Page 34 of Sunset Tides
She rejoined Lucy and Marty. “Do I need to break this up? What’s the problem?”
“Nothing.” Lucy waved a hand. “Just a disagreement between friends. Who was that?”
“Mason.”
“Aw! Was he calling to wish us good luck?”
“Yeah.” Lillian cleared her throat. “He was just letting me know he’s back. He was on a work trip for the last two weeks.”
“What does he do?” Marty asked.
“He’s a chemical engineer for an oil company.”
“Where does he travel?”
Lillian let out a sigh. “Everywhere, it seems. He has to go on site a lot and is gone for weeks at a time.”
“Good,” Lucy concluded. “So he didn’t miss you too much.”
That was one way to look at it. “Luckily not.”
“While you were gone, Lucy decided what we needed to say to people,” Marty said.
“Is that right?” Lillian smiled at her. “What will I be saying?”
“Marty will fill you in,” she said, walking off. “Get talking!”
She watched as Lucy disappeared, and Marty turned to face her.
He had a face of mock solemnity. “I tried to save you, but the best I could do was tell her that having you pretend to be a reporter was a bad idea.”
Lillian laughed. “I’ll stick with asking if they have any questions. What are you going to say?”
“Hopefully nothing.” Marty shrugged. “Lucy says I have a knack for always saying the wrong thing.”
“That’s not true!”
Marty seemed unbothered by it. He was still smiling. “I’ll be your moral support. No – I’ll be the muscle!”
The muscle. Right. Very useful.
Lillian decided not to tease him about it. While she wasn’t as shy as he was, it was still mortifying to walk up to strangers and start conversations.
In order to psych herself up, Lillian told herself she was a representative of Grindstone Farm, because technically she was.
Her first attempt was with an older guy who was eyeing one of the tractors. “Hi there, I’m Lillian, and this is Marty. I wanted to see if you had any questions about the items up for auction today?”
The man smiled at her. “No, thank you, miss. I’m here to show my support. I’ve got a farm on Lopez and I hate to see what’s happening to Grindstone.”
“Thank you for coming out,” Marty said before walking away.
Lillian smiled and thanked the man before running after Marty. It had been a bit awkward, but not as bad as she’d expected. She used the same line on the next person, then the next.
A few declined her help, but many of them echoed the first man, saying they weren’t there to bid on anything. It was quite remarkable.
After half an hour of chatting, Lillian was excited to report back to Lucy. They found her in the farm shop arguing with a tall guy.
Lillian recognized him from a website Lucy had showed her one night when she claimed he was “out to get them.”
