I sighed and scrubbed a hand over my face. Fucking Dad. The man had helped build an empire, but I didn’t like the way he’d done it sometimes. All I could do was try to be better than he was now that I was in charge.
More than just the business side of things, I was interested in Shelby herself. A quick online search yielded a wealth of information. It turned out she wasn’t just some uneducated farmgirl. She had gone to college in Oklahoma, finishing with degrees in both agriculture and business, which meant she knew a lot more about this world than I did.
Judging from the year she graduated, it was right after her parents sold the farm to my company. No wonder she was so upset about the whole thing. It seemed she had centered her entire life around her family business, and just before she returned to Kentucky to help run things, her folks had sold.
It sounded like her parents were just as ruthless as my father. Maybe Shelby and I had more in common than I’d thought. Tough parents weren’t the best thing to bond over, but it might give me a chance to crack through her disgust for me.
I kept searching her name and found a short article about her new farm. Shelby was running it off the property that belonged to her grandparents. They had left it to her when they passed away, so it had nothing to do with her parents’ sale to Allory.
I also found an Instagram post that said she would be selling her goods at a farmers’ market outside of town tomorrow. I closed my laptop and debated my options.
I was supposed to be sweet-talking these folks to make myself look good in their eyes so Allory could sweep these very truthful accusations under the rug. Maybe I had been going about this all wrong. It certainly felt wrong. Nothing I had tried so far was working.
I looked up the market and decided to take a little road trip tomorrow. First, I needed to buy an air freshener for Tyler’s truck.
CHAPTER 5
SHELBY
Another happy customer had just walked away with two cartons of eggs from the table I had set up at the Halston farmers’ market. I was feeling pretty good about coming out there, even though it had been a bit of a drive.
Halston was down the road a ways from Ferris, and when my best friend, Lila, had recommended setting up a booth there, I had rejected the idea outright. It was too far, it was a lot of extra work, and I doubted I would sell enough to justify all the time and money.
I turned to look at Lila, who sat beside me at my table beneath the canopy tent. “Thank you for making me try this market. It’s not even noon and we’re almost sold out.”
She nodded. “See? Good things happen when you listen to your best friend.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said with a smile. “I still remember that perm you talked me into back in eighth grade. So not all your ideas are good.”
“Hey, you rocked that look.” Lila shrugged. “The world just wasn’t ready for you.”
I laughed at that and shook my head. “No one was ready for it, myself included.”
“The next thing you need is a sign for this tent,” Lila said, glancing up. “People need to know what you’re selling. I bet you’d already be finished for the day if you just had a sign.”
“Lila, I can barely afford groceries. I can’t afford to getGranny’s Acre Farmprinted on there.” I paused and frowned. “I don’t even know where to get something like that done.”
“We can do it ourselves,” she said like it was no big deal. “We just need some paint, some brushes, and a steady hand.”
“Hmm, I don’t know. My sign needs to look professional to inspire confidence. I can’t have it looking like a hand-painted sign outside of a child’s treehouse.”
Lila scoffed. “Just call it artisanal signage. All these folks will eat it up.”
“Maybe,” I said hesitantly. “The sign is definitely a good idea. Hand-painting it? That might fall more into the perm category of bad ideas.”
Lila sighed dramatically. “Once again, my genius goes unappreciated.”
“But your friendship is very much appreciated,” I said. “Honestly, thank you for pushing me to do this and thank you for coming out here with me.”
“Of course.”
“No, I mean it.” I looked her in the eye “The whole reason we had to come to the farmers’ market out here is because half the people in Ferris treat me like I have an infectious disease. But you’ve always had my back.”
Lila smiled and waved my comments away, embarrassed. “Yeah, well, you’ve never done anything to have people dislike you. Your parents sold the farm that you were planning on taking over someday. And then Allory was the one who pulled the plug on the farm. None of that had anything to do with you. But people are dumb and they have no patience for details or nuance.”
“I know,” I replied with a sigh. “But don’t be so hard on the folks in Ferris. They’ve been through a lot and I’m sure they’re all trying their best.”
“Well, some people need to try harder,” she said with a huff. “And you’re way too forgiving. One ugly comment to me, and I would get into a fistfight.”
