Page 96 of Pumpkin Spice Promises

That shut me up. Beau pushed away from the wagon.

“You know what’s wrong with this place better than anybody.”

“Apparently not well enough to solve it.”

“That’s not the same thing.” He walked toward the storage bins and opened the one labeled LIGHTS. A tangled mass of orange wires filled the container that Beau just stared at, his brows pinching. “Oh hell.”

Despite myself, I laughed. “Professional opinion?”

“Burn the whole bin.”

“Pops spent years collecting those.”

“Then somebody should’ve taught James how to wrap extension cords.”

“He believed knots built character.”

Beau pulled one strand free. Three others came with it. He spent another thirty seconds trying to separate them before giving up. For the first time since we’d entered the barn, the heaviness in my chest loosened.

Pops would have laughed at him. Then made the situation worse by insisting he knew exactly how everything was supposed to untangle.

I sat on the edge of the second wagon. “I ran the numbers,” I admitted out loud for the first time.

Beau stopped fighting with the lights. He looked toward me. “Rosie’s numbers?”

I nodded, a small hum sounded from behind my pursed lips. “Last night.” I stayed awake until almost one in the morning. Meme eventually went to bed. I couldn’t put my mind at ease.

I sat at Pops’s desk with Rosie’s spreadsheet open on my laptop, old ranch expenses beside it, and a calculator in my hand until every possibility began blurring together.

I hadn’t wanted the numbers to work. That would have made saying no easier.

But they worked in a way I couldn’t say no.

“If their attendance estimates are even close, it could cover the cooling system replacement.”

Beau set the lights down. “And?”

“Maybe the south fence too.”

“And?”

I frowned. “Why do you keep saying and?”

“Because there’s more.”

He was irritatingly correct.

I rubbed my palms along my jeans. “It could catch us up.”

“How far behind?”

My brows furrowed. “Not your business.”

“Fair.”

I clenched my jaw. He didn’t push, and for some reason I almost wished he had. Somewhere along the last few days, I’d become accustomed to arguing with him.

His restraint left me alone with my own answer.