Chapter 2
Chapter Two
“Just sign right here, ma’am, and I’ll take care of everything else.”
Summer Lubbock picked up the pen and held her breath. She sat in the real estate office with her agent, Frederick, sitting across from her. He had drawn up the contract that laid out their fees and stipulations that she had to sign in order for them to list and sell her property.
The farm had been in her family for generations, and she hated that she was losing it, but she didn’t have much choice.
Her parents had mortgaged it, and then when real estate prices went down, they were underwater.
She had done everything she could to try to earn money to continue to pay the mortgage, but she’d slowly and surely gotten more and more behind.
Then, when her prized Paso Fino horse had developed colic, and she’d sent her to Virginia Tech to have surgery, she’d been slapped with a $35,000 bill.
There was no way she could pay it and keep current on the mortgage.
She was doing her best to chip away at both, but at this point, she knew it was time.
She should have just put the horse down, but she had hoped that she would be able to save her, not just since she was pregnant and the foal would have been worth almost as much as the surgery cost, but because she loved her.
But she’d lost the mare, the foal, and now the farm.
She wasn’t very good at placing bets.
Definitely she should stay well away from Las Vegas.
She rolled her eyes, exhaled, and scribbled her name on the line.
“Excellent. I’ll get your farm listed. I’ll get all the information typed in, and the listing should be up online today or at the very latest tomorrow.
I’ll send a memo around in-house to let all of our current agents know, so they can alert any potential buyers that they have waiting in the wings looking for property just like yours. It is a beautiful place.”
Summer nodded. She knew he was right. Her mother had mortgaged the place so she could remodel, and she had done a beautiful job.
The house looked like a showpiece, with huge windows, skylights everywhere, and all brand-new and modern designs.
The kitchen was her favorite. It was huge, with a big island and plenty of natural light.
Summer had plants and candles sitting around, and the place always brought her comfort and peace and joy.
But no matter how much comfort and peace and joy it gave her, those things didn’t pay the bills.
She could cook, but she wasn’t a great at it, and as the farm sank further and further into debt, she spent less and less time in the kitchen and more and more time trying to take care of her current clients and to get more.
But no matter how hard she worked, it wasn’t enough.
“All right, there’s probably going to be a good bit of activity here at the beginning when the listing first goes up as buyers in that price range book showings. I would go home and make sure everything’s in tip-top shape, because I wouldn’t be surprised if you have several shows this week.”
“All right, thanks. You’re sure it’ll be okay if I continue to work outside while people are viewing the property?”
“It’s always best if the owner is completely off the property while it’s being shown, but if you’re working, and you can’t stop, there’s not a whole lot we can do. However, my highest recommendation is that you vacate the premises if at all possible.”
“All right.” He had already said that, but she had explained to him that she worked on the property and couldn’t just cancel her clients because someone wanted to come see it. That was how she made her money, and until the farm sold, she needed to continue making an income.
After the farm sold… Then she had to sell her horses, which made her heart clench and she couldn’t spend more than a couple of seconds thinking about it.
And then… She supposed she’d have to see how much money she had left after paying the mortgage off, whether it would be enough for a down payment on a smaller facility, or whether she would have to sell all of the horses and move somewhere to a smaller place with no barn or acreage.
Her degree in counseling gave her a little bit of a cushion.
She could open her own practice, although from experience, she knew that starting her own business took a lot of time, money, and effort, and patience as she waited for word of mouth to get out, since that was the best advertisement—satisfied patients.
Regardless, she didn’t think she was going to starve to death, and she would just do the best she could.
Walking out of the real estate office, she blinked in the bright sunlight. The street seemed busier than usual, and she remembered that Mistletoe Meadows was having their a Christmas festival tomorrow. Because of their Christmas-like name, they had Christmas festivals year-round.
She had signed up to have two horses in the parade.
Back when she had originally signed up, she had hoped that one of the horses would have been Princess Sugarcube, who had just passed away.
She blew out a breath and turned left toward her car, thinking that perhaps she would stop in at Sunny’s bakeshop and grab a muffin since she wasn’t going to have time to do breakfast before her first client.
She didn’t typically have a whole lot of clients during the day, since most of her clients were children, and she saw them after school.
She smiled, thinking of her favorite clients, the McBride children, with whom she had been working for free for the last year.
Their mother had died of cancer, and their father had neglected the business during her illness to the point where he almost lost it.
From what she understood, he had spent a lot of time the last year trying to get solvent again.
She hoped he was able to, since, although she didn’t know Mr. McBride very well, his children were the sweetest and she wanted the best for them.
Especially Larissa, who wanted to be a horsewoman when she grew up, although she didn’t really know exactly in what way. She just wanted to work with horses. But she was only ten, and it didn’t matter. She just knew that she loved horses and wanted to spend every waking second she could with them.
Summer had spent a lot of time above and beyond the therapy time, showing Larissa everything she wanted to know and allowing her to follow Summer around as she cleaned the stables, took care of the horses, and occasionally exercised them.
She was even there when the farrier and vet came to work on the animals.
Larissa had been an angel, and Summer hated to see her time with her come to an end, but it almost certainly would.
The odds of her being able to sell the farm and buy another place anywhere close to Mistletoe Meadows were very slim.
“Hey, Summer,” Sunny greeted her as she walked into the bakeshop, which was on the downside of the busy time of morning.
“Good morning,” Summer said, grinning at her friend.
“What brings you to town today? Feed run?” Sunny said with her normal smile. In addition to the bakeshop, she also played violin in a trio that often performed in the area. Summer wasn’t sure whether the cello or baking was her true passion, since she seemed to be equally passionate about both.
“No. I signed the papers at the real estate office to put the farm up for sale. It should be hitting the MLS later today or tomorrow, Frederick said.”
“You’re selling the farm?” Sunny stopped bustling around behind the counter and focused on Summer. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Summer said, hating the ache that seemed to reverberate through her chest.
“But it’s been in your family for generations.”
“I know.”
“Is it because of your mom and her renovations?”
“Mostly. I’ve been chipping away at the mortgage, but when Princess had her surgery this summer, I just…
couldn’t do it all. And I probably should have let the surgery go unpaid, but that was going to get turned into a bill collector too.
I just…can’t do it.” She lifted her shoulder.
She didn’t want to go into all the details, all of the bills that her parents had left.
It wasn’t just the mortgage, and it was far more than one person could afford to pay.
She wasn’t even sure when she sold the farm whether she would be out from underneath everything.
She hoped so; with the amount that they were asking, she’d be free and clean with a little something left. Probably not enough to buy another farm, but enough to live somewhere.
But if the buyer tried to get her to come down on her price, she could be left with nothing.
“Here, have a blueberry muffin.” Sunny grabbed the muffin and a napkin and set them on top of the display case.
“I’m not selling these today, since I just tried a new recipe.
I was trying to get a little crumbly crunch on top.
You can let me know if I did okay. I want the inside to be nice and moist.”
“Are you sure?” Summer asked with her brows raised. She didn’t come into her friend’s shop to get handouts. And she hadn’t told her tale of woe because she was hoping to get something out of it. Sunny had asked.
“Yes. I’m positive. All the payment I require is your opinion on how they taste and what the texture is like.”
“All right.” She took the blueberry muffin and took a bite out of the top, chewing and swallowing before she spoke. “That’s perfect. That’s a great, almost crunchy top, but it’s very moist and chewy in the middle. I say it’s a keeper.”
“All right. Three votes yes, one vote no so far today.”
“Oh my goodness, who voted no?”
“Mrs. Tucker. She said they were too…sinful, I think that was her word.”
“Oh. Well, I think maybe you could throw her vote out,” Summer said before taking another bite. They were so good.
Summer didn’t have any beef with Mrs. Tucker, although she was known as the town busybody.
Summer figured that she just tried to keep things going in the town, and every small town needed a few people like that, people who pushed others to help out, to keep all the things that made a small town fantastic going.
That was Mrs. Tucker’s position, for sure, and there were various people who ran when they saw her coming, but Summer had never crossed her.
“I’ve been thinking about it. It does seem for now that she is the only dissenting vote, and it wasn’t because it didn’t meet my standards. It was because it didn’t meet hers.”
They laughed a little together before Summer thanked her and left, walking to her truck and getting in. She shoved the rest of the muffin into her mouth and figured that would tide her over until she had a break around two or so that afternoon and could grab a bite to eat in the kitchen.
On the way home, she thought about all the time she’d spent on the farm.
Growing up, the family get-togethers they used to have there, until the family went all of their different directions after her parents died, and the good memories that were still associated with it.
She’d never lived anywhere else and really didn’t want to.
Although, the house was big, far bigger than what a single woman needed.
With six bedrooms, each of them completely redone and beautifully appointed.
Her mom had even taken the seventh bedroom and turned it into two bathrooms so that there were three master bedrooms and three bedrooms that shared a bath.
The downstairs was just as nice, and her mother had entertained there for a while before she died.
Her father passed away in a freak accident while riding a horse on the farm, and her mother passed away not long after.
Some people said it was because of a broken heart, but Summer figured it was probably because of the financial stress.
She doubted her mother knew exactly what kind of financial issues they were having until after her husband passed away and it was her job to take care of it.
It certainly had been a big blow to Summer, but she’d shouldered it and had been carrying it for the last five years. But it was just more than she could do.
Regardless, she would need to start thinking about telling her clients, although who knew when the house would sell.
Fredrick had indicated he thought it would go pretty quickly, but that was probably the job of a real estate agent, to be the cheerleader and the optimistic one.
Summer knew some houses had sat on the market for years without selling, until someone had purchased them.
So she wasn’t holding her breath. Although, maybe it would be best to just have it happen fast.
Lord, help me to be okay with Your timing. Fast or slow. I could go either way. And You know what’s best.
She had been raised to be a worker, someone who put their heart into everything they did. Sometimes it was hard to leave things in the Lord’s hands, although when there was nothing left to do, she didn’t have much choice. That was the point she was at.
She came up on the farm, seeing the For Sale sign, unfamiliar and out of place, sitting at the end of the drive.
She tried to fight back the sting of tears that threatened and swallowed hard. This was for the best. Sometimes it seemed like when things had gone as badly as they could, that’s when everything broke loose and the good stuff started to happen.
She just had to let the farm go in order for God to open up His windows of blessing on her.
If only it was that easy.
But she also knew God didn’t want her to be attached to earthly things. He wanted her to have her sights set on heaven. Her earthly home shouldn’t mean as much to her as her heavenly home, and she shouldn’t put as much store in it as she did in the treasure she stored in heaven.
Maybe that was the lesson the Lord wanted her to learn.
She just wished there was a less painful way to learn it.