Page 30 of On One Condition

His smile is quick. The dart of his eyes over his shoulder and back even quicker. “Nothing. There’s nothing else.” He takes a step back. “I need to take this to Danny so we can get the irrigation fixed.”

“Okay. Let me know if you need anything else.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Hey, George,” I call as he takes a few steps down the stairs, and I rise to move to the open door.

He turns back to look at me. “Yeah?”

“It’s been a rough few months. I know the guys probably don’t have much faith in me—understandably—but please know I’ll do right by you, by them . . . by Gran and Pop.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he repeats. “I’ll let you know when it’s fixed.”

I watch him walk away, his words repeating in my head. Nothing. There’s nothing else.

I lean against the doorframe and stare out at rows of bright purple. Folgate lavender to the left is closing in on time to harvest. Royal Velvet lavender variant lining the slopes near the back of the property is coming along and will be ready in the next few months. And then there is our workhorse variant, the one that blankets most of our fields, Grosso lavender. That’s where the irrigation line burst overnight and luckily George caught it on his early morning rounds.

We could have lost some healthy crops.

And that’s something we definitely can’t afford.

These are the rows I ran between as a child, losing myself in an imaginary fairy world where my mother existed and the men of Cedar Falls didn’t wonder which one of them was my father.

This is where I wandered with tears streaming down my face after giving up my dream to go to art school so that I could stay here and take care of my grandmother after her stroke. Her medical bills were so overwhelming they ate all that had been saved for my education.

This is where I sat and stared at the purple until it blurred when my heart was shattered into a million pieces that late summer night.

“The last thing he needs is someone like her to bring him down. He has a bright future ahead of him, an empire to run, and I won’t have him sidetracked by a motherless girl with no pedigree and no future.”

And now, this is where I’m going to pull up my bootstraps and make something of the promises I made, even when I have no idea how I’m going to.

But I will because there’s no way in hell I’m going to give Maxton Sharpe the satisfaction of being right.

CHAPTER NINE

Asher

Twelve Years Ago

“It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of, Nita.” I spin around my dorm room with an outfit held up to my body before looking at myself in the mirror. My smile is wide and my eyes are wild with excitement. These first two months at the Pratt Institute have been incredible. Everything I ever dreamed of.

I’m finally chasing my dream.

“Tell me all about it,” she murmurs in her sleepy voice.

“It’s the city. It’s like it’s alive with all its lights and high-rises and big classrooms with floor-to-ceiling windows. There’s culture and refinement right beside the gritty and raw reality of life.” Even I’m not immune to the dreamlike quality of my own voice. “I feel like it’s a mixture of every place I’ve never been—”

“I think anywhere would feel like that compared to Cedar Falls.”

“It’s more than that.” I sit down on the edge of my bed. I recall what felt like the endless undergrad classes I took at the community college to try and cut down on costs. The promises from Pop that he’d do whatever it took to make my dreams come true and give me the opportunities to be whomever I wanted to be. My chance to be the someone others thought I couldn’t be. All the blood, sweat, and tears, and it’s finally happened. “It’s like I’m meant to be here.”

“Of course, you are. It’s all you’ve ever wanted. And with your crazy, mad talent, you deserve to be there.”

I smile. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be going on and on. Especially when I’m here and you’re—”

“Still in Cedar Falls?” She chuckles. “Don’t you dare hold out on me. I want to hear everything. Let me live vicariously through you. What about the men? Tell me all about them.”

“You’d die. Finely tailored suits and dress shirts rolled up to the elbows.”