Page 68 of Pick Me This Time

31

STERLING

After a very exciting night, I finally got back to the farm early the next morning. Still reeling about the fact that Jake and Rachel had made a real live human being, I couldn’t stop smiling for some reason.

Obviously, I’d seen a baby before, but it’d never been conceived by two people I’d known for most of my life. Two people I’d known since before they’d even gotten together or had known what sex was.

It was definitely different seeing their little girl, like the true realization of what a miracle it really was had finally hit home for me. I’d never pictured myself having kids, but I wasn’t sure why.

It had just never really been on my radar. In the past, I’d always just kind of thought about it as a one-day thing. As in, I’ll think about it one day, if and when I get to it.

Now that I’d seen Jake and Rachel with their baby, however, something seemed to have shifted in my mind. It’d started when I’d been talking to Jake on our way to the hospital. After I’d seen him safely inside, our conversation had been playing on a loop in my mind, getting stuck on the part when we’d been talking about how he’d been working so hard to finish as much as he could before the baby was born.

Fast forward to when Daphne had asked if I wanted kids, and I’d suddenly realized that I didn’t even know what I had been working so hard for all these years. Until now, it’d simply been the obvious thing to do.

I’d grown up having it tough financially at home and I’d just focused on not having to live like that. Back when my mom had still been alive and I’d been sending that money home, it’d felt like I was doing it for them. Not that they’d asked, but still.

If I really stopped and looked at it, I had no idea what I’d been busting my ass for. My lifeless penthouse? My fancy car? Paying hundreds of dollars for sickly sweet cocktails in a bougie bar I didn’t even like?

For so long now, something had felt off. I hadn’t been able to put my finger on it, but as I walked into the farmhouse after everything I’d seen, spoken about, and had been part of last night, I had a feeling I’d finally figured it out.

My dad had just woken up, and he was coming down the stairs as I entered the foyer. His head cocked. “Where have you been and why are you in such a good mood?”

“At the hospital,” I said, shrugging out of my still damp coat and hanging it on the stand by the door. “Rachel and Jake’s baby was born. Elizabeth Grace.”

“Well, that explains your smile.” For just a moment, my dad’s scowl eased and he even managed a glimmer of a grin. “That’s good. I’m happy for them. Say congratulations from me when you see them again.”

“I will,” I said, following him to the kitchen and watching as he got the coffeemaker going. “What’s on your to-do list for the day?”

Dad ignored my question, surprising me when he took a second cup out of the cabinet and set it down beside his. In all the time I’d been here, he’d left me to my own devices, making coffee only for himself in the morning and then heading straight out.

Today, he’d not only gotten out a mug for me too, but he also turned to face me as we waited for the machine to do its magic. Dad’s tired eyes swept across my features, and for once, he didn’t shut down completely.

“I haven’t seen you smile like that since your mom died,” he said pensively.

The comment brought me back to reality real quick. The smile dropped from my face and my eyes narrowed. “I haven’t seen you smile at all, so I guess we’re even.”

Dad let out a low grunt, shrugging as he turned back to the counter. “I don’t have many reasons to smile these days.”

I dragged in a long breath through my nostrils, figuring that this was as good a time as any to try again. “Since you brought it up, what’s your plan, Dad?”

“My plan?” He shrugged again. “I’m going out to the pumpkin patch to keep getting it ready for the festival.”

“I wasn’t talking about today,” I said. “I’m talking about your future. The future of Northfield Farms.”

He blew out a breath so harsh that it was audible. “That’s none of your business.”

“Isn’t it?” I fixed the back of his head with a serious look, bracing my hands against the counter between us as I leaned forward. I wasn’t just letting it go again.

After all the revelations I’d had this morning and now that I’d realized where my problem had been lying all this time, I needed to get real with him. “You’re getting older, Dad. You shouldn’t be working so hard anymore.”

He scoffed. “There’s no one else to do it, son. I’m the best and the only person we’ve got.”

“What if that wasn’t the case?” I asked, speaking fast so I could get it all out there before he rushed away again. “I want to invest in the property. We could get it modernized. Make it so you can actually retire. I could hire a farm manager and a couple people to help out, and I’d be able to oversee it all from Manhattan.”

Dad snorted and shook his head. “There’s no need for that. I’m fine here. Like I’ve always been. Drop it.”

“No,” I said, finally snapping when he started toward the door after filling his mug. “Stop, would you? Just stop and fucking talk to me, Dad.”