Page 18 of Hometown Girl

Beth laughed. “Okay, the second stupidest.”

Her mom squeezed her arm. “I think on her own, she can’t make this happen. A farm is a lot of work, especially one that’s also a tourist attraction.”

“Right. And an apple orchard, retail store and pumpkin patch. What is she thinking?”

“You didn’t let me finish.” Lilian wore a slight smile. “I admire her dreams. They’re absolutely crazy, but they’re also ... inspiring.”

“Inspiring?”

“You’re a thinker, Beth. Logical. Focused. Your father made sure of it. These are wonderful traits, especially in the corporate world.”

“I hear a ‘but’ coming on.”

“But you never pay attention to your heart.”

Beth sighed. “A heart can be very misleading.”

“And it can be empowering.” Lilian squeezed her arm. “You know you and your dad always had this special language only the two of you could understand. Somehow he always connected best with you and vice versa. I told myself that was fine. He was doing a fine job of raising you—but what I’ve realized is you got all of his good qualities and none of mine.”

Beth stilled. She’d never looked at it that way. She and her mother didn’t have the same bond she’d had with her father. Only now did she wonder how that made her mom feel.

“Your sister is the opposite. She’s all heart and very little logic.” Lilian stopped walking and looked at Beth. “Imagine what the two of you could accomplish together.”

Beth could feel the words settle on her shoulders with more weight than they should, as her parents’ words always had. They’d been so good about steering her in the right direction without controlling her life. It was how she’d learned to think for herself. But her mom was right.

“I never expected to work at Whitaker for this long. That was not in my plan.”

“I know.” They came to the end of the street and made a loop, heading back toward the house the way they had so many times before.

“And I’m not getting younger, so if I’m going to get out and make a difference in the world, I should probably do that now.”

“You’re talking about moving away.”

Frustration wound its way inside her. She didn’t get to run away from the mess she’d made—not when it hadn’t been completely cleaned up. Not when she was still keeping the truth hidden. “No, I can’t.”

“But it’s what you always wanted to do.”

“Yes.”

“Then what’s stopping you?”

So many things were stopping her. Molly’s idea, however, was not one of them.

In that moment, she had the briefest flashback to their family—all six of them—racing through the pumpkin patch in search of their perfect pumpkin. Seth had hauled a huge, half-rotten pumpkin to where their parents stood, and dropped it at Dad’s feet, claiming it was the one he wanted. The look on Dad’s face was caught in Beth’s memory like a photograph.

She didn’t disagree that Fairwind needed to be restored, that new generations of families needed to experience it for themselves.

She just disagreed that she and Molly were the ones to do it.

“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?”

“What?”

“The farm. Molly’s proposal.”

“I would hardly call it a proposal. She got as far as ‘I bought Fairwind Farm’ and stopped.”

“But youarethinking about it. I can see it on your face.” Her mother’s lips settled into a soft, contented smile as she squeezed Beth’s arm. “I feel like I’m living with a bird in a cage. You’ve got wings, my darling daughter. Use them.”

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