Page 144 of The Havenport Collection

Violet

I felt terrible. Truly terrible. I hadn’t heard from Callum in almost a week. It was so strange. We fought, I was so exhausted and upset, and then nothing. He disappeared.

I half expected him to show up the following morning with donuts, but I certainly never anticipated hearing nothing. No calls, texts, emails, nothing for days. After a few days I even texted him just to make sure he was okay. I got no response.

He seemed like he wanted to explain, like he wanted to save this, but then he walked away and didn’t look back. He said he loved me and that he wanted a future with me. But he certainly did not if one argument was enough to make him turn his back on me forever.

At first I was worried, but I texted Cece, who confirmed that he was fine. Thankfully she was discreet and didn’t ask too many questions about what had happened.

So that was it. We were apparently done, and he didn’t feel the need to talk to me or have the decency to explain himself, which hurt more than the breakup.

Because we were friends first, and there was a foundation of trust and mutual respect there, which is why I thought things would work out.

But maybe I had been imagining it? Had I gotten so swept up that I failed to realize that I was in love with him, but he wasn’t in love with me?

It was certainly possible. I didn’t exactly have the best history when it came to men.

My heart sank. I took a chance and I fell hard. I didn’t regret it. I didn’t believe in regrets. But this one stung. Mostly because I hated that we had to live in this town together. I would see him, and my kids would see him.

As much as I was hurting, the thought of hurting the boys gutted me. Even after all they had been through, they were open and loving kids. They welcomed Callum into our lives, and now he was gone.

But the great thing about being a single mom was that there was no time to wallow.

My kids needed lunches packed and clothes washed, and the preparations for Liam & Cece’s wedding had reached a fever pitch.

I threw myself into it, obsessing about every detail and working around the clock to make sure everything was perfect.

I woke up at dawn to feed the animals before Bob even started to work. I picked and sorted and packed for the farmers’ market, and I made sure to spend plenty of time at the store with my mom, creating displays and discussing the plans for winter.

By the time I actually got the boys to school and went into my office to work, I was exhausted and distracted and too busy trying to caffeinate to think about Callum and how sad, frustrated, and angry I was.

I plopped down at my desk, trying to ignore the fact that my entire office reminded me of him. Every time I walked in here, past the name plate on the door, I thought of him, and my heart soared. Now I was surrounded by memories of him, his support, his love, and his encouragement everywhere.

“You okay, boss?” Frankie poked her head in my door. She had been here for over a month now and was quickly becoming indispensable.

“I’m good,” I responded, a little too quickly. “Have a seat.”

Frankie sat and eyed me suspiciously. “I have updates for you and wanted to run through the meetings you have today. But first, are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” She raised her eyebrows and waited.

“Your mom look won’t work on me, Frankie, but I can see how you keep your boys in line.”

She laughed. “Oh, yes. They know I mean business.” Frankie had three boys under ten, and I imagined that look got a lot of mileage in their home.

“Let me get another cup of coffee, and we can run through the day.”

Once my mug was refilled, I was ready to get to work.

Frankie pushed her cat eyeglasses up her nose and began reading her notes.

“Okay. let’s start with the wedding and barn punch list, then I can walk you through the business stuff.

Right now, we are on track with everything.

The patio and outdoor fireplace will finish installation this week.

Then I have the electrician here next week for the outdoor lighting and the landscapers for the plantings. ”

I nodded. I loved that Frankie was on top of every detail. She was also gorgeous and quite sassy, which made handling contractors a breeze. “Cece is sending over an intern on Thursday to take some photos of the renovations for our social media and website.”

Cece was no joke in the social media department. She had been documenting her wedding planning and all the activity at the farm for weeks. She created videos, photo collages, and all sorts of cool stuff to promote the farm. We had gained thousands of followers in a matter of weeks.

“Also, I don’t want to stress you out more, but we have had several calls about weddings.”

I took a deep breath. This was a good thing. Callum had done some forecasts for me, and wedding business could completely change the game for the farm, not to mention potentially pay for the twins to go to college. “Okay.”

“We need to get to work on our materials. Brochures, photos, pricing, packages. I know you wanted to wait until after the first wedding, but the demand is there.”

I nodded. “I get it. And thank you for reminding me. I don’t even know where to start.”

She laughed. “Oh, I’m way ahead of you, boss. I downloaded some wedding materials from other farms in the area. I wanted to scope out the competition and get a sense of what we’re up against.”

“Frankie, you are amazing.”

She beamed with pride. I can’t believe I ever thought I didn’t need an assistant. Frankie was incredible and always five steps ahead of my scatterbrained ass. I needed to pay her more, and hopefully with some wedding business I could actually afford to.

We walked through the farm business, the pick-your-own numbers in the orchard, the meetings I had coming up about my farm-to-table initiative, and Bob’s supply orders for the next month.

Every time Frankie and I sat down, I felt more and more like a businesswoman. Things were coming together, and every day I was learning more about this business. I still had a lot of financial messes to clean up and loans to pay, but we were making progress.

“Hey, Frankie,” I hollered as she was walking out the door, “I need to hire a new accountant. Can you get me some names, and we can interview them in the coming weeks?”

“Sure thing, boss.”

I slumped back in my chair. I couldn’t help but think about how all of this was due to Callum. He transformed this corner of a dusty old barn into an actual office, he encouraged me to expand our business, and he convinced me to hire Frankie.

I looked out my window, over the orchard where a group of middle schoolers were apple picking on a school trip. This farm was my family’s legacy, and for the first time in a while, I actually was beginning to believe I could handle it.

But then my heart sank. So much of the progress—most of the progress—was due to Callum. He was a huge part of this farm and my business. Not to mention my life.

Despite my best efforts at avoidance, I was overwhelmed with sadness. I still couldn’t believe he was gone, and it was over. Why hadn’t he reached out? Why hadn’t he fought harder? Was it possible he realized I wasn’t worth the effort after all?

The boys were hurting after the breakup as well. I had skipped soccer last week. I couldn’t face him, and Rose took them to the game instead. They knew something was up but thankfully gave me space.

My mother and sister, on the other hand, were not so careful.

“What did you say to him?” Rose asked, grabbing another handful of popcorn out of the bowl my mom made.

Some nights, when we really missed Dad, my mom would break out the old popcorn popper and make some homemade kettle corn for us.

I think she sensed I was down, so after the boys went to bed she started to make a few batches.

I don’t know if she had texted Rose or she could smell it from her house, but she came over and insisted I bring her up to speed on everything.

“He wanted to explain, and I told him I just needed to go to bed. I was too tired and too confused. It was emotional whiplash. We had so much fun at the wedding together. I was riding this high of being in love with my best friend, and then I found out he lied to me.”

“Is it really lying though?”

“Seriously, Mom? You’re on his side?”

“There are no sides here, sweetie. This isn’t high school.”

“It seems like he didn’t tell you—and he should have—but it wasn’t malicious,” Rose said, shoving kettle corn into her mouth.

“Think of how helpful he’s been. How much of his time he’s invested in the farm and in you. He clearly is on your team,” Mom said.

“I know Sebastian fucked you up, but you need to forgive yourself.” My mother shot Rose a look about her foul language, which she ignored. “You didn’t break the law, you didn’t cheat on your husband, you didn't neglect your kids.”

I nodded. Logically I knew these things.

“You're not stupid. You’re not clueless. He was a lying, manipulative asshole.”

“I know that.” I was growing tired of this conversation.

“But you’re letting that baggage get in the way of what you have with Callum. Because you haven’t forgiven yourself.”

I considered Rose for a moment. She was so obnoxious when she knew she was right.

I threw a pillow at her. Yes, I was triggered when I found out Callum had not been one hundred percent honest with me.

It set something off inside me that I couldn’t control, and all of a sudden I had been filled with self-doubt and fear. It wasn’t his fault.

“You need to give him another chance,” my mom said gently.

“I was willing to! By the time my head hit the pillow I wasn’t even mad anymore. I was more frustrated than anything. I was fully ready to talk to him and work things out, and then he ghosted me. Where the hell is he? If he was really in love with me, he’d call or text.”

“What about you? Did you reach out?”

“Yes. I texted once, when I hadn’t heard from him.”

“That’s it? One text? And you claim to be in love with him?”

My mother shook her head. “You are so stubborn.”

“No, I’m not. Rose is the stubborn one.”

“Yes, she is. But you can be too.”

I was too weary to argue with them. I missed Callum fiercely and wanted nothing more than to talk to him.

But I had bigger problems to worry about.

“Whatever. Things are clearly over, and I can’t even take the time to process that because I have to stay focused on this meeting with the bank.

I have to pull together a presentation. This is too important to screw up. I need to get this right.”

I got up and paced around the living room. “If I can’t renegotiate the terms of our loans and consolidate or lower the interest rates, then I may have to sell off a few acres.”

“What?” Rose looked pissed.

“Your land is safe, Rose. You own it outright.” My dad had subdivided everything years ago.

“I know that. But I thought you were going to expand, not contract.”

“Yes. That’s the plan. But there is so much financial messiness right now. I need to bring in more revenue and figure out how to lessen our debt burden. I have been working with Callum,”—just saying his name made me wince—“and Astrid and I just need to get everything ready.”

My mom grabbed my hand. “Violet, I have total confidence in you. When your dad was diagnosed with cancer, we spent a lot of time figuring out what would happen to the farm. We both believed that you were the right person to take over.”

Tears welled up in my eyes.

“This was our dream,” she continued, squeezing our hands. “To have our girls here, on this land, building families and businesses. We were going to build our little retirement cottage and have fun watching you both succeed and make this community an even better place.”

She dropped our hands. “Sadly, your dad didn’t get more time. But I’ll be damned if you give up that easily.” Her tone was all business. “When is the meeting?”

“Next Tuesday.”

Rose whipped out her phone and started to furiously type. My mom nodded at her.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Calling in reinforcements. It’s time to get to work.”