I reach down and pick him up. “It’s okay, Buster. I’ll find you some food soon. Maybe you can eat starfizz berries, too.”
It’s literally the only food we have.
Pane exits the truck holding two coffees. “Power’s out all over town, but the coffee shop has a generator.”
He glances over at Dancing Trails. Somehow they managed to escape the eye of the storm.
Of course they did.
Pane hands me a coffee and I sniff. It’s a mocha.
I bite back the sob that swells in my throat. “What do we do?”
He brushes a strand of hair away from my face. “It’s going to be okay. It’s all gonna be fine.”
“No, it’s not. You’ve lost the competition. I’ve lost the farm.” My face scrunches up in sadness. “I’m so sorry.”
He knuckles away a tear that streaks down my face, and when he looks down at me, emotion brims in his eyes. “I’ve already won everything I need.”
His words make my heart quiver. “But the house—”
“Houses can be rebuilt.”
“But the foreclosure?”
There, he’s silent, because he knows as well as I do that we don’t have a chance.
Before he can argue, or agree with me, or say anything at all, Clarice Sinclair rumbles down the road, honking her horn. Behind her are at least a dozen vehicles. They all swing into the driveway and I watch in horror as people I’ve known my whole life fill up our small gravel drive.
They’re here to see Pane win. But now he won’t.
They slowly get out of their cars and drift listlessly toward what’s left of the house. Their expressions are filled with shock and sheer disbelief.
Cristina runs up and throws her arms around me. “It’s gonna be okay.”
I manage to keep the tears in check.
Ron appears and pulls his hat off his head, squashing it between his hands. “It was gonna be so great.”
Isaac squeezes Pane’s shoulder. “I can’t believe it, man.”
McCauley pulls up in his work truck and just stares.
It’s all any of us can do. Just stare.
The scent of defeat is heavy in the air. Some folks start picking up boards, but there’s no place to put them.
I’m so shocked that I don’t know what to do first—cry or collapse.
It’s while Cristina’s still hugging me that Luke’s truck rolls into the driveway. Oh, God. He’s here to see if I have the money to keep the house from going into foreclosure.
It’s so insane that I want to laugh. There’s no money. Pane has lost the competition, and whatever chance I could have had to somehow win back the farm is gone.
Caput.
Done.
Right behind Luke, fast on his heels, is a limousine.
