“The husband was thrown from a horse, hit his head on a rock, and broke his neck. He never regained consciousness.” Jane looked down, as though sad to be relaying the sad news.
“And the wife?”
“She passed away not long after. Some say it was from a broken heart.”
That was romantic. He could see his sisters saying that anyway.
“There’s an attic, and you can go up if you’d like.”
“I think I will, just to make sure the roof isn’t leaking.”
“It shouldn’t be. It was replaced ten years ago. It’s a metal roof and has a thirty-year lifespan.”
“All right. I’ll just check.” It could have been leaking before they replaced it. He wasn’t an expert, but he was going to do his due diligence to try to make sure that he didn’t buy someone else’s problems. It seemed obvious that the woman was selling because she had to. She needed the money, and couldn’t afford the payments, and not because there was something wrong with the place, but he felt it would be wise to make sure.
It turned out that everything looked just fine up in the attic, although it was packed with things that looked like they’d been up there for years.
No doubt, Summer hadn’t been up to go through things since her parents had died.
Someone was going to have a lot of junk to get rid of.
“There is also a basement, and then we can go outside and see the outbuildings,” Jane said as they descended the stairs back down to the first floor. There was nothing interesting in the basement, other than a few jars of canned food and what looked like an area that someone had started to finish, possibly as a rec room, with a dry bar on one end, but had stopped mid project.
“It looks like this is what she was working on when her husband passed away,” Jane said in passing.
Gilbert just nodded. He was wondering more and more about Summer. She obviously hadn’t taken up the mantle of needing everything to look just right, and it seemed like maybe she had been focusing on trying to bring in enough money to pay for everything. At least that was the impression he was getting. It made him feel even worse for her. How hard it must be to struggle to keep a hold of your childhood home but be unable to.
Finally they were back out in the bright sunshine. A beautiful fall day that wasn’t too warm. So nice after the hot, humid days of summer. The fresh, crisp air was a welcome change, along with the gentle breeze.
“There are only twenty acres with this, which makes it a little bit of a tough sell for anyone who is serious about horses. But for someone who just wants a few, it’s the perfect amount of acreage.”
“That’s me,” Gilbert said, just because Jane seemed to expect an answer, not because she didn’t already know that.
They walked into the barn, and he noted that there were several animals in the stalls. Maybe filling up half of the ten available stalls.
Maybe he shouldn’t have gone up to see the attic, because he hadn’t made it halfway down the barn before Summer came in leading the horse she had been working with outside.
“Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you hadn’t made it out here.”
“That’s just fine, sweetie. You keep going about your business. Although… Gilbert, do you have anything to ask her?”
Chapter Five
Summer almost walked back out the other side. She recognized Gilbert McBride, the father of her favorite therapy children. He’d lost his wife the previous Christmas, and she had felt so bad for him almost losing his business. She could totally relate to that since she was on the verge of losing her farm. That was one of the reasons she had not charged him for the therapy she had been giving his children for the last twelve months.
Talk about irony. She tried not to be bitter, but it just didn’t seem fair that she had been working with his children, not charging him, while he had been building his business and had apparently been successful at it, since now he wanted to buy her farm, which she couldn’t afford to keep.
No one could tell her that God didn’t have a sense of humor.
“How many horses do you have?” he asked.
She blinked. She hadn’t been expecting any prospective buyers to want to ask her anything. After all, that was why she hired a real estate agent, so they could sell the property. She’d answered all their questions, but…she supposed it made sense that he might have a few things he wanted to know. While she was answering, she wondered ifhe realized that he was talking to the person who gave his kids therapy. He’d never dropped them off or picked them up, and she doubted he recognized her. Although, his family might have told him that the farm was hers and her role in their lives. Did they tell him that she hadn’t been charging him?
“I have five. I just lost one over the summer.”
“And you give horseback riding therapy with those five horses?”
“I use three of them for my therapy. This one, and its buddy, are the ones I use for parades and for shows, and I hire them out at times as well.” That was another angle where she was trying to make some money. That wasn’t the only expense she had on the farm, putting the money into the horses. Of course, Princess had died and not only cost her all the money that she had put into her but left behind a huge vet bill as well.
