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She shrugged, running out of positive points to give to his offered bedroom. Brendan just nodded.
“Sounds good to me,” he said gently, because for someone so tough, right now she seemed sofragile.
“Okay, then,” she said, and disappeared up the stairs in a flash.
Brendan watched her go, left with more questions than anything else. Jeez, had no one been nice to this woman in a while?Brendan had thought it as a joke, but something about it rang uncomfortably true. So, maybe Nicole wasn’t as much of an ice queen as she seemed. She was giving him a serious helping hand by staying on; the least he could do was give her the benefit of the doubt, and it was no skin off his nose to beniceto her.
Either way, starting tomorrow they were going to be learning a lot about each other.
CHAPTER5
NICOLE
Nicole sat on the edge of the bed, which was nowherbed again, feeling like she had emotional whiplash, like she was spinning around without an anchor. She’d been so prepared to leave the place behind — and in the end she hadn’t even set foot outside the gates.
The guy was an idiot. That much was obvious. Nicole had no doubt that he could wheel and deal with the best of them and he could probably knock out a great spreadsheet, butfarming… Honestly, it was giving her secondhand embarrassment to watch him wander around the place. At the very least he had admitted that he didn’t know what he was doing, so there was some sort of self-awareness bouncing around in his skull. It left her chest feeling hollow, thinking of the farm that had been in her family for generations being left in the hands of a guy who was as clueless as Brendan was.
But here was a sliver of light at the end of a very long, very dark tunnel. She was able to stick around for a few more months at least, which was disorienting when she’d mentally prepared to be saying goodbye to the place, when just that morning she’d let her hand rest on the front door for a little longer than she usually would, like a farewell. Now here she was, back in her bedroom, unpacking her clothes back into the closet after hauling a few of the plastic tubs out of her truck back upstairs to unpack later. Everything in storage would have to stay there for a while, but that was fine. She was going to savor every last second here, this second chance at being home.
Still, Nicole couldn’t help feeling a bit thrown by it all. She hadn’t been able to give anything much thought over the last few weeks — she simply hadn’t had the time. She got up at the crack of dawn, worked, slept and repeated the whole process, finding pockets of time to pack up her possessions, sell other stuff off and get ready to hand the deeds over. Now, for the first time, she had space to think — and it was overwhelming.
There wasn’t any real plan. She’d been thinking of just taking a week to camp out in the middle of nowhere and give herself some time and space to grieve the farm without having to worry about anyone else. Then maybe drive to Nashville and crash with Scott; he’d said she was welcome at his new place, after all, and she missed him. But that much change, moving states, opened up a whole new Pandora’s box of fears that she hadn’t wanted to touch with a mile-long pole.
She’d spent a lifetime proving herself to everyone around her, proving that she could do this job, live this life. If she moved elsewhere looking for farm work, surely she’d get laughed off the property before anyone gave her a shot. She knew how people saw her — just a small little girl, not a twenty-eight-year-old woman who’d already worked herself half to death. She didn’t have experience in any other field. She couldn’t tend a bar; she’d never worked in a store. She could do it if someone showed her the ropes, she had no doubt about that, but getting someone to give her a shot with zero experience… The thought made her dizzy.
But here she was, a new opportunity practically thrown into her lap with no warning. She had a whole new timeline to figure things out. And maybe… well, maybe she could get the place back.
The idea wandered into her brain like the smallest grain of sand that would later develop into a pearl. She clutched at it, a sense of hope filling her up for the first time in who knew how long. This guy wasn’t going to last… There was no way. He hadn’t even known whatkindof farm he was buying before he bought it. He wasn’t going to be able to learn a lifetime’s worth of skills in a matter of weeks, not starting from zero. He’d be lucky if he didn’t end up electrocuting himself on a fuse box or breaking a leg from getting trampled. So how long before he gave up and went back to Houston and the world of business? It wasn’t crazy to think he would come to his senses and sell it back to her…
All she had needed was time, just a bit more time to set up a plan for success on her own — and here it was, all the time in the world and a salary on top. Nicole took a deep breath and tried to still the flush of excitement that was sending her heart into overdrive. If she was smart, played her cards exactly right, and was patient enough to wait for Brendan to fall on his own sword, then she might be able to buy Green Acres back when he inevitably had enough and went back home.
* * *
Nicole was finishing her coffee on the porch, the sun peeking over the horizon and lighting up the overnight frost on the grass. Wrapped up in her sweater and coat, the cold wasn’t really a bother, the warmth of her coffee keeping her hands warm. She had thought that she would never get to see the sunrise from this porch again. She tried to soak it all in and convince herself that it wasn’t a dream.
Then the door creaked open behind her.
“Morning,” said Brendan, his voice sounding croaky and sleep-deprived as he walked out and leaned against the railing a few feet away, yawning into his elbow and shivering. Well, no wonder he was cold; he was wearing a flimsy-looking business shirt under that thin jacket of his. It would be a miracle if he didn’t die of pneumonia.
“Good morning,” Nicole said. She swallowed the dregs of her coffee and stood up, brushing off the back of her jeans. She shouldn’t goad him, but looking at how disheveled Brendan looked when yesterday he’d been so put-together, Nicole couldn’t help herself.
“Not used to early mornings?” she asked.
He turned his gaze from the horizon back to her, still blinking sleep from his eyes, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. “Is it that obvious?”
“Just a little.”
“I’ll get used to it, I guess,” he shrugged.
“Suppose you’ll have to.” She was sure her voice hadn’t come out bitter, that it was just conversational, but Brendan was looking at her carefully, a small smile on his face like he found her amusing. It only made her bristle even more.
“So what’s the plan for today?” he asked, his own tone sounding like he’d notched up the politeness a thousand percent. Sowhatif he knew that she didn’t like him? She’d been hired to stay on and teach him, not to be pleasant. That had never exactly been Nicole’s strong suit.
“I’ll just have you follow me around, pretty much,” she said, hoping that he wouldn’t get under her feet and trip her up too much. “You can see what a typical day looks like. You’ll get the hang of it eventually.”
“All right,” said Brendan with a grin. “Let’s get to it.”
Nicole tried not to be annoyed by his chipper, go-get-’em attitude, but she wasn’t succeeding all that well.
