Page 26 of Sunset Tides
“Something like that,” he said before popping up to grab their food. “It was a good way to grow up, and I don’t want to waste it.”
She made a face before she could stop herself. “Waste it how?”
“By being a failure.”
“A failure at what, though?”
“Life.”
Oh man. This guy was too much. Here he was, probably sitting on an MBA from an Ivy League school, determined to “win” at life.
He was an even simpler rival than she’d realized. He had no idea what he was doing.
Lucy smiled. Maybe he wasn’tsodangerous.
Chapter Fourteen
The salmon burger was better than Rob had hoped, and Lucy’s interrogation carried on about as intensely as he’d expected.
Rob didn’t mind doing all of the talking, but he was curious about Lucy’s background. He decided to tread carefully, though, because prickly Lucy tended to shut down rather abruptly.
“Is this your first farm auction?” he asked when she took a break from pelting him with questions to take a sip of her soda.
“Yes.”
“And your first farm job?”
She set the empty glass down. “Yes. Why?”
Already defensive. “Just wondering. I’ve been to three farm auctions, but I’ve never worked on a farm.”
“I’ve worked a lot of places,” she said. It seemed like she wanted to say more, but she had stopped herself.
“Oh?”
Lucy stuffed a handful of fries into her mouth before responding. “I like variety.”
He nodded. “I can see that.”
Lucy cleared her throat. “So what am I supposed to do to keep people from showing up and buying our equipment?”
The salad hadn’t been a bad choice, but those fries looked a lot more enticing. He’d been nauseous all day yesterday though, and didn’t need to tempt fate…
“You can’t stop anyone from showing up. The best you can do is strategize. You know, figure out what you can afford to lose and what you can’t.”
“We can’t afford to lose anything,” she said.
“I don’t believe you.”
She narrowed her eyes. “It’s a family farm, Rob, not an investment bank.”
“Yet you raised over half a million dollars like it was nothing. You’re telling me you can’t afford to lose an apple picker?”
“No. We can’t.”
So much for being reasonable. “Where’s the auction list?”
“I’m not showing you that.”
