Winter Falls (Evergreen Lake: Under the Mistletoe)

Chapter 26

twenty-six

After one glass of wine with the ladies, and taking a peek at the warming casseroles, I just had to go and have a rest. My feet were killing me, my body was dragging, and there was no way I'd make it to the end of the night without a quick power nap. I still didn't know where Amos was, and assumed he'd gone out to the barn.

With a big sigh, I closed his office door and leaned against it. All the sounds were drowned out, and I was eager to lay down. But I needed to plug my phone in first. And I hoped he had a charger somewhere on his desk. I didn't think he'd mind if I used it, and I sat on the edge of his chair, looking for an outlet and charging cables.

I sent a quick message to Paulie, letting her know the status here. She had texted me earlier today to make sure I was still alive and well. And wanted to know how I was making out in such close proximity to Amos. Of course, I never said anything about our kiss--that simply couldn't be done over a text.

She quickly replied back.

This blizzard is insane. The streets are choked with snow, nothing is moving, and all the people stranded. Everyone doubling up in rooms, some people have opened their houses, even the Powder Room was made available for anybody that needed shelter.

The same here, the afternoon we spent baking, and dinner is in the oven. There is no power, it's been flickering on and off, but the Homestead has a generator that keeps the kitchen working. And the fireplace in the main room warms the rest of the house.

I'm glad things are settled for you all there. I don't think anybody's gonna be budging for at least a day or two. The highways around Evergreen Lake haven't even been touched by a plough yet. I wouldn't be surprised if a state of emergency was called.

Is it still snowing there? It is here. I'm not gonna say it :)

Go ahead. I know you're dying to.

Anyway, I need to have a rest, I've been on the go since early this morning and shattered. Keep in touch.

You too.

I was relieved to hear that Paulie had everything under control, as much as possible. Even though it wasn’t my job, I felt a sense of responsibility towards the visitors that had come to Evergreen Lake. I couldn’t do much from here and was glad things were somewhat settled in town.

Everybody was pulling together there, just as they were here. I spied an outlet on the floor by the leg of the desk. Weird spot, but there was a charger cord plugged in. I bent over and picked up the end of the cord. Just as I was plugging it in, I must have unbalanced the chair because the wheels just went out from under me and the chair flipped backwards.

I grabbed the desk, pulling at the blotter. I landed with a thud, hurting my tailbone. "Ow."

Paperwork cascaded around me, along with the stapler, and a coffee mug, which thankfully was not full, and other desk paraphernalia. I sat there for a moment gathering my wits, it happened so fast. Yep, I really needed a nap.

Amos’s papers were in a disarray around me. I shook my head and gathered them, careful not to mix anything up. Filing something in the wrong pile could mean it was lost forever, and I didn’t want that to happen. Sorting through them, there was a sheaf of papers with a big binder clip holding them together. I read the front page, so I could put it where it belonged. It was an offer of purchase. I checked some of the other paperwork to see if it belonged together, but nothing matched up.

I flipped the page up to see if there was more info to help. My eyes widened and a flood of cold ran down my spine. The purchase offer was for Winter Farm!

Amos was going to sell the farm! My hands shook, making the papers tremble. Unable to help myself I flipped to the next page and the purchaser was there in black and white. A large corporation, which could only mean one thing, they were going to come in and do something on a massive scale.

Never mind that I was already thinking the worst, I couldn’t possibly see both sides right now. The negative and the positive for both the town and the Winters.

I had too much information of something I knew nothing about, and I was upset. Deeply upset. I quickly closed up the paperwork and reached to put it on the desk. I gathered up the other papers and the blotter, rearranging them as best I could. The coffee mug and the stapler followed suit.

My stomach churned, my mind raced, but I could feel my body crashing. I dropped onto the couch and pulled the quilt over me. Did this mean Amos was moving away? I let out a sob. No, he couldn't be moving away. It would be just too awful after we’d finally reached this tentative place in a relationship.

If that’s what was going to happen then … I realized in that moment I didn’t give a hoot about the town and the impact something like this could have on it.

It was all about Amos and me. Thrown together as we’d been these past few days made me see him differently. There was a depth to him I wanted to dig down and find, but that didn’t stand a chance if he moved.

I was desperate to find out and wanted him to be here so I could ask him. I flopped back on the pillow and rested my forearm over my eyes. I was at a loss on what to think. I just lay there trying to clear my brain and not let myself fall down any rabbit holes.

I just hoped I have the patience to wait for him to come to me. On the other side of the coin, was it really any of my business? I groaned and closed my eyes, wishing for sleep.

Asher had sent Amos a text to meet him in the barn. It was a struggle to get through the snow, and difficult to determine if it was lightening up or not. By the time he got to the barn, he decided, nope, it was still coming down heavy.

He pushed open the door and went inside.

"Asher!" he shouted and stomped his boots, smacking his gloves against his jeans to get off the rest of the snow.

"In here," Asher replied.

The horses nickered when he walked past to the tack room. "Don't worry, my beauties, you’ll get dinner soon. What's up?"

Amos took off his coat and shook it out, hanging it on a hook.

"Sit," Asher pointed to the chair across from him.

Amos furrowed his brows. It wasn't like him to take such a tone. He sat and looked at him, waiting for whatever it was he wanted to talk about. Asher put his phone down on the table and sat.

"I heard from Al, she's arrived at the airport, but stranded there until the highways have been cleared to get up here."

Amos checked his phone to see if there was a message. There wasn't.

"Well, that's good news, at least she's going to be here sometime in the next couple of days." Amos tipped the chair onto its back legs and crossed his arms.

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Tell you what?" Amos wasn't sure what he was talking about.

"That you're selling the farm." Asher's face was thunder. "Al has been in such a state about what you wanted to talk to us about that she told me to go into your office and see what I could find. I didn't want to, but I needed to ease her mind. She was relentless saying something big was going down for you to be calling her home like that. And I guess she was right."

Amos dropped the chair back to all fours and placed the palms of his hand on the table. He sat forward, not having been prepared for them to find out earlier. Now he had damage control to do and explain how this came to be and his thought process.

"Can we get her on WhatsApp or something?" Amos asked.

"Probably, as long as we can get good signal here."

"Let's try."

Asher called and she answered pretty quick. Amos moved the chair around so they could both look at her and she could see them.

"This about the farm? What the hell!" was the first thing out of her mouth. “You didn't even ask us what we wanted to do. You just went ahead and did this on your own. I can't believe it!"

"Whoa, calm down. This is why I wanted you home because obviously, it's something we have to talk about."

She fell silent and she was clearly upset.

Asher spoke, "Well you may as well explain it to us now since we're all here and can hear you. Before we lose any signal in this storm."

It was better than nothing.

"Okay, I didn't say anything to you guys because I didn't know details. I was approached and only agreed to see the offer. To say anything to you guys by text wouldn't have been right. Case in point, what's happening now because you guys texted each other earlier." Breathe. "What Asher saw was an offer; did you read it or just look at the top pages?" he asked.

"The top pages, but I flipped through the rest."

"You saw the dollar amount offered?"

Asher nodded.

Alana piped in, "You didn't tell me, Asher."

"No, I didn't want to give too much information because I know how you can be."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"Enough!" Amos raised his voice, "do you want to know this deal or not?" He waited and they both fell silent. "Okay, let me finish explaining. This is a corporation that wants to purchase the house, buildings, and all the land, I don't have any indication what they wanna do with the property. If we sell, we no longer have a say about what happens to the land and buildings. This is the first round of negotiations, if you wanna call it that. I gave them a stupid high price that we wouldn't even consider unless it was met and they almost met it. I agreed to look at the offer."

He paused again, and was glad they were quiet.

"There are a lot of things to consider, namely this is our home. It's a generational home and the foundation of our family. We lose all that if we sell, but the amount of money we would see would mean we'd never have to worry about finances again."

This time Alana interrupted. "But we don't have to worry about finances now," she pointed out.

Asher agreed with her.

"That's right, we don't. But I couldn't rightly make this decision without discussion with you both. Because it's not just my home, it's our home. Even though both of you have moved away, which is totally fine with me. It's still ours. And a place that you can come to escape the world should it get to be too much. And you never know, you might wanna come back and live here."

Alana snorted. "That snow is exactly the reason why I left."

"Since you have had a heads up on this, and probably talked about it without me, I'd like to know your thoughts. There is a deadline to respond to the offer with a counter, or acceptance or a no. We all need to make this decision together."

"I can give you my answer right now, without any kind of hesitation," Alana stated emphatically.

"I can too," Asher said.

"OK then, I'm waiting, what do you want to do?