“Fine.”
We stomp along in silence for a few moments, brushing the occasional rogue sunflower out of our way.
“So the women in your family have a type, huh?”
I give him a glare from the corner of my eye and see only a heart-stopping grin on his stupidly beautiful face. “Call it genetic poor decision-making.”
“Were your grandparents unhappy?”
I shake my head. “Not at all. They had the kind of relationship I’ve always wanted. Aside from the whole dying too young bit.”
He nods. “Your parents?”
I shrug. “I don’t know my dad. My parents were too young when they had me and my mom took off with some guy who looks just like you, abandoning the family businessandher daughter. If that isn’t a cautionary tale against choosing the wrong man, I don’t know what is.”
He hums. “Better to never give one a chance and completely rob yourself of the possibility of a love story like your grandparents, right?”
I turn to him, stopping in the middle of the walkway and nearly causing him to bowl me over. “What is wrong with you? Are you really talking about love stories rightnow? Because that’s diabolical, trying to play on my emotions in that way. I know you’re after an easement. And the fact that you’re trying to use my grandparents’ love story to get that is manipulative and damaging. I know you’ll do whatever it takes to get what you want, but that’s off limits.”
He holds his hands up. “Eve, I wasn’t thinking about the easement when I said that, but I can see how you would interpret it that way. I just?—”
“What? You just want me to give you a chance so that I can get hurt twice as bad later on? Because that’s what it sounds like.”
“NO!” He shakes his head. “I wasn’t playing that card. But you realize you're completely closed off, right? You're seemingly incapable of believing anyone has good intentions. But I do, and you've twisted a flippant comment into something diabolical. So no, I wasn’t trying to change your mind about meoran easement. I was just hoping you might see something good in me for once.”
I keep quiet as I think over his words.
It wouldn't be the first time I've been accused of pessimism. Of torpedoingpotentialfor the sake of knowing what to expect–even if I'm the only one I'm really hurting in the end.
I bite my lip. “You have good intentions?”
He takes a step toward me, and for a second, I think he’s going to take my hand. Maybe hug me. Kiss me again? “Ever since I took over my dad’s company, I’ve tried to be the good guy. No, I don’t get to live in some fairytale world where everyone is happy with me all the time, but I promise you, Eve, I’m trying to be a net positive on the world. On your farm. You don’t have to like me, but I really hope you’ll believe me.”
I swallow, resisting the urge to move just a few inches closer and crash into his chest.
“I want to believe you, and I think there’s a little part of me that does, but I don’t get to believe in the wrong people twice. This whole place comes down to me. Only me.Becausemy grandparents died young.Becausemy mom abandoned me for someone who looks just like you. So while Iwantto believe you, it’s not a mistake I can afford to make if it proves to be one.”
He’s quiet for a moment. “Give me a chance to prove it won’t be a mistake.”
I eye him. “I don’t understand why you’re trying so hard unless it’s for an easement. If you’d given me as much shit as I’ve given you, I’d have already moved on to the next thing unless I needed something I couldn’t get anywhere else.”
He bites his lip, his eyes moving briefly to the sunflowers around us before coming back to mine. “Look, Eve, I didn’t want to tell you this because it’s not an option I’m considering, so please take it the way I’m intending.” He pauses as if waiting for my confirmation, and when I shrug, unwilling to agree with him until I know what he’s going to say, he continues, “I can probably get the town council to force an easement if I really need to. It’s dicey, considering Icouldcompletely tear up the land just for a stupid driveway, but I think if I presented them with the right documentation, they would force an easement without your signature.”
Just the thought has every alarm bell in my body blaring. I struggle to keep myself from screaming or running away—my body is itching to do either. Or both.
“But I don’t want to do that. This isn’t my typical project and I’m not working with my typical people. I know how special the sunflower farm is to you.”
“You regularly upset entire communities. Not to mention the people who live in your buildings and deserve better.”
He lets out a long breath. “Well I guess now is as good a time as any to let you know that after all of your complaints, my business manager did an analysis of our properties and only two came back with serious issues—a property manager who was cooking the books in one and not reporting necessary fixes, and a fucked plumbing system in the other. The property manager has been replaced and all properties with a similar plumbing system are slated for a complete rehaul early next year. So sure, I may have pissed some people off. But I made it right as quickly as I could.”
I nod. “So you’re fine with pissing off your hometown and coming back later to fix it when it’s convenient for you, is what you’re saying?”
He thinks about it for a second. “Uh, actually yes, to that question.”
I throw my hands out in front of me. “What?”
“If it was just the town I was worried about, I’d be fine continuing with the plan—or an even more invasive one, honestly, if that’s our only option. I know that this development will end up nice in the end. Even though you think my buildings are ugly, I think they all have a certain charm. And these ones will too. Even more so.”
