Billionaire's Second Chance (Billionaires #16) - Jennifer Hartley Page 0,40
someday. The farm is important to her. It’s so important that you have no idea. It’s not only a legacy; it’s the last thing remaining of our parents. Clara loves this farm. It’s everything that she remembers about her childhood and our mom and dad. It’s everything that she sees for what she wants in her future. So yes, I would do anything to make sure it stays.”
I thought about what he said. His heart was in the right place, but it was the same kind of analogy as those gas masks on an airplane. You’re supposed to put the mask on yourself first so that you can save someone else. If you don’t, then you could both die. The farm was the plane, and they were both crashing down with it. Scott wasn’t taking care of himself and what he needed out of his life, and that meant that he couldn’t take care of Clara, either. I knew that the next thing I said was going to get me into a whole lot of trouble, but maybe it would at least make him think.
“Would your father have done the same thing, Scott?” I asked as I looked him right in the eyes. “Would your dad have given up everything that he wanted in life in order to save the farm from going under? Even if it made him miserable. And before you answer that, think about this—would you, and Clara, and your mom, have wanted him to if that were the case?”
Scott didn’t answer.
We finished checking out, and when he went to pay for the order, I slipped my credit card to the cashier. Then, we drove back to the farm in silence. It was hard for me to tell if Scott was mad at me or if he was actually thinking about what I had said. My guess was that it was a little bit of both. I used the quiet time on the drive to think about Clara, and I started to wonder if I was ever going to get my shot with her.
When we got back to the farm, things were still a little uncomfortable between Scott and me. I felt like I kept trying to make things better but just ended up making them worse. I helped him bring in the grocery bags and looked around to see if Clara was there. The water was running in the shower, so I figured she was in the bathroom.
“Look,” I said after we had finished putting everything away. “I’m not trying to pry my way into your family matters or get between things with you and Clara. It’s just that you guys have been more like family to me than my own family ever was, and I want to see you both happy.”
“I appreciate that,” Scott said as he gave me a pat on the back. “And you know that you’re like family to us, too. But I know what I need to do here, and so does Clara. It’s easy to come in after you’ve been away for a while, and to come with unlimited resources and opportunities, and peek your head in on our farm for a little while and suddenly think like you know what’s up. But this is a whole different world than the one you’re living in DeShawn, and you’re going to need to trust that I know what’s best for both the farm and for my sister.”
“Don’t you think that maybe she might know what’s best, too?” I asked.
Scott reached for a couple of beers, and I could tell that he was ready to end this conversation and move on. I took the cue and didn’t ask any more questions for the night. I didn’t want to piss him off before it got closer to time for me to go. I hung out for a while longer, hoping to be able to see Clara and ask her how she was feeling now before I left. But she was in the shower for a long time—the entire time that Scott and I had finished our beers.
“Staying for dinner?” he asked me.
“Not tonight,” I said. “I’ve got an early morning meeting with the estate attorney tomorrow, and if I don’t show up on time and at least halfway coherent, he’ll read me the riot act.”
Scott laughed and nodded his head. “Understood,” he said as I got ready to leave.
“Hey, tell Clara that I hope she’s feeling better,” I said.