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“What’s that about?” Brooke asked.
“What? Nothing. I’m just agreeing with Em. I mean, we know there are some good guys in the world. My dad and my grandpa are incredible men. And you two both have some wonderful men around you as well, but when it comes to eligible bachelors, I can’t say I don’t agree with her sentiments.”
My friends weren’t buying it. Brooke shook her head as Emily declared, “Oh, no. The way you said that tells us everything we need to know. Those five words weren’t about Tristan. They were about someone else.”
Trying another tactic, hoping they’d let it go, I noted, “We’re here for you tonight.”
A small smile formed on Emily’s face. “Yeah, we are. And since I’m the one with the broken heart, you need to do what you can to distract me. So, tell me what’s going on.”
For several moments, I held their gazes. They’d seen me through everything trying in my life. Most recently, they’d been there through all the stress I’d endured when we were battling over the last two and a half years and nearly lost half of our farm. I’m not sure I would have survived it if it hadn’t been for their love and support.
“We received a letter earlier this week from someone interested in purchasing a chunk of our land,” I revealed.
Their eyes widened with shock. “What? Not again!”
I nodded. “Yep. Only, at least in this case, it’s not someone trying to take it, simply because they think they can.”
“Did you respond?”
Leaning forward, Brooke added, “Yeah. And how much did they want to purchase?”
After I licked my lips, I answered, “I don’t know exactly how much they wanted, but I did respond to their request to sit down and talk about it. I told them no.”
My two best friends sat back and sent proud looks my way. “That’s great,” Emily said. “At least you took care of it right away, and they have to go find some land somewhere else.”
“That’s kind of what I’d been hoping would happen.”
Curiosity washed over their faces. “It didn’t?”
Following a beat of silence, I shared, “Wyatt Westwood walked into my ice cream shop yesterday.”
“Westwood? As in Westwood’s.”
“That’s the one,” I confirmed.
“What did he want?”
I lifted my glass to my lips, took a sip of my drink, and set it back down on the table. “He wanted to talk to Rhea Marks. When I told him I was Rhea, he shared who he was, indicated they’d received my response, and attempted to get me to reconsider.”
“And?”
“I promised him that wouldn’t happen.”
Our server had returned, pulling our attention away from each other. “How was everything tonight?”
“It was wonderful. Thank you.”
“Great. Can I interest you ladies in some dessert?” she asked.
My eyes went to my friends, but Emily hadn’t taken her attention away from our server. “Yes. We absolutely want dessert tonight.”
Smiling, our waitress replied, “Perfect. Here are those menus.” As she started to round up our empty dinner plates, she added, “I’ll give you a moment to peruse them, and I’ll be right back.”
For the next few minutes, the girls and I took a break from our conversation to review the dessert menu options and make our decisions. We did that until our waitress returned to take our orders. Only after she’d walked off again did we get back to the topic at hand.
“So, is everything all good now?” Brooke asked me. “You aren’t going to have to worry about a court battle again, are you?”
I shrugged. “I can’t imagine it would get to that, but what do I know?”
