Page 19 of Pick Your Spot

Trust Epic to remember details. They hadn’t worked together on missions until after Troy’s team leader had been injured. Still, they’d spent more than a few hours together waiting for missions to go down or traveling from one hotspot to another. You got to know each other well during times like that.

Knox nodded. “My grandfather, Fox, never mentioned having a brother. We lived with him from the time I was eleven. None of my siblings had heard about Jay either. A few weeks back, we all got letters from a lawyer saying that Jay had left the apple farm to the five of us.”

“Wow. That must have been a shock.”

He nodded. “Big one. I came to check out the place. Jay never mentioned having a brother to anyone here. Must have been some rift but we don’t know. If it weren’t for Thea, I’d be still standing in the middle of the orchard, not having a clue what to do next.”

Troy grinned. “Jay always said Thea knew more about soil and farming than most anyone. You listen to her, and you’ll be on the right path.”

Knox watched Thea’s eyes widen with surprised pleasure. He thought again that her life must be lonely and that she didn’t have many people in her corner.

He wanted to be one of the people in her life. Wanted to show her daily that she was amazing.

Troy rubbed his hands together like he was a movie villain. “Is your family going to take over the farm to get it up and running? Jay wanted that to happen, and he relied on Thea’s expertise to point him in the right direction. We’d love to have you and your family in this part of Vermont with us.”

Knox laughed. “Still plotting how to bring everyone you know to your town, Epic?”

Piper laughed. “That’s never going to change. In his defense, it’s a fantastic place to live, and we would love to have you right down the road.”

Knox laughed. “You’re a Phail convert?”

She smiled. “Not only a convert but an urban planner with a ton of ideas for Phail. Adding a successful apple farm would be fantastic. We’ll add you to the website and help each other with tourism. You could have school tours and maybe even get students from nearby colleges to do co-ops and studies. If Thea’s a soil consultant, she’ll have ideas about what subjects they could work on at the farm.”

Knox looked down to see Thea’s eyes widen again. She definitely wasn’t used to people having her back. He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed her into a side hug. A friendly hug. Nothing inappropriate. Even if he had plenty of ideas about doing inappropriate things with her.

Troy pulled out his phone. “Do you guys have plans for lunch? Why don’t we head over to the diner? It’s early enough that we can get enough tables. I’ll text the rest of the guys and tell them I’ve got a surprise for them.”

“The rest of the guys?”

Epic grinned. “All the guys from my team overseas live here now.”

“Holy shit, you did it. You got your dream.”

Troy wrapped his arm around Piper. “Thanks to this lady, I sure did. But there’s always room for one more. On second thought, I’ll text Branna to open the Saloon for us. That way, we can all sit at one table and catch up.”

Knox checked with Thea. “Is that okay with you?”

She nodded but he could see the nerves in her eyes. “Epic’s buddies are all great. I never met his team leader because he’d been flown out with an injury, but the others are awesome, so I assume he is too. You’ll like them.”

Troy nodded. “Arrow’s the best of us. They’re all married, and I’m asking them to bring the ladies as well. It’s a great group of people. We have each other’s backs here. Everyone is going to be thrilled you’re going to build up the farm and make it a viable business again.”

Knox held up his hands. “Whoa. I didn’t say that. I just came out to explore the options. I’m hoping I can talk my family into taking it on, but I can’t make any promises.”

Troy shrugged. “You’re a pretty convincing guy. With Thea’s help, I bet you can get them here. Once they’re here, you’ll have them. No one can resist the power of Phail.”

Knox laughed and hoped his buddy was right.

Thea hadn’t been inside Phail’s Saloon before. She and Jay had visited the diner once or twice, but mostly they picked up food and supplies and then headed home.

Home.

With Knox and the people here in Phail on their side she might be able to stay at the best place she’d ever lived.

The Saloon dragged her thoughts back to the present. It was like walking onto the set of one of the Western movies a man in a foster home had liked to watch. She hadn’t seen many because she’d been safer in her room with the dresser pulled across the door, but she’d seen enough to know that this Saloon would have fit right in.

The large room held tables and chairs. A huge bar spanned most of the room, with doors leading to the back on either side and a staircase on the right leading up to a small balcony. Four closed doors up there had her wondering what they held.

Knox put his hand on the small of her back, bringing her attention back to her surroundings. They’d pulled several tables together, and she wondered how many people were on military teams. She knew next to nothing about the army.

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