Page 104

When are we gonna talk about the elephant in the room?
Comments:
Marjorie Brown: Who, Kerry?
Kerry Winsor: MARJORIE, YOU TAKE THAT BACK!!!
Jade Clark: Shots fired.
Tammy Jane: NO, Mollie is gone.
Kerry Winsor: You’re right! It’s been a while since she’s been spotted. Did Cain run her off?
Jackie Anne: Seriously? That’s your first thought?
Kerry Winsor: Well, she DOES live with him!
Tammy Jane: Man, I hope she didn’t go back to the city without saying goodbye. I liked her ...
It tookme another week to get the last field done, even with Cainhelping out when he could. When I wasn’t doing that, I was trying to appear present at work.
The time I spent in front of my laptop was more boring than I could say. It was odd how I could work in fields for hours and love it, but answering emails felt impossible.
Once the fields were done and my day job was all that remained, I realized I desperately needed to do something fun before burnout set in.
But what even wasfun?
I tried googling how to have fun in a small town and only got a ton of country songs that I didn’t want to listen to. And though the animals and fields were fun, they were still technically work.
As far as anything else? I’d hit a wall.
Eventually, I knew there was no way I was going to figure this out on my own.
While working, I’d gotten bad about going into town. Trevor was on a warpath, giving me extra assignments to make up for my lack of office presence, and I had been spending most of the time I was awake tied to my computer. He’d also sent more emails about offers for the land, which I deleted every single time.
It was a few weekends later before I had the energy to even get out of the house, and the town square was as busy as usual. People who I was starting to get to know were everywhere, and most of them seemed shocked to see me. I’d said hello to everyone I could before going into Jade’s shop.
“Oh my God!” Jade said. “I thought you’d gone back to the city!”
“What? Why would I do that?”
“You’ve been missing for weeks.”
“I wasn’t missing. I was working.”
“On what? Cain handles the animals at the farm, and anything else doesn’t need work now that it’s coolingoff.”
“I also do marketing for my family’s company.”
“Oh, that sounds . . . fun.”
“Trust me, it’s not. That plus the farm keeps me busy.”
“Are you taking it over?”
“Um, no. But I got some strawberries planted.”
Her jaw dropped. “It’s reopening?”