37. Jake
Jake
It is interesting to watch my siblings and half-siblings decide upon their legacies.
I, of course, chose that first night. The portal then unlocked for Mike, who picked a little brick house on Caledonia Street beside the library.
It was probably built after the war and the listing shows it having two bedrooms upstairs and a large sunny yard.
He deliberates over it for a couple of days, which drove everyone else nuts – I know.
I get the impatient emails – but it’s a solid choice.
Austin, who I expected to give major pushback, immediately chooses the Weatherby house when the portal opens for him.
That puts him in for a sizable cash payment to make up the difference, which he transfers within the week.
Candace is officially good at the house through the end of the year, which is enough to make me sing the Hallelujah chorus.
She calls me, thrilled, then I walk her though her credit card statement, steering her away from the seductive lure of the minimum payment amount. I think she’s got this.
Abbie, of course, chooses Grandma’s place.
The difference is paid immediately by Luke.
I don’t even have time to blink before he’s transferring the funds.
I realize that completes his original plan of acquiring five properties from our father.
His list included Grandma’s house, the parcel of land that Augustine Rhodes wanted, the Foreman place which is now Daphne’s office, Una’s house and the diner that became The Carpe Diem Café.
Without a plan to do so, I’ve become part of Luke’s improve-the-world plan.
I kind of like that.
Luke himself chooses a note on The Maple Leaf Motel and I can guess what he’s going to do with that. Bruno, the owner, was always buddies with Luke.
Grayson goes for the one property in Havelock, a bungalow on a quiet suburban street. It’s priced at exactly the allotment, so he’s good to go. I wonder if he plans to sell it. It’s not a bad little place. Maybe he has plans to retire here. Maybe not. It’s not my business.
Madison has obviously been spending a lot of time with the database.
She chooses the one retail building on Queen Street that is valued at the inheritance allotment.
The retail is priced ambitiously, but Paula is sure the prices are fair, given Luke’s investment in Empire.
This little building has a retail space that fills the ground floor with a big front window.
There’s a parking spot out back and a small apartment on the second floor.
It’s probably the smallest retail building in town.
I think the apartment would need some renovations to be liveable, but the shop just needs a coat of paint.
The previous owner – before my father – updated the wiring.
Sunny side of the street too, so a great choice for her new business.
The whole thing stalls there. I have time to think that Ethan will be the thorn in my side forever, but a week later, my cell phone rings. I pick it up without looking, given my tendency to only surrender my number to people I want to talk to.
“The only thing I want isn’t on the list,” Ethan says with his usual charm. You understand, of course, that’s my way of saying he’s belligerent. “You told me to tell you what I want, and so I am.”
“And so nicely,” I murmur, hearing him catch his breath. “It’s enough to make a person want to rush out and fix everything just the way you like it.”
“Don’t be a dick, Jake.”
“There are literally hundreds of properties listed. You have a credit to shop at will. I’m not the one being a brat.”
“But the only one I want isn’t there. And you probably planned it that way.”
The penny drops.
“You want your orchard.”
“Of course, I want my fucking orchard! Do you know how much time I’ve spent out there? And it turns out I did it not to build something for myself, but to make somebody else rich at my expense.”
I heartily doubt that several dozen young fruit trees planted on scrubby land are going to make anyone rich, regardless of how well they’ve been tended, but I don’t say that out loud. “It’s not on the list because our father didn’t own that land himself.”
“Of course, he did!”
“No. No, it’s part of the property holdings of Cavendish Enterprises.” I’m not really patient, because he should know this. “That’s why there’s a big-ass greenhouse right beside your trees, Ethan. The corporation owns the land.”
“Well, it’s the only land I want. I won’t pick anything else.”
That is complicated. The corporation would have to divest of the property, which means it would have to be legally divided and the board would have to meet to approve it.
If I remember correctly, such a divestiture would require unanimous agreement, which means asking Austin to take my side again, and argh. Just argh.
Or fuck. Take your choice.
“Thinking up a way to blow me off?” Ethan demands.
“Considering the mechanics,” I say. “It might be easier to grant you a lease.”
“Someone told me I should own anything I want to keep,” he shoots back and I have to grin. I know who said that to him.
“Good advice, but this is complicated. Give me a few days. I’ll have to check the articles of incorporation and the powers of the board. I’m not even sure it can be legally divided, but I’ll ask Richard Bradshaw.”
“You’re stalling,” he charges.
“I’m thinking,” I reply. “One week. If it’s possible, I’ll do it, just to get you off my ass.”
He laughs at that. “Well, anything I can do to motivate you,” he says and ends the call.
Brat.
I call Mike, in case he has an idea. He commiserates with me and we talk it out, then he catches me by surprise. “We should probably check in the files, come to think of it. There’s other property owned by the corporation. I’d forgotten all about it.”
“Excuse me?”
“Dad was always looking for land, particularly anything adjacent to what we already own.”
“I know he sold our family farm to Cavendish Enterprises.”
“Yes, but there’s more. I know there’s a note on the Graham farm, for example.
You probably don’t remember it. It abuts our holdings to the north, then wraps around Rhodes Vineyards, continuing down the east side of the vineyards.
Big farm. But there was a drought a few years ago, and Augustine and Dad were going at it.
Dad said it was a natural space for Augustine to expand and he was going to stop it.
In the end, Dad offered Ralph Graham a cash payment for right of first refusal on the farm, if and when he ever decided to sell. ”
“I did not know this,” I admit, my thoughts churning.
Mike continues. “We argued about it at the time, because the Graham farm is just too big. Honestly, if we built greenhouses on all of it, that would almost double our capacity. Where would we get that kind of capital all at once? And truth be told, Ralph is old-school. He wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of his land going under glass, not after he’s been so diligent about keeping it organic all these years.
I know Dad just did it to piss off Augustine Rhodes. ”
“Are Grahams going to sell?”
“Ralph’s getting up there. It might be that what keeps him going is the idea of those greenhouses. He might not want to see that in his lifetime.”
I’m so excited but I don’t want to blow this. “What if we divided the farm?”
“Why would we do that?”
“Because it’s too big for us and too big for Rhodes Vineyards, but it’s so big that each of us could have enough, and Ralph could retire, knowing there were grapes growing on at least part of his organic land.”
There is silence, the silence of Mike pondering a possibility. He can’t be rushed when he does this, so I wait, trying not to tap my fingers with impatience.
“I’d be happy with half. I bet Augustine would be, as well.” Mike is still musing. “We’re in the slow part of the year. How about I head over there this week and talk to Augustine? He might hate the idea, but then again, he might love it.”
“Everyone needs room to expand.”
“And he might do the deal with me that he’d never do with Dad.”
“Can you conference me in on your conversation?”
Mike laughs. “Always got to be in charge.”
“Call it a weakness. And hey, could you maybe try to think of a way to use the soil under any potential greenhouses built on Graham’s farm?”
“What? Float them in the air?” Mike laughs.
“I don’t know. Talk to your fancy friends in Europe. They might have some new idea brewing.”
“But if you built space under the greenhouse floor, it would be dark,” Mike says. “And cool from the concrete.”
We both say the same thing at the same time. “Mushrooms!”
“Can it be done?”
“I don’t know. I’ll ask Elke. Maybe they’ve already built something similar,” Mike says. “And Ethan’s orchard?”
“I’m thinking about a hundred-year lease instead of a sale.”
“And you’ll make the terms friendly.”
“It’s a self-preservation plan. Happy people leave me alone,” I say but Mike just laughs.
“You’ve caught the bug from Luke. You’re determined to improve what you can.”
We laugh and end the call, but this isn’t about that. This is about doing something good for someone you like.
I like Mackenzie. I love Mackenzie. And the one thing I want to do more than anything in the world is make it possible for her to achieve her dreams.
I take a deep breath and then a sip of Scotch.
It’s time to move a mountain and this is a big one.