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The door to the trailer opened, and Ethan found himself struck dumb as an absolutely gorgeous woman stepped out. She was blonde. He hadn’t been seeing things. Her long, honey-colored strands hung almost halfway down her back.
Her skin was creamy. Was it natural fairness or lack of sun, it didn’t matter. She had a gorgeous face. Ethan couldn’t tell about her figure given the knee-length puffy coat the woman wore.
He had one problem, though.
“Uhm, excuse me, but that’s my office,” he said as he approached. “Ethan Carter, manager here. And you are?”
“Laura Bennett.” The woman offered a hand. As she did, Ethan remembered seeing pictures of her before. “I’m?—”
“Mr.Bennett’s granddaughter,” Ethan said, and Laura nodded. “I’m… so sorry. I just had dinner with him last week, he was doing so well for a man his age.”
“He wasn’t really all that old,” Laura agreed, looking sad. “I wish I’d been out to see him more these past few years. I just… never did.”
“No, but he told me about every time he went to visit you back east,” Ethan said. “He’d tell me about the restaurants you’d go to, the time he went to a real game at Yankees Stadium and he got to boo his head off at that, as he put it, ‘no good bush league bunch of bums’, and more. He… what is it?”
Laura blinked away tears and cleared her throat.
“I didn’t go with him to those places,” she said quietly. “At least, not the baseball game. I was busy. Working.”
“Oh. Well, I’m sure Mr.Bennett knew that, and he always loved seeing you,” he said. Looking around, he said, “So I guess you’re coming back to… I don’t know, the funeral?”
“Yes, to take care of his body and to settle his affairs.” Laura sniffed. A mask came over her face, and she squared her shoulders. “Like the farm.”
Ethan nodded, looking around. “It’s a great place, isn’t it? Forty years he owned this place, and I promise you, I’ve been doing his memory right. Ever since he made me the manager and sorta retired, I’ve been running this place the best I can. I don’t know if you noticed, but I was putting up the signs for the live lot customers when you drove by.”
“I saw those, and I wondered why you were doing it,” Laura said. “I don’t get it. Why are you trying to run a business when the owner’s now… deceased?”
“What do you mean?” Ethan asked. “It’s what Mr.Bennett would want me to do. He loved this place, you know. He loved Christmas, and if anything, he’d want me to sell evenmoretrees, give ’em away if necessary, so that everyone would have a good tree this year.”
“That’s not what I mean,” Laura says. “What I mean is, you’re operating a business, but you aren’t the owner and can’t act in his stead.”
Ethan scratched his chin with his thumb. “MissBennett, I’ve been the manager here for eight years, and worked here for the past ten. Mr.Bennett put me on all the accounts, on the company card, all of that.”
“But you’re not the owner.”
“No, I suppose not,” Ethan said, still confused. Was she saying she didn’t want the farm open? But why? “I suppose you are now, aren’t you?”
“That’s what the will says,” Laura said. “So?—”
“MissBennett, before you say anything, let me say a word,” Ethan said. “Your grandfather, he loved Christmas. You know that, I’m sure. But he was also a man of his word. Now, way back in summer, we signed a bunch of contracts with suppliers for home improvement stores and supermarkets throughout Colorado and New Mexico. Those folks haven’t arrived yet to pick up their trees, but we’ve happily cashed the checks they gave us for those trees. You get me?”
Laura’s lips pursed. She looked like someone who wasn’t used to be told no. But this was one case though where he was willing to argue with her, if necessary.
Ethan thought she was about to throw a tantrum.
If so, it was going to be an enormously pretty tantrum, at least in his opinion.
But she didn’t. Instead, she took a deep breath, and muttered something under her breath that sounded like “tort” to Ethan.
“You’re right,” she replied. “I suppose I should know that. I’m a lawyer, you know.”
“Didn’t know, but congratulations,” Ethan said. “So we’ll stay open, and don’t worry, the farm’s profitable. Not much, I bet you make a lot more as a big city lawyer, but?—”
“I’m going to be selling the farm.”
The words hit like a punch to the gut, and Ethan literally took a step back.
“What? No! No, you can’t!”
