random intervals, and wads of old gum were stuck to the painted cinderblock walls.
“This place looks like it’s seen better days,” I said, taking it all in.
Jake shot me a dark look. “Everything got hit badly when Allory closed down Whitaker Farms.” He gestured all around us. “This is the hidden cost of those boardroom decisions.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I wasn’t involved in that decision, but that didn’t matter. The effects on the town and its people were the same, regardless of who pulled the trigger.
We passed by a long, glass trophy case, and a familiar smile caught my eye, stopping me in my tracks. Young Shelby stared back at me from the past. In the photo portrait, she wore a jersey with the school colors, blue and white, and in front of the picture was a giant trophy.
“She was captain of the soccer team,” Jake said, coming back to stand next to me.
I shook my head in wonder. “Shelby looks so happy there.”
Jake gave me a sideways look, like he was curious why I even had an opinion.
“Yeah, well, she was popular back then. Smart, nice, pretty. Not to mention her parents employed half the town. She was homecoming queen.” He sighed.
“I think that’s part of why people turned on her so hard.
Betrayal hurts worse when it comes from the golden child. ”
“She had nothing to do with any of it,” I said.
“They needed someone to blame and she was an easy target.” He waved at me to keep walking toward the gym. “She barely hangs out at public gatherings anymore. She won’t show up to the bake-off, I bet.”
I frowned. “No, she promised Mrs. Presley she would be here.”
Jake scoffed. “That ain’t happening. Mark my words. She’ll tell Mrs. Presley something came up. That’s how it’s been for the last three years.”
Guilt smothered me like a wet blanket, which only got heavier as Jake talked about how her parents fled to Georgia immediately, leaving Shane and Shelby to deal with the fallout.
Shane had his own thing going on as a mechanic, and since he was the only auto shop in town, it seemed he got more of a pass than his sister. Shelby refused to give up her dream of farming here like past generations of Whitakers.
Her grandparents had passed away while she was in college.
Her grandfather first, and then her grandmother a few months later.
Everyone said she had died from a broken heart.
They left their property to Shelby, and when she decided to get it running, some townspeople didn’t like that, saying she didn’t deserve it when so many people had lost their livelihoods.
We got to the gym. Other volunteers were already there, unfolding chairs and tables and setting them up. Jake checked in with the lady in charge, and he introduced me as Carter, not mentioning my last name, for which I was grateful.
We got to work, but I felt awful, still thinking about the change in Shelby from the smiling girl in that photo to the prickly, stubborn woman I had come to like.
Time and experience stole lots of smiles from lots of people, but with Shelby, I felt responsible.
Not for what happened, but for not figuring out some way to fix the damage now.
I wasn’t sure if that was even possible.
Jake bumped me with his shoulder. “You all right, man? You look like you’re chewing on gravel.”
“I was just thinking.” I wasn’t sure if I should be honest with him but it all spilled out anyway. “Is Shelby happy?”
“What? That’s a weird question.” Jake eyed me skeptically. “Do you like her or what?”
I shrugged a shoulder. “What if I do?”
“Then, I will tell you not to hurt that girl. She’s one of my oldest friends, not to mention my wife’s best friend, so I will break your fucking legs if you do.”
“Hey, easy,” I said, taking a step back. “Why do you automatically think I would hurt her?”
“Are you moving to Ferris?” he asked.
“No, of course not.”
“That’s how I know.” He leveled a serious look at me. “Because you’re thinking of her as a fun little fling while you’re here in town for work. But that girl? She looks tough, but when she cares about someone, she does it with her whole heart. All you’re going to do is break it.”
“Okay,” I said, nodding. “Message received. But hey, I can still try to help fix some of the damage to her reputation.”
“I don’t see how,” Jake said.
“Actually, I have an idea.”