Page 55 of Hometown Girl

“We have to get the farm repaired. That’s our first goal. We can’t start boarding stray farm animals when we don’t have anywhere to put them.”

“You don’t think Blue will be okay in that barn? Drew can whip it into shape today.”

Beth frowned. “We have a prioritized list. That means there’s an order to things. The petting zoo is not at the top of the list.”

Molly swallowed her stolen pastry. “Maybe it should be.”

Beth shut the refrigerator and sighed. “I don’t think you have any idea what we’re up against here. There is so much work to be done, and we really don’t have the money for it.”

“What about Ben?”

“What about him?”

“You said we have no money. With him on board, we have more than we had yesterday.”

“Nothing is certain yet, you know that,” Beth said. “I left Ben a message this morning when Drew took the job, but even if he invests the same amount as us, we’re still going to come up short.”

“Do you know that, or are you just being your usual negative self?” She took another bite.

“I’ve been doing some figuring.” Beth opened her portfolio. She’d been “doing some figuring” for days now. Drew would bring her his list of repairs, but Beth had already started one of her own. She’d contacted a few local businesses to get rough estimates, and after her walk around the property with Drew this morning, she’d added a few more things she hadn’t thought of before.

This way, when he brought her his proposed budget, she’d know if he was doing his best to save them money. That had been important to her dad, and it was important to her.

“You can learn a lot about a person by how he spends someone else’s money,”he’d told her.

What did the way she’d spent her father’s money say about her?

Molly stared at the figures Beth had scrawled on her legal pad. “You really think it’s going to cost this much?”

“No, I think it’s going to cost more. These are very rough estimates.”

Molly sat down in the rickety chair at the end of the kitchen table, a defeated look on her face. “I don’t have any more money.”

“Well, don’t freak out yet. I’ve got my share plus whatever Ben invests.”

“What about Mom?”

Beth blew a stray hair out of her eye. “No. We talked about this. We’re not getting Mom involved.”

“Beth, she’s got money.”

Ben and Beth had both agreed. Mom’s money was hers. They had to respect that. “No, Molly. Let’s leave Mom out of this.”

“What about Dad’s business?”

Beth frowned. “What about it?”

“Is there any money there? Dad was always investing and making tons more than he put in.”

Beth’s fingers went cold. Whitaker had barely bounced back from her mistake. “I think that’s a dead end.”

“Why? It’s our family’s company. If there’s money just sitting there, shouldn’t we get it?”

“There’s not money just sitting there, Molly. It doesn’t work that way.”

Thanks to me.

“Fine. It was just an idea.” Molly finished the last of Beth’s scone. “So we can’t ask Mom. The business doesn’t have anything. What other choice do we have?”

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