Chapter 9
Jake
“What the fuck, Jared?” I ask as I march closer to the counter at the diner in town.
As soon as I left Blaine’s house I fumed over to mine trying to figure out how the fuck this strange woman was now living in Blaine’s house.
The house that sits on the land that Blaine promised me all those years ago.
Blaine has two sons. Craig, who graduated with me and got some fancy computer job and moved to California around the same time I did.
And Jared, who is a few years older than Craig and I.
He went to a trade school for the second half of high school and never left town.
Now, like a lot of the other residents of Valentine, he has a routine that the entire town can set their watches to.
Since today is Sunday and it’s still early in the afternoon I could bet money that he’d be at that bar at the diner drinking coffee and talking nonsense with the other men in town who have nothing better to do than gossip on a Sunday afternoon.
Jared takes a sip of his coffee and glances in my direction but remains quiet.
“Why didn’t you tell me your dad was selling his place?” I ask.
“Maybe because it’s none of your fucking business, Jake,” he responds, “plus, dad didn’t sell his place, I did.”
“What happened to Blaine?”
“He was having a hard time taking care of himself so he’s over at Rosy Acres and in order to pay for his stay there, I sold his house.”
“But your dad promised me that I’d have first dibs if he ever sold the house.
” I have his full attention now. Blaine has lived next door to us since we moved in when I was a kid.
He and his wife Greta got a divorce in the years where divorce was a dirty word.
Craig and Jared would stay at his house once a month until they were eighteen and then they basically stopped coming.
After I came back I saw Blaine sprawled out on his porch once after a nasty fall.
I started checking in on him as regularly as I could after that.
I just saw him a few days ago and he never even mentioned Rosy Acres, or Jared.
He damn sure didn’t mention selling the house.
But he was up there in years and admittedly, Jared is right about him not being able to care for himself well.
“Well, I guess your first mistake was to work out a deal with a man who had no mind left to say things like that.”
“I didn’t even see a for sale sign,” I say, baffled that this is really happening.
“Yeah, I’ve got a buddy up in Silverthorne who knew of someone looking around the time I was doing the paperwork for dad’s admission. It was quicker and smoother than I thought and I didn’t even have to pay realtor fees.”
His smug face is infuriating. I clench my fists at my sides when Daisy behind the counter yells out, “Hey, you want a coffee Jake or do you want to go cool off outside?” She gives me a stern look like a mom ready to beat my ass if I don’t behave.
Without a word I turn around and march back outside into the cool air.
This winter has been weirdly warm so far but I can tell we’re due for a good snowstorm.
Likely in the next couple of weeks. I hop back into the driver’s seat of my 1985 Chevy Scottsdale and slam the door once I’m in.
Honestly, I don’t even know why I went in there to talk to Jared.
Apparently the deal is already done. I’ve missed out on the land I had planned to use to expand the farm and I didn’t even know I had a chance at it.
I guess that’s what I get for not being a part of the gossip group that meets for coffee.
Maybe if I had, I would have known he was looking for a buyer.
I’ve been saving up for years to buy that property with cash and immediately start expansion.
Guess I’m back to square one there. The truck rumbles as I turn the key and start my way back to the farm.
When I see the new neighbor walking back out to her truck to unload more of her stuff the anger I stuffed down at the diner resurfaces.
Her tiny frame is covered in a bulky coat and a toboggan covers her long black hair.
I’m trying not to focus on the fact that she’s kind of adorable in her getup because I’m still mad about losing this property.
All for her and her boyfriend or husband or I don’t know who to move in next door and disrupt my peace and routine I’ve had for the last fifteen years.
I let out a growl of frustration as I pull into my driveway.
I know I need to let this go. Nothing about my life as I know it has changed.
But everything about the way I pictured the future has.
I had plans to turn that house into a place where I do all my cheese and soap processing.
Turning the bedroom into a cold storage room I was going to up my cheese production and use the front of the house as a little shop so that I could sell my cheeses and soaps on more than just farmer’s market days.
In the backyard I was going to put a few beehives and begin processing chapsticks, flavored and whipped honeys, and more.
Sure, I could probably figure out a spot to put bees on my farm but Cami is allergic.
Not in a serious way, but in an uncomfortable way where she gets big itchy welts if she gets stung.
I don’t want to add anything to the farm that will keep her and Amelia away, or make it painful for them to visit.
Yes, I suppose I could look for another five acres somewhere else but there really isn’t anything for sale that’s nearby and for obvious reasons, this place was my first choice.
Back out in the goat pen I scratch Henrietta behind the ears.
“Well, I guess you aren’t going to get as many friends as I hoped any time soon.
” She bleats as if she understands what I’m saying and she’s disappointed too.
“I know, I’ll try again soon,” I say and she butts her nose up against my other hand so that I’ll scratch both of her ears.
I’ve been making the soaps and cheeses for a few years now and I feel like they’re really taking off.
It isn’t easy to make as much as I’m selling with just one goat, but I also don’t have enough room inside my little kitchen to make much more than I’m already making.
It’s kind of a vicious cycle of supply and demand right now.
Oh well, just because this pint size neighbor showed up doesn’t mean I have to let it ruin my ideas. I can be creative, I can come up with another plan. I guess it’s back to the drawing board.