Page 9 of Love and Lattes at Pumpkin Hollow
‘Told you, you’re not dressed for a farm. What do you do when you visit one of your building sites?’ I asked, trying not to laugh at how horrified he looked at being outside on a field.
‘I don’t,’ he said, surprised. ‘My brother does all that. I scout for areas we can develop, do the pitches and write the proposals and make our offers. We haven’t bought a farm before. But as I said, this place caught my eye.’ He glanced at me. ‘What’s a pumpkin patch then?’ he asked again, still looking like my dad and I had bamboozled him. Which we probably had, to be fair.
I explained the idea I had, getting excited all over again. ‘I just love autumn, and so does our town. You probably noticed the High Street and the café?’
‘I did notice a lot of pumpkins when I was there. I had no idea people celebrated autumn. It’s just a time of year,’ Dylan said, frowning. He looked at our empty field. ‘Halloween and Christmas, yes, but I don’t get why autumn would be celebrated.’
‘Why shouldn’t it be celebrated?’ I countered hotly. ‘Autumn has always been my favourite time of year. A time of change. New beginnings. And the start of cosy season. Warm drinks, comfort food, the beauty of nature…’ I gestured behind me. ‘The way the leaves on the trees change into beautiful colours, don’t you think that’s magical in its own way?’ I tilted my head as Dylan’s eyes turned to me.
‘You really are passionate, aren’t you?’ Dylan said, looking down at me, his voice softer for the first time since we met.
I looked back at him, startled again by the colour of his eyes, which were even brighter outside in the natural light. I took a second to compose myself to answer. ‘I am passionate about this farm, yes.’
‘Even though it’s failing?’
I snapped. ‘Hey! You can’t just stand there and say our farm is failing; you have no idea what it’s like working here day in and day out, living here too, trying to turn a profit when every day, something breaks or there’s a storm or a crop fails, or…’ I trailed off because I had been about to tell him about losing my mother and that was way too personal to share with Mr Suit Man. I took a breath and tried to calm down a little bit. ‘I love this farm and I have to save it. Do you have any idea what it’s like to feel that passionate about anything?’ I put my hands on my hips, not believing that he was even capable of being passionate full stop.
He opened his mouth to speak but then he shook his head and looked away from me. ‘Passion is overrated, Willow. It won’t pay the bills. You need to think with your head, not with your heart. And our offer will allow to you start over somewhere, make a new life; why would you turn that down for a…’ he trailed off, then glanced back at me. ‘…pipe dream?’
I was seething. This man was heartless. I looked out at Maple, who had noticed a squirrel running down one of the trees. She took off after it with a bark. She was what mattered. My dad mattered. My mother’s memory mattered. This farm mattered. Not this man’s opinion.
‘You’re wrong,’ I told him shortly. ‘I will make this work because I believe in this farm, and I will save it. You won’t get to tear this down and build your identikit houses here. And you know what? You think it’s a pipe dream because look at you…’ I gave his suit a disdainful look up and down. ‘You have no idea what hard work looks like. I bet you have never worked outside in your life before. You don’t know what it feels like to get up at the crack of dawn in winter or see the tiny changes in the seasons every day, to grow things with your bare hands, to see what nature is capable of…’ I trailed off to take a breath as I had got really carried away. ‘You wouldn’t last a day working here.’
Dylan spun to face me then and I could see I had finally managed to push his buttons like he had pushed mine. His blue eyes finally had a spark of fire in them. I had to take another breath because they took him from being conventionally handsome to being… attractive. And that was a thought I definitely didn’t want to have. ‘You have no idea how hard I work. I am working hard to prove to my brother that I can run the business with him, and this farm would be my biggest find so far.’
I tilted my head to look at him. It was interesting to see he clearly wanted to do a good job with his company and show his brother that he could.
Maple barked again so I turned from those blue eyes of his. ‘This way,’ I said, shoving my hands into my coat pocket to follow Maple around the farm. I pointed out the crop fields and the chickens and then we wandered around to the other side where there was a row of four cottages.
‘These cottages are listed on Airbnb but they really needed renovating. It’s been on our wish list for years but would cost a lot and neither of us really have the time to focus on them as a business to make it worth the outlay. We occasionally have people staying but mostly, we use them for our seasonal workers in summer to help us with the pick-your-own business,’ I explained. ‘If I could get more people to the farm outside of the summer season then maybe it would be worth fixing them up and people might want to stay here.’
‘That could be an opportunity,’ Dylan said. Then he shook his head. ‘But a lot of money and work. There is just you and your father working here?’ He gazed around. ‘So much land for two of you to manage.’
‘Yeah.’ I sighed as we wandered back towards the farmhouse, the birch trees ahead of us swaying in the breeze. ‘There were more of us back in the day. When my mum was alive,’ I said with a hard swallow. ‘But we had to let our full-time help go as profits went down and we lost my mum. We now employ seasonal staff in summer only so yes, there is a lot for us to do and my dad isn’t managing as well as he used to.’ When I said all this out loud, I wondered if Dylan had a tiny point about the pumpkin patch being a ‘pipe dream’. ‘As I said, it’s hard work but I love it, and Dad doesn’t want to lose this place either.’
We walked in silence for a bit, moving slowly back towards the house.
‘I feel like you think I’m the enemy here,’ Dylan said after a moment. ‘But this offer could change your life.’
I stopped and turned to face him. Reluctantly, he did the same. ‘I don’t want it to change. I love my life.’
‘Do you?’
I hesitated. Things certainly hadn’t been the same since we lost my mum. And I did sometimes get a sharp pang of loneliness that took my breath away. Dad wasn’t happy. But the farm still brought me joy. In summer, when the sun was shining and there were people here picking fruit and veg, eating ice cream, kids smiling… Maple came to me then as if she sensed I was feeling lost and I smiled down at her. She brought me joy too. There were parts of my life I loved and parts that were bloody tough, but wasn’t that true for everyone? Although as I eyed Dylan, I did wonder if his life was at all tough. Or was it perfect?
‘You don’t understand. You can’t know what it’s like here. Or how I feel about it. I know you think I should bite your hand off for the money you’re going to offer us but honestly, the thought of doing that just breaks my heart.’
There was a beat when Dylan absorbed what I’d said. I thought maybe for a moment he did understand but then he ruined it with his next words. ‘It’s going to be too much work for you to save it so why not just accept my offer now and not put yourself through these six weeks as your dad is suggesting?’ Dylan said.
‘I know you couldn’t do it, but I can.’
‘How do you know I couldn’t do it?’ he suddenly said, the fire back in those eyes of his. I had pushed his buttons again, I realised gleefully.
‘Look at you, Mr Suit Man. You’ll leave here and go back to your warm office while I’ll be out here working to save my family’s business. If there is a tiny bit of hope, I’m going to cling to it. And when my dad calls you in six weeks, it will be to say I’ve made the pumpkin patch a success and he won’t accept any offer you give him.’
‘You really are stubborn, aren’t you? I kind of want to hang around and see what a disaster this will turn out to be,’ he flung back. The he raked a hand through his hair. ‘This meeting has not gone the way I thought it would,’ he muttered. ‘That was unprofessional of me. Why don’t we go back inside and talk to your father and?—’
‘Why don’t you hang around then?’ I interrupted. ‘And watch as I make sure my dad will never accept your offer?’ I said, putting my hands on my hips in challenge.
