“And how about the destructive? Taking a year off from school and leaving me with god only knows who to teach with has to be a pinch destructive.”
I leaned out of the SUV to catch her gaze. “I’m sorry about that,” I said. “I didn’t mean to screw you over in the process. I just—” I stared down the street for a moment.
“You need a break from it all,” she said. “I get it. But what do we even know about Friendship? The name alone is suspicious, and just because it’s a small town doesn’t make it a good place to live.”
“It’s a sleepy little town on the Narragansett Bay. A cove cuts right through the middle,” I said, using my hands to illustrate the two sides. “One side of the cove is old family farms and the other is pretty much wooded suburbia with houses and schools all built in the last century. Not much to it.”
“Answer me this,” she said, her hands settling on her hips. “Will there be bears?”
“What? No. At least I don’t think so. No, no bears. I never heard about bears when I lived there in high school.” I stared down at the sidewalk.Shit.Now I was wondering about bears.
“And what are you going to do on a farm?” Jaime continued. “I’ve known you for six years and not once in that time did you give me the impression that you know anything about tulips or how to grow them.”
I laughed. “I don’t. I have no clue what I’m going to do with the tulips or the land or anything. But I’ll substitute in the local school district and—I don’t know.” The upside to living with my ex in a condo he owned for the past two years was I had a comfortable amount of savings. I could be a little reckless right now. The engagement ring tucked into my wallet’s coin purse promised I could be slightly more reckless if necessary. “I’ll figure it out as I go.”
The only plan was that I didn’t have a plan, and that wasn’t going to slow me down. It was senseless but so was the rest of my life right now. Might as well stop trying to fight it.
She handed me the last laundry basket, one filled with bedsheets, a cast iron Dutch oven, three boxes of Cheez-Its, and a tangled mess of charger cables. “I expect regular check-ins with you. I’m not talking about a few texts here and there. You’ll video call me, understand? Don’t make me introduce myself to the Friendship Police Department and send them out on a wellness check.”
“I’ll call,” I said. “We haven’t gone more than a few days without talking in years. You think I’m going to start now?”
She waved her arms at my SUV. “You’re starting a lot of things that you don’t usually do. I just want to be clear about the ground rules. And don’t eat a whole box of Cheez-Its on the drive. You’ll get a stomachache and then you’ll be in a terrible mood.”
“Okay, Mom,” I teased.
“You joke but I’m completely serious,” she replied. “I know how you get when you binge the Cheez-Its.”
“I’ll call you when I get there,” I said, stepping forward to pull her into a hug. “Thank you for Mommying all over me.”
“You’re welcome,” she said against my shoulder. “I’m only one call away. Say the word and I’ll be there.”
“You don’t have a car, James. And you don’t drive,” I said.
“I’d make Audrey drive,” she said. “Better yet, Grace. She doesn’t care about speed limits. The point is, you’re less than two hours south and I’ll be there any time you need me. Or any of us. Orallof us.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“As soon as you’ve settled in and I can wrangle everyone, we’ll come down for a weekend visit,” she said. “If you aren’t bored to death living in the country and back on my couch by then.”
I wanted to tell her I wouldn’t be back on her couch but I wasn’t convinced that was true. For all I knew, I’d get there, remember all the things I’d hated about Friendship, and turn right back around.
But I had one year with my step-grandmother’s family farm before I lost it forever. I wanted to squeeze as much life out of that time as I could before I had to forfeit this unexpected gift from Grandma Lollie.
* * *
I didn’t hateFriendship upon arrival but I did have a big problem with the four cow trucks parked in Grandma Lollie’s driveway.
Seriously. Trucks painted like cows. Black with white spots and thick eyelashes around the headlights. Little name emblems on the driver’s side doors readingButtercup,Clarabelle,Rosieroo, andGingerlou. And they were blocking my access to the house. I could barely see the old Victorian or its wide, gracious porch that meandered around the front of the house. The twin turrets—as everything came in pairs around here—reached up into the cloudless sky over the tops of the trucks, which gave off a circus-y vibe that annoyed the hell out of me.
Thomas House was whimsical to its core, the gingerbread-styled exterior painted in shades of green with trim in vibrant pink and purple. A heart-shaped wildflower garden swayed in the breeze. I knew I’d find a fairy garden behind the sunflower yellow barn. If memory served, there was a flagstone path lined with an uprising of rosemary and anise that led straight into the side of the barn. On the other side of a pair of enormous beech trees with thick, low-slung branches meant for sitting and reading on a summer day lived a rosebush that had completely engulfed an old wrought iron bedframe, forming a literal bed of roses. And there were acres of tulips planted in swirling, meandering lanes. Everything here was intentionally wacky.
Cow trucks were not part of the whimsy and wacky.
I rolled down my window to get a better look at the closest truck. “What even the fuck,” I muttered.
The sides were scrawled withLittle Star Farmsin a light blue-gray, vintage-styled script with a quartet of hand-drawn stars above the words.
I didn’t remember a farm by that name in the area, but even if I did, why would their trucks be parked here? My first and only explanation was not a charitable one. I assumed this farm was using Lollie’s land as their junkyard. I grabbed my phone and searched for Little Star Farms. There had to be a phone number for this place and I’d tell them to move their cow trucks to other pastures.
