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Aggie nodded sympathetically. “I know. When your dad left you this place, he left a hell of a lot of debt to go with it.” She narrowed her eyes in thought, as if something had occurred to her. “You know…” Aggie shook her head. “Actually, never mind.”
“What?”
She pursed her lips. “It’s just… your dad left you this place when he passed, right? What if you just…”
“Nope. Not going to happen.”
“You didn’t even let me finish.”
“Why would I? I know what you’re going to say, and the answer is no.”
She leaned forward. “Listen, don’t get me wrong. I love the farm. It’s beautiful and quaint and few things are more fun than working with my best friend and all these cute animals.But…”
“But?”
“There’s still the matter of the debt. Yes, you’ve put that accounting degree to work and figured a way out of it—”
“Might as well use it for something if I’m going to be living the farm life.”
“Absolutely. But you said yourself, it’s going to take a ton of time and effort. Don’t get me wrong—I’m fine with working hard. But if there’s an easier solution, why not at least explore it?”
I took in a long, slow breath through my nose.
“Nope.”
“Just listen! You sell the farm…”
“Nope. Not going to happen.”
“You sell the farm but come up with some kind of arrangement with the new owner where you can buy the place back. Then, we both go back to New York, get jobs in our fields and work-work-work until we make the money back.”
“It’s not going to happen.”
Aggie pursed her lips. “I get that you want to keep the place; I really do. And while I hate to play this card, Ididinvest in the farm just to keep it from going totally insolvent. You make the final decisions, but I do get some say.”
She had a point. I’d had to chew through a ton of my savings just to get the farm totally out of arrears when Dad passed. And even then, I’d needed a little help unless I was going to go completely broke in the process of making the farm mine. That’s where Aggie had come in.
“Anyway,” she said, blowing past my objections. “We earn money in ways that we’re actually good at, then buy the place back. You can’t tell me this is a bad idea.”
I shook my head. “There’s no guarantee if we were to sell it to someone that they would make that arrangement. What would be the benefit to them to do it that way? Once you sell, it’s theirs. They could agree to one thing and go right back on it the second their name’s on the dotted line.”
“We just have to find someone sympathetic and trustworthy to do it.”
“Easier said than done.” I sighed, shaking my head in frustration, more at the state of affairs than at Aggie. “Listen, I know this is a hard situation.”
“I do too. Don’t get me wrong. knew what I was signing up for.”
“Right. And you know that I went into it with a promise to my dad that I wouldn’t sell this place, not for anything. I can’t risk losing it. I have to do everything I can to…”
I trailed off, not knowing what else to say. Aggie was right, the finances for Downing weren’t looking good. If we were going to make this happen, we’d not only have to walk a wire across the Grand Canyon, but we’d also have to pray that no wind blew us off in the process.
“Listen,” Aggie said. “When I agreed to go into this with you, I did it with the intention of seeing it through. You want to keep at it, then that’s what we’re going to do. And I’m going to be at your side, through thick and thin, down to the last llama.”
She smiled, and I did the same.
“Thanks, Aggs.”
“That’s what I’m here for. Now, clean that plate! I’ve got some bourbon cherry pecan pie in the fridge that I’ve been thinking about for the last ten minutes.”
