“Jace, it’s Cammie.”
He glanced at the LA number that hadn’t registered with her contact information.
“Why aren’t you calling on your phone?What’s up?”
“I needed to keep the guy on hold, so I borrowed my boyfriend’s cell.It has better reception at his mom’s house anyway.”
Cammie had a boyfriend?And they’d been dating long enough that she’d met his mother?Guilt rippled over his skin, cooling it.
So, change.
He would.
Now that he was sticking his head out from the scripts he’d been buried under, he’d see the people in his life as more than just instruments of his success.He could do that, at least.
“Bad news?”
“Not at all.I just had a guy call the listing number and speak to your real estate agent, but he wouldn’t deal with her.He wanted to talk to me because he, and I quote, ‘has an offer you won’t want to refuse.’”
Jace paced the side of the deck, his senses on full alert.“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.I told him to hold while I called to run it by you, but Jace, he’s right.This offer is legitimate.”
“Okay, lemme have it.”
“They want you to forego the rebuild and buy the property as-is.”
Jace frowned.On one hand, that would save him time and money, and a lot of both.But something nagged at him.
“Why?”
“At the price they’re willing to pay, I didn’t ask.”She told Jace the number, and he balked.No rancher could afford that kind of pricing.Not even the obscenely wealthy ones.
Did that mean…?
No, he wouldn’t go there, not yet.
“So, what should I tell him?He doesn’t seem like the patient type.”
Again, no rancher he’d ever known, or wanted to know, was impatient, especially when it came to building a solid outfit.He might’ve been out of the business for a hot second, but he was pretty damned sure that much hadn’t changed.
“Did he say what he wanted to do about the livestock and horses in the south barn?”
“Only that we should consider offloading them before he took possession.He, and again, I quote, ‘wants the land and is willing to pay for it.’Sounds like you can double your income if you sell both separately, Jace.Not a bad deal.Should we take it?”
Jace ignored the way thewemade him feel.Like a disappointment, for one.He’d shucked all potential connections, romantic and otherwise, for the job.His father, friends.Harley had even left because he’d ignored her needs and made his career more important.
Time with his neighbors last night had opened up a deep ache that might have scarred over the past few years, but it was sure as hell a gaping wound now.
“Gimme a sec to think about it.”
It was a damn good deal, one that would buy him not only financial freedom—though he already had that from his career, which had been good to him—but would free him from life in Banberry without having to invest a single minute, slab of oak, or modicum of energy.That said, though, he’d just mentally committed to staying at least until the house was built.Hell, he’d committed to building it himself, partly at least.
He ran his hand along the last of the old pine railing on the east side of the deck.Jace recalled his father fixing this particular swathe when he was five, maybe six.When he’d asked what was wrong with the old wood, his dad had smiled down on him.
“Nothin’s wrong with it, not that you can see.But inside, this wood’s started to break down, rot from the inside.I don’t want you to trust it, then lean against it, only to fall right on your face.”
“So, you’re building me something strong?”he’d asked.
