By the time we had filed into Aurora’s sedan, four out of the five of us were feeling a delightful buzz. Thank goodness Harold and the chef kept food on our table. They started us off with a type of egg souffle, then at lunch we each had a trio of sandwiches. A turkey club, a Cuban, and a Reuben. They were the best I’d ever had and I’d dined at some of the most acclaimed sandwich shops in New York. By lunch, we had transitioned from the mimosas to mojitos. Mom was generous enough to pick up the tab and I was glad I didn’t get to see the bill. I lost count of the drinks after my third mimosa flight.
“Can y’all cover my eyes when we pass the house? I don’t want to see the betrayal.”
“Aw, you said y’all like a true southern girl,” Rory said from my left, while to my right Alex hiccupped, then added, “The house didn’t betray you, silly.”
“Mom, Alex called Autumn silly. That’s not nice when she’s in distress,” Rory whined with a nasally note that was headache inducing.
“It’s depressed, not distressed. Your sister isn’t in crisis, she’s just upset. And stop tattling on your sister. I have two ears, you know,” Mom replied in her well-known authoritative tone that had my sisters silencing themselves quickly while I was left in amazement. I could barely speak without slurring after the amount of alcohol we drank at The Purple Goat while Mom sounded as fresh as a daisy.
With the backseat quiet, Aspen pulled the car out of the spot on the street Rory snagged that morning and turned us toward home. Beside me, Rory and Alex chattered quietly about their plans for the week. The school year would start in full swing mid-week so we would see Rory less and less, especially since this was the first year she would have her own class. She’d been volunteering at the school for as long as I could remember. Alex basically ran the bar she worked at while finishing some master’s degree courses online, so with the night creeping in earlier and earlier, the bar tended to fill up with patrons once dusk broke.
Gazing out the window, the fields and shaded trees were nothing more than a blur around me. I felt disconnected from it all. It looked like I was moving, but it seemed like I was stuck in place because everything else was shifting. Everyone else was on some sort of road they’d designed for their life and mine was nothing more than a patchy dirt path that hadn’t been traveled on in centuries.
Maybe that’s why I connected so much to the house on the hill. It had weathered a storm and needed that love and care. It needed its purpose. I thought I knew what my purpose was. What I was destined to do. I’d been so sure, so adamant, but that only got me red-faced back at my parents’ place. I was blacklisted with the elite planners in New York, all because my ex didn’t want me around him to remind anyone of his screw-up. I could only imagine what he was off telling our colleagues or the clients I’d once had. They probably thought the same of me as the rumor Mr. Granger had disclosed. That I’d been the homewrecker. I’d been the one to cheat. I’d been the one to use company dollars on an extravagant trip for my lover. Max had done all those things, which was why the lies came so easily off his tongue when he spoke to others. It was easy to tell the story as if I’d been the bad guy because he’d known all the details.
I still missed that apartment.
But did I miss that life?
I thought I did. It felt like I was missing something by being away from the hustle and bustle of the city. I’d never believed I was cut out for small town living. Mom used to tell me that the moment I could walk I wanted to explore my surroundings. She’s caught me more than once asking our older brother to drive me to downtown Ashfield. He was sixteen and had a car, so it made sense to my three-year-old mind.
“Cover her eyes,” Aspen whispered harshly from the front seat as we approached what I liked to call the Easterly curve. It was an almost ninety-degree turn in the main road and that was right where the Easterly family property and Sunny Brook Farms began.
Rory reached across and I swatted her hands away. “I’m fine,” I said sullenly. I wasn’t, but I lied all the same.
The house was in full view as we passed the bend in the road and I tried my damnedest not to gaze up at the farmhouse, but as if it summoned me, I glued my eyes to the statuesque property. The gasp escaped before I could cover my mouth with my shaking fingers. The auction had only ended a few hours prior, but there were already a handful of construction trucks in the yard.
“What’s going on? Auction closings never happen that fast. Even when the paperwork is rushed and payment is made, they still take a minimum of a few weeks,” Alex said in alarm.
“Should I slow down?” Aspen asked as the car’s speed began to drop. “They’re using the easement that’s on our line of the property.”
“Keep going, Aspen. I’ll message your father and ask him to go see what’s happening.”
“Maybe we should send Andrew? He seemed closer to the age of the guy that bid on the property.” Rory made a good point. Our brother was intimidating at first glance, but he had a heart of gold. Unless you pissed him off or messed with his sisters. He traveled a lot as a contract lawyer doing various jobs for the farm but always returned when one of us was in trouble.
Except this time, it wasn’t just us. There was a chance that whatever was going on at the old house would affect our farm.
I pulled my eyes away from the home and watched Mom type away on her phone. The clicking of her nails was the distraction I needed.
“Your father said he’d head over there to see what’s what. Andrew is out in California at a robotics convention.” Luckily there was a straight path on our land that led to the decrepit home. Us girls used to ride our bikes that way in the summers.
“Andrew is never home anymore. Why’d he have to move to Knoxville? He only comes to the ranch once a week unless Dad is harvesting or needs to have a meeting.” Aspen missed our brother more than anyone. Being the youngest, by the time she was born, he’d left the coup for college.
Mom left Aspen’s earlier question lingering in the air as we approached the farm’s entrance. Its stone pillars, iron gate, and white picket fencing were breathtaking even in their slightly worn-down state.
There was something regal about the entry to the ranch. It gave a very different first glance than when you traveled through the gates to find the miles of corn fields. The front fields were not of corn, but of wheat-grass that wasn’t harvested. They were for display only. My parents kept it as another barrier to keep people out of their property. Dad used to call it our grassy moat before arriving at the castle. The castle of stone and wood and large pane windows overlooking the farm.
It never ceased to take my breath away whenever the vehicle careened over the hill and into the valley where the house sat. I may be in love with the newly purchased farmhouse next door, but my parents’ house was – home.
Once the car came to a stop, Aspen and Rory flew out of the vehicle while Alex and Mom took their time. I sat nestled against the passenger door trying to figure out my next move. It was obvious a nap was in order after a glass of water and an aspirin, but what was I going to do after? Not just today, but moving forward. I knew I had made that promise to my father, and one month was such a short time. Before I knew it, it would be time to make a decision. Until recently, I never questioned my decisiveness, now I am worried about making the wrong choice. How would I know if it was the right one?
A knock sounded on the window where my head rested and I jumped to attention. Mom stood on the other side with a careful smile. She was treading carefully around me and that made me feel even more terrible that I lost the bid on the family home. I felt like a disappointment all over again.
“Come on, sweetie. No sense in wasting the day in the back of a car unless you have a handsome man sitting next to you,” my mother said with a casual wink.
“Mom!” I said thoroughly grossed out at her innuendo as I stepped out of the car.
“What? I was a young adult once, too. I remember the days of being a little wild and crazy.”
