Page 40 of Miss Humbug
“I’ll ride home with Grans,” I told them.
Chapter 14
Ethan
Dad had a fractured ankle. Not as bad as a broken leg, but the recovery time meant he’d be off his feet for weeks. The remaining holiday season.
Mom went into nurse mode, making sure Dad followed the doctor’s orders. We weren’t above hiding the keys to his truck so he wouldn’t leave the house. So far, he’d conceded. He could at least do administrative work from home on his laptop.
Which left me and Rob to keep business going at the farm. To prep for winter, and of course, sell Christmas trees.
I hadn’t seen Marlowe since the baking competition. When I’d ditched her. I’d texted her an apology and an update on Dad. She told me she understood—family came first. She hadn’t placed in the competition and now we were behind in points. I should have been there. I’d signed on to help her and couldn’t follow through.
Today, traffic at the farm was slow with only a few folks trickling in this afternoon.
“Do you have a gift shop?” A fashionable blond woman probably in her thirties looked past me toward the barn.
“Sorry, no. We have wreaths and greens over here.” I showed her to the small collection of pre-made porch pots and door wreaths. We hired a part-timer to assemble them. Though, we’d underestimated demand and were low on stock already.
She looked over the scant offerings. “Hmm. Okay. I thought you had more shopping at the main farm.” She tapped at her phone. “This website has your farm marked as selling ‘holiday fare’ other than trees. I’ll send in a correction.”
She circled back toward the parking lot.
Dangit. She looked like she might spend some real money on holiday fare. If we only had any.
Rob walked over and freed an earbud from his ear, letting the thin cord dangle over his sweatshirt. “Let me guess. She’s looking for a gift shop. Don’t they get the sign saystree farm?We’re not Mall of Middle America here.”
I moved a few of the decorative pots closer together so the display didn’t look so ransacked. “Other farms offer more besides the trees. It’s not out of the question.”
“Where would we put a gift shop?”
“We could use the barn. Go for a rustic look. Move everything in the barn to a new, modernized outbuilding.”
Rob eyed me with suspicion. “Sounds like you’ve thought this through. With Dad’s body breaking down, don’t you think we should consider selling?”
“Nope.” I angled past him toward the office.
Rob jogged to catch up. “Why not? Mom’s been looking for a reason to sell, and this might be it with Dad out of commission at home. Do you want to do this for the rest of your life?”
I stopped. My brother and I were different people, but we’d always shown up when it came to the farm and our family. Now that we were older, we needed to secure the family business long term. Which required new ideas, not giving up. Sure, Rob dreamed of, well, I wasn’t sure what he dreamed about. But he sure was working less on farm business and more on his own creative projects.
“I know you don’t, but I do,” I told him.
“Do you really?”
“What’s with you? Of course I do.”
“Look, even Dad’s saying it’s probably time.”
Now that wasn’t true. No way. “There’s no chance Dad said he wants to sell. He’s in a lot of pain right now and feeling helpless.” I swung open the screen door to the office trailer and the craziest thing happened. The whole door came off the hinges. I held an entire door in my hand.
Rob cracked up laughing. “It’s like the universe giving us a sign. We’re literally falling apart.”
I leaned the dislodged door upright against the building’s worn siding. “When we expand, we’ll have plenty of room for a gift shop and more trees for more sales. And we don’t need to replace this screen door. The exterior door works fine enough.”
I welcomed the warmth of the office after working outside for hours. Rob opened the office fridge and took out a couple of sodas.
He handed one to me. “You think you’re going to get the Hollys to fork over their land? I know you and Marlowe have a thing, but don’t get your hopes up.”
