Page 58 of Morally Black Betrothal

“There you are!”

I jumped at the sound of my sister’s voice, muted by the window next to me but accompanied by the sharp rapping of her knuckles on glass. She was on the other side, Kylie waving beside her. Back from wherever they’d disappeared to for the last day and a half.

I gestured for her to wait. “Linc, did you get the payment?” I called to the front.

Lincoln gave me a friendly thumbs-up from the register. “Killed it, hon. See you next Friday?”

“See you then.” I packed up the leftover plain brown paper bags and folding racks into their cardboard box and carried them outside, where Selena was waiting impatiently with Kylie.

“Anything left over for us?” She nodded at the shop. “Your neighbor said you were here, but seven bucks a coffee? Too rich for my blood.”

Not even a hi or hello. Just a “what do you have for me?”

“I usually sell out.” I grinned down at Kylie, who was already holding her hands up for a hug. I set down the box and picked her up. “Hiya, kiddo. Whatcha been up to?”

“We went back home to pack,” she told me. “And I finishedallofDaniel Tiger. Every episode, all day yesterday.”

“Don’t start,” Selena said to me, catching my frown. “I had shit to take care of. No thanks to you.”

I sighed. Selena never seemed to care about fighting in front of her kid, but that didn’t mean I wanted to.

I bent to set Kylie down. “See that nice man at the counter in there, honey?” Kylie glanced at Lincoln, who waved at her and winked. “He keeps chocolate chip cookies under the counter. If you tell him you’re my niece and ask pretty please, he might give you one. Might even make you a hot chocolate too.”

“What about me?” Selena asked.

Kylie wasted no time skipping into the shop, where I could see Lincoln was already reaching under the desk for the stash of cookies I made for him each week as a thank you.

I turned back to Selena. “You were saying.”

My sister shook her head. “I tried. I really did. But even with the half down, Ezra isn’t letting me out of this debt. I’m ten seconds from selling my body at the pier to pay this off unless you figured something out.”

“Sel, come on. Don’t even joke about that.”

“What am I supposed to do? I guess I could call Dad.”

“Why would you do that?” I couldn’t quite keep the sharpness out of my voice. The last time Selena did that, she’d nearly bankrupted him. A solid percentage of what I sent home was going toward his second mortgage.

“He already said if I really need it, he’ll sell some of the herd.”

I gaped. “Sel, you can’t be serious. You know he’s already behind on payments—the bank will foreclose within the year, and we’ll lose the whole farm. He needs every cow he has right now.”

She shrugged. “So what? Honestly, it’s the least he can do for us after checking out the way he did when Mom died. Neither of us lives there, and it would be better if Dad just filed for bankruptcy in the end, got out of debt. They’ll let him keep the house, you know. It will pay that off, just sell the rest of the farm to developers. It’s probably worth more that way anyway.”

I just stared. Selena had always been selfish, sure. But she had also been my sister. The one who had explored creeks and trails around Woodstock with me when we were kids. Who sat at our kitchen counter with Mama and me to lick the cake batter from the bowl, who helped me name new calves and fed them treats like apples and pumpkins.

Once upon a time, we’d made good memories, and the farm had been the only place where either of us had ever really been happy. How could she be so cavalier about throwing it all away?

“What do you want me to say?” she asked. “I have to pay these guys off, and I have a kid to take care of. Do you think Ky would be better off with her mother at the bottom of the Harbor?Doyou?”

I glanced inside at Kylie, who was currently dipping her cookie into a hot chocolate Lincoln had made with chocolate sprinkles.

The contract weighed heavily in my coat pocket. The money would pay for plenty, but there were things I—or at least my family—needed now. Things like childcare. Preschool. A safe home for my beloved niece. And a farm that needed to be saved.

Five million dollars was a lot, but ten percent wouldn’t cover it all.

Still, he did say he liked a good negotiation.

If I had the nerve.