Page 7 of Love and Lattes at Pumpkin Hollow
My question hung in the air and before Dad could respond, Maple let out a warning bark. She looked towards the window and I followed her gaze. Then I could hear the sound of tyres on the driveway.
I stood up, looked out of the window and sighed. ‘Looks like you don’t need to phone him after all,’ I said as I watched a fancy car make its way towards us. It had to be Mr Suit Man. No one I knew had a car like it; this was mostly a four-by-four area. This car was sleek and shiny and just screamed, I’m not from around here.
‘Not much harm done in the end then,’ Dad said, getting up from his chair stiffly. ‘I’ll put the kettle back on for tea. Let’s just listen to what he has to say, okay? Then we can talk more later.’
‘I already know what he will say, and the answer is no,’ I replied, sitting back down and folding my arms across my chest. ‘My idea can work, Dad, I just know it.’
Before Dad could answer, the doorbell rang and Maple let out a low growl.
‘I know how you feel,’ I told her.
Dad sighed. ‘Be friendly, you two, please,’ he said as he walked to the door.
‘I wish we didn’t have to be,’ I confessed in a whisper to Maple. ‘Stay though, girl,’ I told her, knowing that after sending him in the wrong direction, I better not let my dog chase him out, although the idea of doing just that was appealing, I had to admit.
‘Come on in,’ I heard my dad say.
I braced myself as Mr Suit Man walked into my kitchen and saw me, his face dropping instantly once our eyes met.
7
‘As I said, I would have been on time, but I was sent in the wrong direction,’ Mr Suit Man said, arching an eyebrow. His large, bright-blue eyes were staring right at me.
I shifted on my feet, uncomfortable with his scrutiny. ‘Yeah, that was my fault,’ I admitted. Maple leaned against my legs for support. I reached down to pat her. Mr Suit Man glanced down at my hand then back up to my face. ‘I suppose I wanted to put this meeting off for as long as possible.’
‘Well, you sent me on an hour’s detour. I managed to get correct directions from a dog walker,’ he said with a shake of his head, clearly irritated. ‘I don’t understand why you wanted to waste my time.’ He turned to my dad. ‘You said on this phone you wanted this meeting.’
‘I’ll be frank, Mr Henderson,’ my dad said. ‘Neither of us want to sell our farm, but we might have to. Willow is sorry she sent you the wrong way. We’re a bit out of sorts as you can imagine.’
I could tell Mr Suit Man was confused and I knew I had been slightly childish so I tried to explain. ‘This farm has been in our family for generations; I’ve lived and worked here my whole life…’ I began.
‘But you said in your phone call, things have become too hard to manage,’ the man said to my dad, ignoring me. ‘That’s why I’m here. This should be an exciting meeting for you.’
‘Um…’ Dad said, glancing at me, knowing I felt the same way – this was the farthest thing from exciting. ‘You’re here now anyway. So, have a seat, Mr Henderson, I’ll make us tea, yes?’
‘You should call me Dylan,’ he said, sitting down at the kitchen table at the opposite end to me, thankfully. ‘Mr Henderson sounds like my father,’ he added, looking uncomfortable at the prospect.
‘How old are you?’ I blurted out.
‘Twenty-seven,’ he replied, but then carried on addressing Dad. I had been right that he was close to my age but the way he spoke and acted seemed older to me. ‘I spotted your farm a couple of weeks ago while I was scouting for locations for a new development in this area. My brother has been looking for somewhere around here for a while as this area is so sought after, what with the good schools and the fact it’s so popular with tourists. Birchbrook seems very… quaint,’ Dylan continued briskly, saying the word ‘quaint’ with a definite snobby inflection.
‘We love our town,’ I told him pointedly as Dad made three cups of tea. ‘It’s sought after because it’s a great place to live.’
‘I think a development would do really well here,’ Dylan said with a nod, seeming to miss my point. He glanced out of the window at the farm. ‘Those trees would be really appealing to buyers too.’
Dad looked over his shoulder at me then turned to Dylan. ‘You would keep the trees then? Willow has been very worried about them; she’s loved them since she was a little girl.’
‘Buyers love nature as long as it doesn’t infringe on light coming into the houses so I think we’d keep them. We could name the development after the birch trees to match the town,’ Dylan said. ‘We think we could fit around ten properties on the farm and?—’
‘Ten houses?’ I looked out at my farm and tried to picture it transformed into a development of ten new-build homes. My heart dropped down to my stomach. All that land gone.
Dylan pulled his phone out of his pocket. ‘Now, I spoke to some estate agents in the area. We would of course need several surveys done on the land but at the moment, my brother, who runs our company, has instructed me that we could offer?—’
‘Here we are.’ Dad brought over the teas and sat down in between me and Dylan. He glanced at him. ‘It’s a family business then? We like that, don’t we, love?’ he added, looking at me.
‘Well, maybe it means you can understand why we don’t want to sell our farm,’ I said in a frosty tone as I could tell Mr Suit Man was just focused on his phone, and not us. ‘So, Dylan, do you run the business with your brother then?’ I asked him, forcing him to look up from the device.
‘My brother, who is a few years older than me, owns the company; I just joined at the start of this year,’ he replied.
