She nibbles on her lip. “I don’t think you were supposed to know that.”
“We deserve to know,” Penny proclaims. “It’sourfarm.”
My stomach sinks as I remember all the times I’d said those exact words to Walker when I first arrived. And then I recall the looks he’d give me. At the time, I thought it was because he didn’t like the fact that it was mine and Penny’s. But now I realize it was because he knew it wasn’t. All along, the farm has been his.
CHAPTER 47
Walker
No matter how many times I look at this piece of paper, the numbers don’t change. The farm is in the red. Seriously in the red. And Frank is calling in the loan. Motherfucker. After everything we’ve worked so hard to achieve, we missed one fucking clause that made it all worthless.
“You weren’t supposed to transfer the land,” I mumble to Gail as I read over the letter from Frank for a second time. I’d been at the brewery when she called, panic stricken, and I’d told her to bring the letter here. I’ve known for a week that we had a problem, but this is the nail in the coffin. Frank’s threats weren’t empty.
She blinks at me from across the table, tears in her eyes, and shakes her head. “I don’t know what to do.”
Years ago, Peter took out a line of credit from Frank Seymour and mortgaged the property. For years, Peter made the minimum monthly payments, but it ballooned in June and now the payments will be nearly quadruple what he was previously paying. That was bad enough. Everything we’d done over the last few months was supposed to mean we’d be able to make that first balloon payment in June and buy some time until I was able to prove to a bank that we had what was needed to refinance the loan. But we missed one tiny detail: When Gail and Peter gave me half interest in this property, it was a violation of the loan agreement they signed withFrank, and now he’s calling the loan. We either pay off the entire thing or he forecloses in July and we lose it.Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I have nothing to sell other than my old truck, and we’ll need that if we have any chance of coming out on the other side of this spring. No, the only thing that would fix this is an influx of cash.
“We’re going to need to sell some land.” I don’t say it easily. I’d been avoiding this last resort since January, when Frank first showed up and told us about the balloon payment. I’d gone around and around on what could be done, but it can’t be avoided now. There is no quick fix other than that.
From across the table, Gail nods at me. “The wildflower meadows make the most sense. Developers have been after those plots forever because they look out toward the harbor. Peter could never bear to part with them.”
My swallow is heavy as I imagine Tally’s reaction to losing her favorite place in the world. To saying goodbye to a future house on that spot.
“We need to tell the girls.”
“Absolutely not.” My head snaps up at Gail’s pronouncement. Her lips don’t quiver, and her face is a mask of seriousness.
“Gail—”
She shakes her head. “Tally will stay if she knows the trouble we are in. I promised her father I wouldn’t let her do that.”
A rush of defeat runs through me, and I hang my head. I know Peter never wanted the girls to feel obligated to the land. I know Gail forced me to keep quiet since Tally came home because she promised her husband just that. Hell, sheheld an NDA over my head and I agreed. But now? Now all of that seems so fucking pointless. Tally’s heart will be broken, and I have no one to blame but myself. I should have told her, should have fought Gail harder to tell her.
“She doesn’t want to stay in Hope Harbor. She likes to travel … that’s her thing,” Gail continues.
I shake my head because she doesn’t know her daughter at all if that’s truly what she believes. Though I don’t think she’s completely to blame for that. Everyone’s been hiding pieces of themselves under the guise of protection: Tally, Penny, Gail, Billie, even me. But that all needs to end. Tally and her sister deserve to know the truth. About everything. They’ll be upset, yes, but in the end they’ll understand.
“She deserves to live her own life,” she says. “If we can’t figure out a way to keep the farm, that’s on me.Us. I don’t want to put that on her.”
My jaw hardens because I don’t want to put that on Tally, either. But lying to her, hiding the truth, is only going to end badly. “Eventually she needs to know about the land, Gail.”
She shakes her head. “Why does she? She’ll never understand. She’ll only try to fix it.”
My teeth grind together because Gail’s not wrong. Already, Tally has been trying to find a fix to the unfixable. And that’s just the problem, isn’t it? The way the business is currently running is dead in the water. Changes need to be made. And we don’t have the money to make them unless we sell the land.
It makes perfect sense to me. We have too much of it. But still, I know Tally won’t agree. I’ll need to figure out a way to slowly give her all this information, to make her understand that this isn’t a bad thing.
And if Gail is right, if Tally’s leaving just like she’s planned to all along, then what does it matter? Telling her will only have her digging in her toes and fighting for something she doesn’t want.
I don’t want to lie to her any longer. But I know if I tell her the truth, she’ll stay. And as much as I want that, I know she doesn’t. Tally needs to choose her own destiny, to chase her own dreams.
“Promise me you won’t tell her,” Gail pleads.
I gnash my teeth together but give a simple nod.
“Thank you, Walker. I’ll talk to the Realtor and see if any developers would be interested in a quick deal.”
