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“What do you think?” he asked, resting his bandaged hand on the steering wheel while he nodded toward the map. “Does it look right to you, or is there some kind of mistake?”
Her stomach cramped at the reminder.
She refocused on the diagram, quickly seeing that the shape of her parcel was different on this version than the one she had from a surveyor five years ago. The irregular-shaped parcel still followed a wiggly line along Hickory Creek on one side. A straight line from a county route on another. But the side bordering Rough Hollow—Everett Ramsey’s farm—had shrunk considerably.
“You’re sure this is the most current map?” She scoured the paper for a date of printing.
“I’ve just been into the county office for this copy.” Nate tapped the date mark in the upper right-hand corner where the paper had curled between the dash and the windshield.
Her stomach dropped to her toes.
“The property line is at least eight acres off from the old map,” she admitted, her voice sounding as shaky as she felt inside.
“So that’s not much, right?” He leaned into the leather backrest and cracked open the top of his water. “Eight acres?”
“Maybe not for a big commercial grower serving supermarkets and restaurants like Rough Hollow.” She couldn’t pull her gaze from the newly drawn property line. “But considering the size of my farm overall, the loss of those acres will be…” Devastating. There was no other way to put it. “Significant.”
Especially since those eight acres contained the sunflower crop that she was counting on for a sale later this month.
She needed that income to pay the year’s land taxes. To buy seeds for next season. Those sunflowers were going to be the summer’s best, most lucrative crop. And apparently, she’d planted it on land that no longer belonged to her family.
Nate leaned forward again, reaching across the console to lay his good hand on her forearm. Offering a warmth and comfort she couldn’t afford to accept.
“Then I’ll talk to Gramp,” he suggested gently, his voice kind. “See what we can do for a compromise.”
“No.” She absolutely wouldn’t take charity from this man. But she couldn’t quite force herself to retreat from his touch, even though she knew she should. “That wouldn’t be right. And the land wasn’t even legally mine, so I have no authority to enter any kind of negotiation about it when my father could—” Afraid her voice would break, she had to pause and regather her thoughts. “When Dad could conceivably sell everything out from under me without me knowing.”
Anger burned low and slow inside her that he would hurt her this way. Although she had been busy expanding Windy Meadows operations for the past two years, she had never moved out of the careworn Harper farmhouse that had been her father’s boyhood home. He’d moved back to Last Stand with Keely and Alexis in tow after Keely’s mom left them. And Keely had remained in the same bedroom she’d claimed that very first day—the one overlooking the front garden that marked her earliest foray into wildflowers.
She’d stayed to help him. She’d put her sister through college, put herself through college and she’d finally, finally, helped her dad get sober.
Yet he’d paid her back with this? Where had the money gone from that sale? She certainly hadn’t seen a penny from it. And in the meantime, she fed him. Clothed him. Paid taxes on the property out of her own pocket. Most of all, she’d cleaned up one crisis after another for him over the years, sacrificing her own future to keep him safe. Alive.
Hell, she’d given up the man seated next to her. A man who kissed like no one else she’d ever known. And he looked at her with a whole lot of shared history in his eyes.
“We’ll figure something out, Keely,” Nate assured her, his words reminding her no matter how hard she’d busted her butt these last five years, he still held all the cards.
Life was easier if your last name was Ramsey. It came with money. Privilege. And the certainty that your legacy wasn’t going to be sold out from under you during a drinking binge.
She withdrew from his touch and straightened her spine, knowing she needed to get out of this truck before she did something stupid like fall prey to that disarming confidence of his. She knew better than to lean on anyone else.
“I’ll speak to my father in the morning and make a trip into the county assessor’s office,” she assured him even as she feared the worst. “Once I have a better handle on what happened, I’ll give Everett a call.”
Reaching for the door handle, she knew she really needed to go. But something in Nate’s tone stopped her.
“Keely, wait.” There was an intimate quality in his voice. Or maybe that was an illusion—a memory of a lifetime ago.
Still, she met his dark gaze. Her heart melted just a little at the look she saw there.
“I know you didn’t come with me when I got drafted because I had told you—well, I thought—I’d finish college first.” He studied her thoughtfully, like she held the key to some puzzle he couldn’t solve. “It’s my fault I didn’t follow the plan. But sometimes I’ve wondered, if I’d held out one more year, would you have really left Last Stand then?”
She stared at him for the space of two heartbeats, knowing what he was suggesting. That she’d never had any intention of leaving her father or the family dysfunction that had dragged her down for too long. They’d trod lightly around it for the whole of their relationship, but today it seemed he wasn’t holding back.
“That’s impossible to answer since I didn’t have the chance to make that decision.” Or maybe she wasn’t ready to acknowledge the truth about how deeply she’d embedded herself in her family’s problems. She couldn’t open any more old wounds today. “But it doesn’t matter anymore though, does it? We’ve both moved on.”
The warmth in his eyes faded. He gave a clipped nod. “Right. Just keep in mind that you don’t have to shoulder all your burdens alone.”
The trace of bitterness in his voice was unmistakable.
