Page 16

Kerry Winsor
First day down! We had a very fun time. Also@Jackie Anne, you should have told me Eric was in Tommy’s class!
Comments:
Jackie Anne: Not my thing to tell.
Kerry Winsor: I had to make awkward conversation with Cain. Warn a girl!
Atticus Thompson: Ah, I need to ask him for eggs. Simone is going through a phase where she eats three a day.
Kerry Winsor: Scrambled or over easy?
Atticus Thompson: Hard-boiled.
Kerry Winsor: WHY?
“You have ahouse?”Wren’s green eyes were wide. Her strawberry-blonde hair was in a braid, and we were getting coffee in a quiet corner of town. I’d been shocked when shecalled me as I was walking out of the state building to get the house in my name. We’d hardly been able to talk in the last few weeks while she worked on her mystery project.
“Yep. An old farmhouse. It’s probably abandoned.”
Wren’s jaw kept falling open. “Are youserious?”
“I’m serious.”
“This is the greatest day of my life!” she nearly yelled. “I mean, your life. When you said you wanted a house that we could work on together, I thought it was a pipe dream. But you made it happen!”
“It might still be a pipe dream,” I replied. “My parents and Trevor want me to sell it to developers.”
I’d never seen a smile fall so quickly off someone’s face. “Where is it again?”
“Strawberry Springs. It’s three hours east of here and about an hour north of Knoxville, near the Kentucky border.”
“What developer is going out there?” she asked. “And why would you sell beautiful farmland?”
“For money.”
She pulled out her phone, presumably to bring up a map. “We’re talkinghistory.”
“Right, but apparently, it’s ‘up-and-coming,’” I said. “It doesn’t feel like an area that would appreciate that.”
“Yeah,no.”Wren shook her head. “There’s nothing there. I’m sure some would love the quiet life, but the town isn’t made for a subdivision.”
She would know. She loved researching neighborhoods around Nashville. She bought the run-down, older houses no one wanted, often to keep them from getting demolished, and carefully remodeled and sold them. She was a local legend. People wanted her to buy a house in their neighborhood because it meant she would take care of what made Nashville special.
I knew she wouldn’t like the idea of demolishing farmland for houses on principle. Still, hearing it made me feel better.
“How long would it have been abandoned?” she asked.
“Ten years, give or take. The letter he left said he had employees, but after this long, there’s no way they would have stayed.”
“If it’s not in too bad of shape, it could be redone and sold.” Her eyes met mine. “But judging by the look on your face, you don’t like that idea.”
“I thought it was gone,” I said. “And now it’s in my name. Shouldn’t I do something with it? Papa Bennie was a cornerstone of Strawberry Springs. I could carry on his legacy.”
“Maybe, but you’d have to see how the farm looks and probably do a lot of learning to get it there. It’s not impossible, but you’d have to completely give up your life here. At least temporarily.”
“And Trevor wouldn’t like it.”