Page 10 of Sunset Tides
Lucy rolled her eyes. “Ha, ha.” She froze, then jolted a hand in the air. “Wait! I can also offer behind-the-scenes tours of the farm!”
“Not to be negative,” Emma said in a small voice, “But won’t that be hard to fulfill if the farm is sold off?”
Lucy stopped writing, scratching out the last thing she’d written. “Good point. We’ll have Marty give a walking tour of Mount Constitution instead.”
“Hey!” Marty set down the book he’d been flipping through about the history of Orcas Island. “I’ll help, but you can’t expect me to actually talk to people.”
Claire stifled a laugh. “I’d pay to have Marty as a tour guide.”
“Me too,” Emma added.
He frowned and placed the book back on the shelf. “Let’s get to talking about the website.”
“Yes, let’s!” Lucy pulled a second stool to the counter and took a seat in front of her computer.
Marty and Emma walked over, and as Claire took a step toward them, she was hit with a stabbing pain in her temple.
She stopped, taking a deep breath and putting a hand to her forehead.
Lucy, of course, noticed immediately. “Are you okay?”
Was that nausea? Or was she just too hot? Something was off, but she didn’t want to worry Lucy. “I’m fine. I might be getting a migraine.”
“Oh no!” Lucy stood, abandoning her computer. “Do you want me to drive you home?”
Claire waved a hand. “No, you’re busy. I’m fine. I can get home.”
“Let me drive you,” Emma said. “I’ll drop you off and then come back before Lucy even notices I’m gone.”
A pulsating pain started behind her eye, then worsened when she looked up at the overhead lights in the shop. Yeah. Just a migraine. “If you don’t mind, I would really appreciate it.”
“Of course!” Emma picked up her purse. “I’ll be back soon.”
Lucy gave Claire a quick hug. “I’ll check on you later.”
Claire nodded. “Don’t worry about me. Good luck, and let me know what I can do to help.”
Before she walked out the door, Claire stopped and took one last look at Lucy. She was pointing at the computer screen, talking rapidly, as Marty listened and nodded his head.
As crazy as her plan sounded, it was nice to see Lucy energized again. Claire smiled to herself and followed Emma to her car.
Chapter Six
There was no word from Fiona, but Rob wasn’t too concerned. He’d been busy most of the week taking meetings in Seattle, and he’d spent a lot of time at the Carriageway Holdings office. As far as he could tell, Fiona hadn’t been in contact with them about his offer.
That was fine. They were in charge, not her. She seemed resigned to letting the farm go, though, which was the smart option. There wasn’t much, if anything, she could do. It showed wisdom that she wasn’t going to get stuck in a bitter fight to the end.
Carriageway Holdings, on the other hand, was not an organization that ran on wisdom. The people in charge were shrewd, impatient, and bitter. They had one goal – to make as much money as possible as quickly as possible.
Rob could work with that. He understood those sorts of people. They were, in some ways, his specialty.
At first, they didn’t want to talk to him. They were in a hurry to bankrupt the farm and move on, giving him vague responses like “the financials for Grindstone just aren’t adding up” and that their investors “needed to see a different type of progress.”
With some digging, Rob figured out why Carriageway wasn’t being forthcoming, and why they were dragging things out. Their sudden interest in bankruptcy wasn’t a random occurrence – they were hard-pressed for cash and needed an infusion of funding for a new purchase: a large trailer park outside of Seattle.
It was an incredible investment. If Carriageway secured the property as their own, the sky would be the limit for profits. They could double the rents on day one, clear out all of the old residents and start anew. It was one of the hottest new trends in investing, and if Rob’s company were able to get ahold of such a large rental community, they’d do the same thing.
They weren’t quite at that level yet, though. Their investments were smaller and more calculated. They had to work harder and hustle more for new markets.
