Page 9 of Kinsey (Pennington Family #1)

“I’ve never done this before, but I want to with them.

It’ll be a good sale, I hope, and I hope soon for them.

I have a feeling that as soon as it’s put out there that it’s for sale, then there will be a lot of buyers trying to get it cheap.

I’m hoping that someone with a lot of free cash hanging around gets it instead of us having to split it up into sections.

That would make them a bit more money, but it would take them longer to sell.

” Grannie asked if she had someone in mind.

“Two men that I’ve dealt with before. They’re forever asking if I ever come across a land deal, and this is a prime one. ”

“That little town is going to be in for a huge surprise when it’s out there that they’re selling.

I think the little town depends on them to be around for a long time.

Ara told me that the Penningtons have been on that land for over five generations.

This is the first one of them to make a living at it.

I guess their daddy wasn’t worth a plug nickel.

” Meggie asked if she knew what happened to him.

“He’s in prison, last I heard. He accidentally killed his wife, he said in a drunken rage, and got life without parole.

The boys were young then, I’d say that Kinsey was eighteen when it happened.

Last time I got to talk to their grandma, she told me that he’s where he should be.

And his kids are better off without him around. ”

“I don’t know why, but I thought that he was dead.

No one mentioned him when we were there.

The land I know belonged to their grandmother, and she never left it to anyone but Kinsey.

She is said to have thought he’d be the one who would sell it all and divide it up with the others.

” Grannie told her that he’d be the one that she’d depend on, too.

Even when they were in the service. “Yes, he told me that they all sent their grannie money when they were away all those years. They’re good men, and I hope they get what they want out of this. I surely do.”

“I do as well. Like I said, this is the perfect time to be selling it off because they’re young and have time to get with someone before they’re too old and worn out to have kids.

” She had no idea why the thought of them having children depressed her so much, so she changed the subject.

“What are we going to do for dinner, Grannie? Did you want to go to that all-you-can-eat buffet? I don’t know about you, but I’m about snacked out for the day. I’d like some comfort food for dinner.”

“That sounds wonderful. I don’t know that I can eat all that much, but it would be nice to have choices.

I heard their fried chicken is the best in the state.

And I want a slice of that chocolate silk pie that we overheard those women talking about at lunch.

Doesn’t just the name of it sound good enough to eat?

” She said that she wanted some of the chicken noodle soup, too.

“Yes, the noodles are made right there on the premises. I tried to make noodles once, and it was the worst mess I’ve ever made.

I had flour up my nose for three solid days and thought I’d never sneeze right again. ”

She and her grannie had been laughing all day.

It had been wonderful to get away, and she wanted to do more days like this with her.

Her grannie was in her seventies right now and was getting around well.

She didn’t know what the future would bring and wanted to get as much time with her as she could.

After dinner, they decided to get a room for the night.

It wasn’t that far off until darkness descended on them, and she didn’t want to drive while being so full.

Buying them an extra-large cooler meant they could keep their stuff cold through the night.

Plus, she wanted to have a big breakfast before they got on the road in the morning.

It was time for a celebration. And the fact that she had gotten such a deal going made her feel like she was going to be doing something that would help people in the little town of Dresden.

Meggie couldn’t sleep right away, so while her grannie was asleep, she pulled out her laptop and worked on the wording for the sale.

She knew all the particulars about it, the acreage as well as the size of the house.

Wanting it to be perfect, she even had pictures of the house and land sizes per state that she could incorporate into the sales pitch.

She did have two buyers that she wanted to give a heads up to, and she’d call them on Monday as soon as she got the contract to sell from the Penningtons. She didn’t know how much interest the land was going to generate, but she was hoping for a landslide just for the men that she’d gotten to like.

Pulling up the background check she’d done on the men, there was no point in getting through all this to find out she’d made a big mistake with a few con artists. There, on the first one, was a picture of Kinsey Pennington in his uniform for the United States Army.

He had a boyish look about him. His hair was under his cap, so all she could see was that it was dark.

Even with his pressed shirt on, he looked well-toned.

The cords in his neck muscles looked delicious to her.

Wondering where that thought had come from, she clicked out of the file and closed down her computer.

Her mind was just tired, she thought, and she was exhausted and too full of sweet stuff for her to be thinking of men and their neck muscles.

Getting ready for bed, she thought of him a couple more times and got angry with herself for thinking of a man that she knew next to nothing about other than what she’d been able to pull up in a background check.

Though it was really good, his check had been, she knew that he was just too perfect for what she’d been reading.

“There has to be a flaw somewhere on his body.” Her face heated up when she realized that she’d been talking to herself, something that she thought she’d outgrown years ago. “Get him out of your mind, Meggie Gold, before you start putting him in scenarios that will get you into trouble.”

Crawling into bed, she was determined to keep him out of her dreams. She was acting like a schoolgirl with her first-ever crush. While he was a really good-looking man, she knew that he’d be wanting her to quit her job and start being a stay-at-home wife. Something that she knew she’d hate.

But would she?

She’d thought about being just that when her parents were alive. They were forever gone to work when she was little, and she spent more time with her nannies than her own parents. Grannie was always there for her, but she wasn’t the same as having her mommy and daddy around.

Grannie tried to make up for it by going to lunch and other fun dates with her, but it was never the same.

Now that they were both gone, all she had were memories of them kissing her goodbye when they left in the morning and sending her off to bed when they got home.

She was brought up with the knowledge that children were to be seen but never heard from.

That rule had made her want to be a stay-at-home mommy when she had kids someday.

Someday she might want to do that, but for now she was happy enough—barely so at working herself into a frenzy.

She wasn’t even dating right now. There was plenty of time for that nonsense later when she had all her life set up the way that she wanted it.

Any man that she married would have to understand that business was first until she had children, and that was one rule that she’d not break for anyone.