Or maybe I leave my bags for now and come back for them tomorrow when it’s daylight and not so snowy?
Still undecided, I pull up my brother’s number and call him. He’s too far away to help me himself, but he’ll at least be able to talk me through my options.
“Hey,” Alec says when he answers the call. “Did you make it?”
“Um, almost?”
“What do you mean almost?” my older brother asks.
“So, hypothetically, if you had to decide between walking two miles in the snow or calling 911 because your car slid off the road and into a ditch…what would you choose?”
“Megan,” Alec says. “Are you serious? You’re stuck on the side of the road?”
“Yes? It’s really snowing hard over here. But the good news is I’m less than two miles away from Stonebrook. I think I could probably walk it if I have to.”
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“I’m totally fine,” I say. “I was going so slow, I don’t even think the car is damaged. Just stuck.”
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he says. “But please don’t walk anywhere. Just give me a second to fill Evie in.”
I listen as Alec summarizes my predicament for my best friend who is also his new wife. She’s the one who got me the gig at Stonebrook Farm in the first place, so maybe she’ll have an idea about what I should do.
When Evie first pitched the job, it took me a minute to work out all the connections, but basically, Evie is friends with Summer, and Summer’s sister is married to Flint Hawthorne—yes,thatFlint Hawthorne—and the Hawthorne family owns Stonebrook Farm.
But the Hawthornes are all in Italy for Christmas—a perk of having a movie star in the family—so they needed someone to hold down the fort while they’re gone. Answer the phones. Accept deliveries. Host the small family reunion scheduled on Christmas Eve.
My internet research told me that Stonebrook is a commercial apple farm and an event center that hosts weddings, retreats, reunions, that sort of thing. There’s also an award-winning restaurant on site that’s been featured in food and travel magazines with all kinds of fancy write-ups. It’s closed for the season, but seeing it mentioned so many times in my searching, I’m tempted to come back with Alec and Evie when it opens again so we can see what everyone’s raving about.
It’s a little overwhelming to think I’m going to be in charge of a place that’s so nice. Especially when I have zero experience in farmingorhospitality. But Evie insisted that for this job, I wouldn’t need it. I’m mostly getting paid to hang out and call the fire department should anything randomly burst into flame.
Since I just finished nursing school and have zero plans for the holidays, I happily accepted the job offer. A week at a remote farm in North Carolina where I have minimal responsibilities feels like the perfect setup for me to really dig in and study for my licensing exam. The fact that the Hawthornes are paying me so generously doesn’t hurt.
Not that it will matter if I freeze to death on the side of the road. I can’t exactly take the NCLEX come January if I’m dead.
“Okay, Evie just called Summer,” Alec says. “We’ll get this figured out.”
I sniff and try not to focus on how dark it is outside or how heavy the snowfall has become.
“You’re on speaker phone,” Alec says.
“Hi, Megan,” Evie says. “Okay, I’ve got Summer on the phone, and she’s texting with her sister. They want to know if your GPS is telling you to turn left or right into Stonebrook.”
“I can just send you a pin if that will help. But let me check,” I say, then I swipe over to my GPS and look at the overview. “Left,” I say. “I’m on highway seventeen, one point seven miles from the turn.”
“Got it,” Evie says.
She’s quiet for a beat before she adds, “Okay, they say to stay exactly where you are and don’t get out of your car. They’re sending Noah to pick you up.”
“Who’s Noah?”
“He’s a Hawthorne cousin,” Evie says. “Apparently, he’s living at the farm right now.”
“Will he even be able to get to me? The roads are barely drivable. That’s why I’m stranded in the first place.”
“She says he has a very big truck with four-wheel drive,” Evie says. “He’ll be fine.”
I breathe out a sigh. Nothing about this situation is fine. I feel silly. Like I should have been able to prevent this from happening. “Isn’t Summer’s sister inItaly right now? It’s the middle of the night in Italy.”
