Page 5 of When I Fall In Love

“Uh.” May huffs as she sits down. “They’ll have to jump through so many hoops to do that.”

“Apparently they’ve been doing a lot of jumping already,” Bill says. “These lawyer kids with their ballsy mouths, shoving the law in your face all the time, slipping through one loophole to the next like eels.”

I’d laugh but nothing is funny anymore. The Collingwood kids are disconnected from the land and their heritage. If they want to slip and slide and use every loophole there is to sell the land to developers, none of us are going to have the money or the know-how to put a stop to it.

“Surely they can’t go into breach of contract with your company, Hunter?” May says between two bites. “You’ve been buying all their raw milk for how many years now?”

“So many we’ve gotten complaisant. Between everything else, I neglected to make sure our contract was renewed.”

At this Bill lowers his fork and stares at me. “Well—”

“I know. No need to tell me.” Dumbfuck stupid. Not that Bill would have used those words, but boy, I bet he’s thinking them too.

“Surely there must be a way around this?” May pushes her half-eaten plate to the side. “I’ll make coffee and then we can think.” She stands and goes to the kitchen, where she gets busy with the coffee maker.

Bill and I finish our food in silence, the shepherd’s pie’s ground beef sinking down to my stomach like little sand grains, heavy and dense in my stressed gut.

“I don’t know how you find your way around two million dollars,” I say as May brings the mugs and pours three black coffees. “That’s what they’d get extra for selling to developers.”

Bill harrumphs. “If they knew how much goes into getting land organic, they’d think twice.”

“No, sir. They’re thinking a golf course, ski resort, and luxury lakeside living.”

“Oh, heavens.” May plonks the coffee pot down with some force. “How many chemicals are they going to throw at the land to do that? As if we need another golf course!”

May sits again and stares at me, in that way that always made me nervous as a kid. I was either in trouble or I was going to be the means to end trouble. “You’ve got to do something, Hunter!”

“Like what? Fork out seven million dollars? The bank wouldn’t even give me three this morning.”

“I’m not sure. The farm must be profitable?” May says as the dollar amount sinks in. “Go see the owners? Ask them to reconsider? Bring them here to see the place before they make such an absolute decision?”

“Drive to New York or Boston or wherever they are and plead my case? They’d laugh in my face.”

“San Francisco,” Bill mutters. “Apparently they’re in San Francisco now.”

“No wonder they haven’t been around for ages.” I take a sip of coffee. “Are both brothers in San Francisco now?”

Bill and May exchange a glance and the meaning isn’t lost on me. I learned to read people ages ago. “What? Only one brother? So I need to go kiss one ass in New York and then fly to San Francisco and kiss the other one?”

“Hunter. We’re only trying to help.”

“Sorry, Aunt May.”

Bill shifts in his seat, toying with the handle of his mug. “Apparently they’re both in San Francisco now, so no need to go to New York too, except to change flights, you know?” He meets my gaze. “Given what’s at stake for your company, it’s worth a shot, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know.” Flying across the country to go plead my case with two douchebags who haven’t been back in Vermont since their dad died doesn’t seem like a great plan to me.

“You’ve always planned to go to San Francisco.” May’s voice is so soft, and with her eyes downcast, her words would have disappeared if it weren’t for the quiet tension in the room.

The last thing I need to crown this day of glory is a reminder of San Francisco, that I was supposed to have gone to California to study at Stanford after high school and that I broke one of the biggest promises I’d ever made by not going.

“The way I see it,” Bill says as he stands, “you have nothing to lose. If you don’t do this, the whole shebang is only going in one direction. You never know what you might find in San Francisco. And take the contract with you. Who knows, they might just sign it on a whim and corner themselves.”

Lawyers? Corner themselves? I’d laugh, but Bill stands to lose here as well. The modernization of his operations, which includes the new barn he built with the goal of increasing his output, has been in the works for years. Some months ago, we drew up his business plan, which could only roll out once my expansion plans have lift-off. “I—”

“Hunter, nobody has the clout you have here or the personal interest in the sale of Collingwood Farm. And if you don’t advocate for yourself and your company, nobody else is going to do it.” May stands too and for a moment both my aunt and uncle stare me down. “You’ve got to fight for what you want, for what you need, Hunter.”

I drop my gaze to the table where I fiddle with my mug, their hard stares taking me back to when I’m fifteen again and got caught with a box of ten condoms in my room. Less two. Used over the weekend. Sparingly, because I was kind of cash-strapped.

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