Page 52 of Miss Humbug
I winced. “It’s nothing. I’ve been helping her with some things is all.”
“I seem to recall her having the opposite of a green thumb in the kitchen. Or whatever the equivalent is for gardening when it involves a stove.” He chuckled.
I hadn’t told my parents about the Holly family’s competition because of the secrecy surrounding the prize of the estate. My brother knew since he’d been there when Ashe told us, but Rob didn’t care about town gossip, let alone care enough to spread it.
“Uh, yeah, Marlowe isn’t much of a baker. Her grandmother wanted the whole family to do Holly Days’ stuff, so she asked me for help.”
“So you two baked a cake?” He seemed very interested in this development.
“Yeah. A fancy sponge cake. It turned out pretty great, actually, even though she didn’t place.”
Dad paused, considering. “She moving back here?”
I picked at the corner of the desk where the fake wood coating peeled away from the base. “I don’t know. Probably not. Maybe? She has a lot going on.”
“Heard any rumors of Emmaline selling?”
“The house?” I met his gaze. “Have you?”Tread carefully.
“I thought given you and Marlowe have been thick as thieves again, she might have said something. Figured Emmaline had something up her sleeve.”
Dad nailed it, but I wasn’t sure how much I could say about the house or the deal with Marlowe. But this was my own father. The Hollybrooke House land related to our business, to our family legacy. He’d been considering retirement seriously enough to tell his friends I might want a job at their construction business. I had to act.
I shifted forward on the vinyl chair. “You’re not far off. Emmaline proposed a deal to her family. She called them all in because she wants to pass the house on to the next generation. It’s a bit, uh, convoluted how it will all play out, to be honest.”
He took a swig of coffee from a faded Sawyer Tree Farm mug. “I’ll wait on Emmaline to bring it up then. She’ll be asking after those extra acres.”
That got my attention. “You know about the extra acres? For the deal?” Okay. Here I had another opportunity to lay out my plans and intentions. I had to convince him how serious I took the expansion idea. “That’s what I’m hoping for. Whoever gets the house—and it may be Marlowe because she’s aiming for it—then we buy off a few acres for the expansion. The business plan I showed you, we can increase our growth and convert the barn into a gift shop. Build a new outbuilding. We need the space. I’m willing to take on the work and negotiate a deal.”
My dad returned a puzzled expression. “I’m not talking aboutmoreacres. I meant the ones we already use from the Hollys.”
Now I was the one puzzled. “I don’t understand.”
“The spot where the old fence remnant stands? In the west corner? That’s the end of our property.”
I shook my head. “No, our property line extends to the chain fence.”
“Huh. I figured you knew. That’s Holly property. Emmaline’s late husband gave it to us in a, I’ll say, gentleman’s agreement. There’s no paperwork for it. He just said if I needed the extra couple acres, go ahead and use ’em.”
My body grew still. I spoke with cautious words. “Dad, are you suggesting—”
He cleared his throat. “I’m not suggesting anything. We don’t own those three acres. That’s officially Holly property. And they can take that back whenever the whim strikes.”
“Holly Days Teams, assemble!” Mayor Bennington announced from the small stage in Crystal Cove’s town square. It seemed like the whole town showed up today. The Holly family gathered in small groups by family, ready for action at the Holly Days’ Family Fest competition.
I arrived somewhere between fuming and amped up. Like a triathlete ready to…try-athlete.
I still couldn’t shake off the news Dad casually dropped yesterday. Not only did the Sawyer farm require more land in order to expand, we needed an official deed signed for the land we werealready using. If we lost those three acres, we were toast. My whole plan to expand the farm would be pointless.
I had no idea if any of the other Hollys would honor the agreement Dad had made with Marlowe’s grandfather. Let alone allow us to buy more land. We sure couldn’t afford to lose what we had. Tree farms over the border in Wisconsin would gladly set up shop in town in place of us once they knew we were downsizing. Or closing altogether.
Marlowe had no idea. I didn’t like keeping secrets between us, but this new information risked a lot for me. If she questioned her family on it, she could accidentally expose our plan. Besides, if I told her, she might assume us getting closer was some ploy just to get the land. I’d kissed her because I wanted to. I’d always wanted to. I couldn’t let her believe I was using her. No, it made the most sense to keep this quiet for now. Take this all one day at a time.
What we needed was to win this dang competition.
“The obstacle race will be a piece of cake.” Marlowe appeared oblivious to my inner stewing. “And thankfully, no actual cake is involved. I am so tired of baking.”
“Good thing since we bought ten pounds of gingerbread ingredients.” The fate of my family’s farm rested on obstacle courses and candy houses. Unbelievable.
