Page 7 of As They Are (Strawberry Springs #2)

WREN

Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch

Jade Clark: Does anyone have a mattress that vibrates? I need info.

Comments:

Kerry Winsor: WHAT kind of info could you possibly NEED?

Mollie Wilson: Jade, you don’t need the whole mattress. Let me send you a website.

Jade Clark: Not for THAT, for sleeping! Get your minds out of the gutter. No one else would think that!

Atticus Thompson: I did.

Theo Murf: I did too.

Marjorie Brown: Now, for anyone who needs recommendations on other vibrating things, let me know.

I burst into the farmhouse with the perfect plan to make my producer work on the library. I was ready to call her up and send her my proposal to get her here, but I forgot that my best friend also lived in this house and she would have a lot of questions for me.

“Well, you certainly had a fun day.” Mollie’s hands were on her hips, but she didn’t look angry. “How was your relaxation ?”

“It’s safe to say that I did some relaxing,” I began. “I was gonna fix the lights in the bathroom?—”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know. I wound up hanging out at the square. I may have been invited out by Kerry.”

Mollie gasped, putting a hand on her chest. “Please tell me you didn’t go to Center Point Diner without me.”

I winced. I probably should have thought this through more than I had. “I’m sorry. When she met me, she immediately invited me out, and I didn’t know how to say no.”

“With Kerry, you don’t,” Cain interjected. “I really hope she wasn’t your first impression of the town.”

I thought of Henry. “No, she wasn’t. And even if she was, it wasn’t that bad.”

“It kept you distracted,” Mollie added, “which I appreciate. I was half worried you were planning to come back with a pile of wood to build something.”

I laughed awkwardly. That was exactly what I had been planning until Henry talked me out of it. “I should go wash my hands and make a few calls.”

“You’ll join us for dinner, right?” Mollie asked. “We eat together every night, and everyone, even guests, join.”

“What are you having?”

“Chicken and rice.”

My eyes went to the back of the farm. “Like fresh chickens?”

“God, no.” Cain shook his head. “Those are egg-laying hens. Some farmers sell them for meat, but I try to give them good lives.”

“And then you eat ones from other farms?”

He grimaced. “I try not to think too hard about it. Otherwise, I might never eat meat again.”

Mollie laughed and rubbed his shoulder. I had to look away. I thought I’d have this with Jude.

And that didn’t work out.

“I need to go make those calls,” I repeated. “I’ll be back down in a few.”

Mollie nodded, though she had that suspicious look on her face that meant nothing good for me. I took the stairs two at a time to get to the bathroom. Once my hands were free of all dirt, I opened my phone.

Got an idea for the season two location. Call me ASAP.

I’d only been gone for two days, but Madison had hounded me on it despite the fact that I was supposed to be on a break.

They were moving lightning fast on the second season since they wanted to finish filming before I started my other scheduled project.

When they’d decided that they could make it work, we hadn’t planned for a massive bump in the road with the mansion. Now, we were on borrowed time.

I was used to moving fast on things. Usually, I liked it. But the endless tasks of being on a show weren’t as fun as I’d hoped they would be.

Madison wasted no time. Minutes later, she called.

“Hey,” I answered.

“I hope you’re calling with good news,” she said. “Like you’ve found a location instead of going on vacation like I’d heard you’d done.”

I sighed. Only the contractors I knew were aware that I was visiting Mollie. They must have told her while she was on the hunt for me.

“It isn’t a vacation. I’m visiting a close friend.”

“Sounds like a vacation to me.”

“It turned out to be something good. I know where we’re filming season two.”

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“Strawberry Springs.”

“Where?”

“It’s a small town a few hours outside of Nashville.”

“ Hours? Wren, our show is based in Nashville.”

“Our show is based in history , and trust me, this place has a lot of it.”

I could still see the ghosts of years past in those hallways and the memories of what once was. God, I wanted to bring it back to life.

“I told you to find another place in the city.”

“Yes, but this is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. This is inspiring, Madison. It’s the center of a small town run down by a lack of funding. We could change lives with this!”

She sighed. “I mean this in the kindest of ways, Wren. But the network isn’t interested in changing lives in a small town. They’re interested in changing lives through TV .”

“Don’t people love an underdog story?”

“They do, but you have to consider what kind of undertaking restoring a library would be. It needs books, employees, and long-term funding that the show can’t provide. Unfortunately, libraries in small towns like that close for a reason.”

“But what if I funded some of it?” I was growing desperate.

I wanted this so badly. Working on the show here was the only way I could stomach doing it.

At least I wouldn’t be alone with Jude while he flirted with me on camera and avoided me off of it.

At least I wouldn’t miss any more of Mollie’s life.

“Then we could consider it, but you’d have to fund it long term. We can’t renovate a library and have it close in a year for the same reasons.”

“Still—”

“Wren, I understand that this is important to you. And I applaud you for finding it. But unless something changes, I don’t think this is a project worth your time. I’ll send you a few options I’ve found on my own. Pick from those. We need to move fast on this.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. I regretted signing a contract for season two when I still thought I had a chance with Jude. When I didn’t feel like ... this. It was ironclad. I couldn’t get out of it.

“I’ll look at them,” I muttered.

“Thank you for listening to reason.” She hung up without another word and I flopped onto the bed.

Between all the work I had finished and planned to do in Nashville, plus the income from both seasons of Renovating with Love , I had money. But was it enough to fund a library?

A place like this deserved to be showered with income. They deserved the ability to buy new books and host things without worrying about how they’d pay for it.

I could keep it running for a year. Maybe two, if I took consistent flips and houses and upped my rates. But I couldn’t give it what it deserved by myself.

I stared at the ceiling, my emotions crashing over me. It had been a long time since I’d felt this much disappointment. Usually, I could find a project to work on to make it better.

And I thought I had.

A knock at the door pulled me from my thoughts. “Hey,” Mollie said. “Ready for dinner?”

I wasn’t. I wanted to be miserable for a little longer. But I also didn’t want to be a rude guest.

“Yeah, I am.”

“Did your calls go well?” she asked.

I bit my lip and shook my head.

“Do you wanna talk about it?”

“I had hoped for something and it’s not gonna happen.” I shrugged.

“Two heads are better than one. And you’d have four if we were all downstairs.”

“I’m not trying to hijack your dinner with work talk.”

“You’re not hijacking anything. We all talk about our days at dinner. And something tells me you have a lot going on.”

“I’m not hiding it as well as I could be, huh?”

“You look a little bit like I did when I first came here,” she said. “And we still have that spot where we can bury the body of any man who hurts you. Although the farm has some good ones too.”

Despite everything, I laughed. “There are certainly more options now.”

“Let’s go eat. And then we can talk about everything.”

Cain and Eric were already at the dining room table. Cain was locked in a long conversation about a kids’ show.

I sat with them, trying to resist the urge to feel out of place among their little family.

When I was a kid and I went to Mollie’s house for dinner, I felt the same way.

Her parents weren’t perfect, like many weren’t.

But they cared—and that felt alien to me.

Sure, Dad had tried, but he was too busy putting food on the table.

He didn’t have time to sit and enjoy it.

It was obvious that Cain was busy too, yet he still had time for Eric. So far, it had been a struggle not to be jealous. Especially when I was the outsider. But I shoved it all into a box and smiled at the scene.

Even if it fought me every step of the way.

“What’s your favorite show, Wren?” Eric asked.

I blinked. “I don’t really watch TV.”

“And you’re on TV?” Cain asked.

Mollie glared at him. “Seriously?”

“Sorry. That came out ruder than I meant it to. I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.”

“It’s fine,” I said, trying to keep my voice level. “The TV show was never the official plan, but they could offer funding that I couldn’t. For certain things, apparently. It comes with restrictions.”

“Like what?” Mollie asked.

I stabbed at the chicken on the plate, still feeling raw from Madison’s no. “They’ll fund the things they believe in. Not what’s actually good for a community.”

“Is that the call you made?” she asked.

“Yeah. I had an idea for a project. It won’t work out.”

“What was it?”

“It was something you would’ve loved. No need to get your hopes up only to crush them like mine were, though.”

“You don’t need to protect me,” she said. “I’ll be fine. I’m more worried about you right now.”

I sighed. I wasn’t used to being told no after years of being my own boss. It was tempting to hide and lick my wounds, but Mollie wouldn’t let this go. “You know the library on the square? I wanted to work on that.”

Mollie’s fork clattered. “Seriously? Here?”