by Tia Siren
The money from the sale of the house would help Tanner out. That was what I focused on. I was helping out a man who was in bad financial shape. The money would help pay for his rising medical costs. His kids would be fine.
Watching the farm disappear would be like watching the end of an era, but I hoped it would bring me closure. No longer would I think about the day I stood there waiting and hoping she had just gotten the jitters and would join me under the arch. I didn’t want to have to look at that house and think about the kisses stolen in the shed or sneaking into her bedroom window when I just had to see her. I could erase the past.
Erasing the past would erase the pain—I hoped. It had to. I had to find a way to forget the day I ever met Ashley Parks.
Chapter 3
Ashley
Leslie was pissed, but things hadn’t gone according to plan. I had hoped to fly in on the weekend, but then I had a client refuse to budge on his booking. Plane tickets weren’t cheap. I needed the money, and since I was taking two weeks off, I wasn’t in a position to turn down the job.
Nothing was going to change in a matter of six days. Dad wasn’t going to be miraculously healed and the debt wasn’t going to evaporate. Shit could wait. Jasper was jumping all around in the back seat of my rental car. He had loved his first plane ride and couldn’t wait to see his grandpa. I hoped Grandpa was ready to see him. Jasper was a bundle of energy right now. At least I knew he could run it off on the farm. It would do him good to have space to run free and enjoy the mountain air, even if it was a bit on the warm side.
The drive through town was proving to be a real drag. Everywhere I looked, Brock’s face was there. He must have bought every billboard within twenty miles of the place. His face was on every bench, on signs posted in various vacant lots, and, as I drove out to the farm, on the old Hanson place.
The man had changed little in the looks department since I had seen him last, which made me both a little mad and sad at the same time. He was gorgeous. I remembered the way those dark blue eyes would look at me moments before he kissed me. I remembered the smell of his aftershave, the feel of his thick, silky hair and, most importantly, his strong, muscular body. I’d been sure we’d be together forever. We had started dating when I was sixteen, something my dad hadn’t been pleased about since Brock was eighteen, but I couldn’t be told no.
I had fallen head over heels in love with the older boy from the wrong side of the tracks. When he asked me to marry him, I didn’t think I could get any happier. I knew he would take me out of that town and we would have a life filled with adventure. Then I found out I was pregnant. I knew he would want to stay put and be around people who could help and support us. He would have wanted to settle down right there and raise a family. We never would have gotten to fulfill our dreams of getting out of our rural town and into the big city.
Making a decision for both of us, I chose to go without him. I never told him about the baby. I didn’t want him to drag me kicking and screaming back home. I was glad he did well for himself, but I didn’t regret leaving. It was what I had needed, and it had made me very happy these past six years, even if it had been extremely hard.
“Roll down your window, Jasper. Smell the air!”
I shut off the AC and did the same. The warm summer breeze drifted through the car windows. I had my hair pulled back in a loose bun to keep it out of my face. The wind pulled some of it out, but it felt good flitting around my face.
“What’s all that, Mom?” Jasper was looking out his window.
“Those are corn fields. Hundreds of acres of corn,” I told him.
“Wow!” he exclaimed. “That’s a lot of corn.”
I laughed. “Wait until those stalks get tall. It’ll be way up past your head, even taller than me!”
“Grandpa grows corn?” he asked.
“Yep. Not this much, but he grows a lot,” I told him, wondering if he had been able to get his early spring planting done. My dad was an excellent farmer. Most seasons he got two crops. One never knew when a cold winter was going to stretch into spring, but this winter had been mild and spring had come early.
“It smells funny,” he said, wrinkling his nose.
I laughed. “That’s clean air, dirt and fertilizer, and trees.”
You never realized how much it smelled until you were away for some time. I was suddenly aware that I’d missed the smell of home. It was a distinct aroma, very different than the city streets of New York that always smelled like food and exhaust. I loved my home even though I hated it at the same time. I had always felt caged when I’d lived here, but now I realized how nice it was to be back home—temporarily at least.
“Are we almost there yet?” Jasper asked.
I smiled. It wasn’t all that long of a ride, but to a five-year-old, I imagined it felt like an eternity. Going back to my childhood home was like going to Disneyland for him. I had told him plenty of stories about my time here and he was excited to see his grandpa. I realized then I had kept Jasper away from the family that loved him.
“We’re almost there. Remember, Grandpa isn’t feeling good, so we need to be quiet. Okay?”
“I know, Mom. You already told me a whole bunch of times,” he said, clearly irritated by my constant reminders.
“Here we are!” I said, turning on my blinker at the old dirt road and turning down the long driveway that led to my father’s farm.
It had been a long time. My heart skipped a beat. I was a bundle of nerves as the car bounced down the driveway. It had been too long. I couldn’t wait to see my dad, even if the thought of seeing him sick scared me to death.
When the driveway curved and my childhood home stood before us, I slowed the car to a crawl. I wanted to take it all in. My big sister, Leslie, came out of the house to stand on the large covered porch that wrapped around three of the four sides of the house. She was smiling and waving.
“Who’s that?” Jasper asked.
“That’s your Aunt Leslie,” I told him.
I parked the car and got out. Jasper undid his belt and crawled out as well.
“Hi!” Leslie greeted. She stepped off the porch and opened her arms. Jasper ran to her, and she wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close. “You’re so big!” she exclaimed.
I smiled at the scene, happy to see Jasper and my sister close even though they had never met. A twinge of regret for keeping him away from my family drifted through my mind again. I could feel guilty later, though. I needed to see my dad.
Leslie hugged me. “How was the flight?”
“Good. Pretty easy. Jasper did great.”
“Dad’s inside,” she said in a more somber tone.
I nodded. “Let’s do this.”
The three of us climbed the porch. Leslie opened the screen door, which squeaked like it had for as long as I could remember. We walked into the living room and I saw my dad for the first time in years. He looked smaller and much older than he had the last time I’d seen him.
I bit back my tears and walked over to greet him. He managed to get out of his recliner and stand. I wrapped him in my arms and hugged him tight. I could feel how much weight he had lost. It hurt my heart to see him in such bad shape. I should have been here for him.
“Dad, this is Jasper,” I said.
My dad’s eyes filled with tears, but he quickly blinked them away.
“Good to meet you, young man,” he said, extending his hand.
Jasper looked at the hand and ignored it, going in for a hug instead. My dad seemed to love that and returned my son’s hug. Leslie and I stood back and watched as my dad lit up. Jasper was talking to him at a mile a minute, asking questions about the farm in such rapid succession that my dad wasn’t able to answer any of them.
“Well, aren’t you a curious boy? I think you were born to be a farmer,” my dad said.
Jasper shook his head, pushed his glasses up on his nose, and promptly replied, “Nope. I’m a geologist.”
I laughed. “You
want to be a geologist. You’re not there yet, buddy. You have lots of school to do first.”
Jasper nodded. “That’s what I meant.”
Leslie stood close to me and, in a low voice, whispered, “It’s too bad Dad doesn’t really know him.”
I rolled my eyes. And so it began. My family was pissed that I never came home, never brought Jasper home to meet them. Never mind they never came to New York to see me or my son. It was the same argument we had been through a million times in the last five years.
“Do you have that paperwork?” I asked her, changing the subject.
“Yes. Let’s get some coffee and we can go over it.”
I nodded. “Dad, are you and Jasper okay in here while we go look over some stuff?” I asked.
He laughed. “I’m not dead and I’m not that frail. I can handle sitting and chatting with my grandson about rocks.”
I smiled. “Okay. I’m in the kitchen if you need anything.”
“I’ll take care of him, Mom,” Jasper said in an authoritative voice.
My dad and I exchanged a look before we both smiled. “Thank you, Jasper. I appreciate that.”
When I got into the kitchen, Leslie was popping a K-Cup into the machine. She gestured to the small table in the breakfast nook. A file sat there, and I went to investigate. I sat down, opened it up, and felt my stomach drop.
“What the hell?” I whispered, not believing what I was reading. “Brock?” I asked no one in particular.
Leslie walked over and delivered my cup of coffee. “Yes, Brock.”
“What the hell?” I repeated. “Why?”
Leslie shrugged. “Because that’s what he does. He buys up real estate in foreclosure or distress and then sells it for a profit.”
“Why didn’t you tell me Brock was the one trying to take our farm?”
She raised an eyebrow at my use of the word “our.”
“Because I knew you wouldn’t come if you knew.”
I started reading the paperwork. This was far worse than I had thought. My dad was in a giant hole, and I couldn’t see any way for him to climb out. I was shaking my head as I read, trying to make sense of it all.
“Brock?” I said again. “Why would he do this?”
Anna yanked open the screen door to the side porch and scoffed as she came in. “Uh, maybe because you left him standing at the altar and took off without telling him he was going to be a father.”
My eyes widened in shock and then dropped into small slits in anger. “Shut up, Anna. No one asked you.”
She laughed. “Oh, no one ever does. It’s always perfect little Ashley this and Ashley that. Now Ashley is the one who’s going to cost Daddy his home.”
“I didn’t do this!” I argued.
Anna glared at me. “If Brock wasn’t so pissed off and hell-bent on revenge, he wouldn’t be trying to steal the farm away from us.”
Leslie, always the voice of reason, looked at each of us. “Calm down. Ashley has nothing to do with what Brock is doing. This is what he does. He has bought up land all around us. He isn’t targeting us specifically.”
I wasn’t quite so sure of that. I had a feeling Brock was definitely going after the family farm in order to get back at me.
“What are we going to do?” I asked Leslie.
She shrugged. “I have no idea. I was hoping you would have some suggestions. I don’t see a way out of the deal. The money Brock is offering is certainly low, but I don’t see anyone else willing to buy Dad out before it goes into foreclosure. The real estate developers blowing into town are like vultures. They have been circling the farm for a while now. If it’s in foreclosure, they’ll get it even cheaper. Brock wants to get his hands on it first and is willing to pay a little more to do that.”
“No!” I slammed my palm on the table. “I’ll be back. Can you watch Jasper?” I asked Leslie, who nodded.
“Sure,” she said, a sly smile on her face.
I needed to take a walk. I didn’t want Jasper to see me this angry, especially the minute we’d arrived. A walk around the farm would help me think and give me a chance to cool my jets. The man had always had a way of knowing exactly what buttons to push to piss me off. He had really done a bang-up job this time.
Chapter 4
Brock
I could literally feel her presence in the air. I knew she’d gotten into town yesterday, but I hadn’t seen or heard from her yet. I wasn’t sure what to think about that. Was it a good thing or a bad thing? Did she know I was the one who wanted to buy the farm? Did she care?
Maybe life in New York was so good for her that she didn’t care that the family farm was going to be gone. What if she only came to town to pack up the last of the things she’d left behind? I didn’t want to think about what it meant if she wasn’t bothered by the fact that I was the one who was going to buy the farm and sell it so a developer could put up condos. If it didn’t bother her in the least, she was not the woman I thought she was.
Hell, I already knew that. She proved that to me years ago when she packed up and left without so much as a fuck off or go to hell.
Maybe she didn’t know. That would explain why I hadn’t seen or heard from her. She had to know who I was now. There is no way she could have gotten through town without seeing my face. Even I got tired of seeing my face plastered all over town. It was a marketing tactic. When people wanted to buy or sell real estate, I was going to be the first person they thought of. How could they not?
“Brock! Line one,” Helen shouted from the other room.
I rolled my eyes. The woman took full advantage of our laid-back office setting. It did seem a little silly to use the intercom system when she was twenty feet away and we were alone, but still. I liked the professionalism of the intercom.
I picked up my phone. “This is Brock Trenton.”
It was the developer. He approved of my plans and appreciated all the leg work. He was excited to move forward. There was more work to be done, but if I could get the land, he was willing to develop it. This would be my first big land deal. I could almost taste the money. I imagined all the things I could buy.
My giddiness over the deal was short-lived, as I heard the bell on the front door to the office tinkle. I popped my head around the open door to see who it was and froze.
It was her.
I sat back, hoping she hadn’t seen me. I instantly smoothed my hair back and straightened my shirt. I hadn’t worn a tie today. It was too damn hot. I regretted that choice now. I wanted to show to her how successful I was. A power suit was one way to do that.
“Hi,” Helen said to her. “Ma’am, please, you can’t—”
She could and she did.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she shouted as she strolled through my open office door.
It took me about half a second to regain my composure. God, she was stunning. I remembered she was pretty, but she had grown into a beautiful woman. Her blond hair was cut in a youthful, slightly rebellious style, short in the back and a bit longer in the front. There was a streak of pink down one side. She was wearing a pair of tiny cut-off shorts and a T-shirt that hugged her figure. She was hot. Damn. Now I remembered why I had fallen head over heels for her all those years ago.
I stood and walked around my desk, extending my hand. “Good to see you, Ashley.”
She looked at my hand as if it were a poisonous snake. I pulled it back, not offended in the least. I was actually thrilled to see her this mad. My plan was working.
“How dare you!” she seethed. “How could you be such a ruthless prick? Are you seriously so desperate that you would steal a man’s home? Not just any man, but a man who has cancer! A man who took you in and did so much for you! You’re a pig, Brock Trenton! A vile, nasty pig!”
I refused to let her see how much guilt she made me feel. No way. I would not feel guilty. I was doing Tanner Parks a favor. If I didn’t buy it, the bank would foreclose, ruining his credit and likely causing him to h
ave even more debt.
“Tell me how you really feel, Ashley,” I said with a menacing grin.
I’d been waiting for this moment for six long years, and I wanted to enjoy every bit of it. I hoped she was furious. I hoped she cried. I wanted her to long for what she couldn’t have.
“Are you seriously that hung up on the past that you would go after my dad to get your revenge?”
I smiled, not a nice smile, but a smile laced with malice. “It’s just business.”
She shook her head. “You are not the man I thought you were.”
“Really? That’s a shock since you obviously don’t know me at all.”
Her face was pink with heat and anger. She stepped close to me, her eyes glowering. “You are an arrogant man. Your arrogance will be your downfall,” she said, slamming her tiny finger into my chest.
I didn’t respond. I stood there, staring down at her, my face devoid of emotion. I would not let her get a rise out of me. Not anymore. Never again.
“A real man would have a sense of honor and respect for people who were kind to him, people he’s known his entire life, people who have never done him wrong. A real man would never sacrifice an innocent person for his own need for revenge.”
The last bit made her pause and take a step back. I raised an eyebrow. We both knew that was bullshit. She had done me a serious wrong and, by extension, her family.
“I don’t know how you can preach to me about honor and respect. You certainly don’t possess those qualities. I don’t remember anyone doing you any wrong, but I guess you are above the rest of us measly peasants here in West Virginia. You’re someone special because you live in the city.”
Her eyes widened in shock. “You’re a despicable human.”
I shrugged. “I might be, but don’t climb up on your high horse. You are right down here in the mud with me.”
She was shaking her head. “I would never do something so callous.”
