“From what I hear,” Trent said, his smile as slow and sharp as a rusted nail, “you can’t even afford the feed.”
He should’ve known he couldn’t hide his financial situation in a town like this. In Brim’s Hollow, gossip traveled faster than wildfire and burned just as hot. One rumble of a repossession truck through town and the next second the whole town knew about it.
Trent, sensing the opening, pressed on. “Thing is, some of us have to earn what we get. We don’t just coast along, inheriting land and thinking that makes us a farmer.Marrying into magic and telling yourself it makes you special.”
Ethan gritted his teeth. He told himself to let it go. They were in public. There were children. Somewhere behind him, he could hear the faint clatter of laughter and conversation—safe, small-town noise that didn’t deserve to be interrupted by old grudges.
Between the two of them, he’d always been the one to walk away. Back in school, Trent had a reputation as the kid always carrying a chip on his shoulder. He was too proud to admit he wanted to belong, and too angry to let anyone forget he didn’t. As soon as Trent was old enough to throw a punch, he’d tried to prove something, but to Ethan, he was nothing more than the kid brother of the woman he’d marry.
When Ethan and Leticia got serious, Trent never stopped whispering in her ear, saying Ethan was only with her for the magic.
Which was funny, really, because in the end, the magic was the very thing that tore them apart.
“I never coasted through a damn day in my life,” Ethan said, trying to keep his voice even. “I worked for everything I have. I’m working my ass off to keep this orchard going while raising my daughters. I stayed.”
Even when your sister walked out.
But Trent wasn’t done.
“You always had everything handed to you.” His voice curled with bitterness. “That farmhouse. That land. Hell, even that car. What was it, that old Camaro? That was yours before you were even old enough to drive.”
Ethan stared at him, and for a split second, despite the adult face in front of him—the squared jaw, the creased brow, the sharp edge to his mouth—he could still see the boy everyone used to whisper about. The one who showed up atschool with yesterday’s clothes and a bruise he wouldn’t talk about. The one who hurtled into rooms with fists flying because it was the only language he knew.
That anger hadn’t gone anywhere. It had just learned how to wear a grown man's face.
And suddenly, it all made sense.
Ethan didn’t have much these days. The bills stacked up. The tractor broke more often than it ran. And he was only a few weeks away from having to make some real hard calls about what stayed and what went.
Even now, Trent stood here, practically vibrating with resentment and still trying to get under his skin, because Ethan had something he never did.
Roots.
It wasn’t about the car or magic or land.
Ethan had a name that still carried weight in Brim’s Hollow. A family history that meant something. A home that, no matter how battered or broken, had never once slipped out from under his feet.
He had a life built on something real, even if it was worn thin and patched with duct tape.
He let out a breath, slow and steady, then looked Trent dead in the eye.
“I’ll sell you the car,” he said.
Trent’s eyebrows ticked up, surprise flickering just long enough to register before he masked it.
“You’ve wanted it for years,” Ethan went on. “You know what it’s worth. Two goats and thirty-five hundred. It’s fair.”
“Ethan.” Honey’s hand landed gently on his shoulder, her voice softer than the tension in her grip. “I don’t think that’s a fair trade. You should at least get an appraisal. We should run the numbers and think this over.”
Ethan glanced at her, just for a second. Her concernwas visible in her eyes, but his attention snapped back to Trent, who chewed the inside of his cheek, thinking it over. Ethan knew better.
Trent wanted that car. Always had.
“You know what,” Trent said, putting his hand out. “Deal.”
But before Ethan could move, Honey grabbed his wrist and pulled it back. “No deal.”
She positioned herself in front of him. “You can’t just sell your car on a whim and a handshake.”
