Getting Away : A New Adult Romance Story (Young Adult Romance Books "Swanson Sisters Series" : Book 1) (4 page)

Sophie and Jack met up for lunch on Monday and swapped their good news with each other.

‘I’m going to move out of Drummond, Sophie, and save the rent money. I’ll finish college of course and it will be good to experiment with some of the new land management practices and find a good balance between having a profitable farm and looking after the land properly. I can’t wait.’

He took hold of Sophie’s hand and gave it a friendly squeeze. She liked his hands, so held onto it, enjoying the strength of it and the way her smaller hand fitted so comfortably inside it.

‘I’m so glad I spoke to Rod about how to fund an extra year. It was really so simple in the end. It came down to finding out how to find the information I needed to make it happen. Just goes to show that keeping things bottled up is not necessarily the best way to solve problems.’

‘No.’ He squeezed her hand again and began to stroke the side of it with his thumb as if it was the most natural thing in the word. ‘Learning to open up after hiding secrets for years is harder than it sounds. But it makes sense. I think we need to celebrate.’

He pulled her up. ‘Let’s go for a walk.’

‘OK, where …’

‘Anywhere … Sophie, how would you feel about moving out to the farm too? There are five bedrooms, plenty of room and you could save some money too …’

‘I don’t want to move anywhere until after my violin exams, but I’ll think about it afterwards. The exam is two months away and it’s an essential building block in my career.’

‘I understand. Look, I guess I’m trying to say that I like you a lot and it would be great if we could somehow be together, as friends or whatever. I feel like it’s better for us both if we’re not alone. We’re good for each other, if you know what I mean.’

Jack put his arm around Sophie as they were walking along. They’d gone past the library and the main administration building, and were at the edge of the campus, where the leaves on the poplar trees were starting to turn golden. Jack stopped and pulled Sophie against him for a hug and kissed her softly, before hugging her again.

‘Thanks for being here, Jack. I like you too. Can we go really slowly with this?’

‘We can go as slowly as you want, Sophie. You, me and ‘us’ have some serious growing to do. I think the ‘us’ part will only work if you and I are strong in ourselves, so slow is looking good from where I’m standing.’

Sophie hugged Jack this time. ‘Good.’

The following Saturday, Jack and Sophie both went out to the farm and Ben was chuffed with Sophie. ‘Jack and I are going to be busy finishing the fence and he wants to grade the road too. Why don’t you stay here at the house or wander out and visit the chickens, check out the garden, whatever …’

Sophie thought for about ten seconds, ‘Why don’t I make lunch for you both?

‘Go right ahead Sophie. What a great idea. Help yourself to whatever you can find in the kitchen.’

Sophie did exactly that. It had been a while since she had done any serious cooking, but cooking for wonderful people was a lot different to cooking because you were forced to. She decided on a hearty casserole with vegetables from the garden, homemade bread, followed by apple crumble and custard. A feast and it didn’t take too long to have it underway.

She loved the kitchen. It was a big, comfortable farmhouse kitchen, built for cooking and enjoying hearty meals, with a huge wood stove that would be brilliant in the winter. She took a wander through the rest of the house and loved the rambling way it had been built. The rooms were huge and they all opened onto a verandah that wrapped around the entire house.

Jack was right. There was plenty of room if she did decide to move out here after her exams. The house needed people and she couldn’t imagine how Ben had been rattling around on his own for years. One of the best things about big houses was that maintaining privacy was easy and she knew she would always need that.

It was only a half hour drive from town too so she could do her extra year and then work in the music faculty after that. Half an hour wasn’t a big deal when it came to driving home after concerts or band gigs either, come to that. She would be able to do her own thing and so would Jack.

‘Hey something smells great,’ called out Ben as he and Jack took their boots off on the back porch.

‘I didn’t know you could cook, Sophie. This is awesome.’

‘Well it’s amazing how much fun cooking is when you have appreciative folks to eat it. I love your stove Ben. It was perfect for the bread to rise.’

They helped themselves to the delicious casserole and it was while Jack and Ben were having a second helping that a car pulled up outside the house. Before Ben could go out to see who it was, footsteps could be heard on the verandah and then in the hallway.

‘Who the heck is this?’ said a tall man in an expensive suit as he came through into the kitchen. ‘All very cozy …’

Jack stood up but Ben waved for him to sit down again. ‘This is my son Jason. It’s been a long time since you set foot on the property, son.’

‘I won’t be here long. Are you ready to sell up yet? I have a buyer and you’ll be able to go and live in town.’

‘The farm is not going to be sold anytime soon, Jason. You might have noticed a few improvements as you came in and I’m pleased to let you know that we’ll have everything fully operational again in a couple of months.’

‘Who is ‘we’? Jason snarled.

Ben introduced Sophie and Jack.

‘Jack is working for me and we’re getting the farm back in shape. I’ve never felt so good about anything for a long time.’

‘But I have a buyer.’

‘My farm is not yours to sell, Jason.’

‘This place has been going broke for years. Times have changed in case you hadn’t noticed.’

‘Jack here is just finishing off his degree in Natural Resources and knows all about modern land management, so I think we’ll do fine.’

‘You just can’t come onto this property and take it over. It’s not yours.’

‘One thing’s for certain Jason, it sure as heck is isn’t going to be yours, ever. Now I think you should leave.’

‘But I’m going to inherit it. I want to sell it now and invest in a property development deal.’

For a grown man, he sounded remarkably surly.

Ben’s voice turned hard.

‘Goodbye Jason. You will never have this farm and it will never be sold. Do you understand? I’ve a mind to deed the farm to Jack here, seeing as he loves the land and works like a dervish to look after it.’

‘You can’t do that.’

‘I can do what I please, Jason. Leave now before I go find my shotgun …’ He left the threat hanging as Jason took in the finality of what he had just lost.

‘Sophie, Jack … I can only apologize for my son’s bad manners. Can we please continue this lunch before it gets cold?

Jack was looking shell shocked. ‘You can’t take the farm away from your son.’

‘I can and I am. I wasn’t going to tell you yet, but he’s forced my hand. You see, I was hoping that you’d take over the farm Jack, once you got it going again. I can see how much you love the land and I want my farm to be loved as well as profitable. You can do that, Jack and I have every confidence in you from what I’ve seen of your work so far.’

‘I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I didn’t offer to help you work the place because I wanted your farm.’

‘I know you didn’t son and it’s because of your attitude that I’ve made my decision. I don’t want to see out my days in town and be part of any hair-brained property deal that my son has earmarked my money for. What sort of a person does that? If you are agreeable, I would like to stay on living here until the sun sets on me forever. I can keep on with the small jobs about the place while you turn the farm around and I’ll work with you for as long as I can.’

‘I hope you’re not planning on dropping off the planet for a good while yet Ben, and yes, I’m good with all of that. What do you think Sophie?’ Jack was stoked but wanted to include Sophie if she was going to be part of the arrangement as well.

Ben broke in before Sophie could answer. ‘I was hoping that Sophie would consider being part of the package, now that I’ve met her. This house hasn’t had a woman living here since my wife died fifteen years ago and the lunch you made today for us and the way you look like you belong here, leads me to believe that Jack has excellent taste in women. I would be honored if you would consider living here too.’

Sophie could see the old farmer meant what he’d said and there was a great deal of truth in his words. ‘I can’t move for a couple of months because of my violin exams, but can I choose my own room? I can see why you love this house and if you can keep me in fresh vegetables, I’d consider it a pleasure to cook for you both.’

‘Great. Now that’s settled, can we please have some of that apple crumble and custard? It smells just like my wife used to make.’

They all laughed as Sophie organized the dessert.

****

Later that evening as they were sitting in the wine bar, during a band break and eating dinner, Jack looked at Sophie and thought what a wonderful thing college had turned out to be.

As if she had read his mind, Sophie said the same thing.

‘Who would ever have thought that going to college would have turned our lives in a completely new direction. If you had asked me a month ago if I be living on a farm with you and an old farmer, I’d have said there was something seriously wrong inside your head.’

‘It’s good, isn’t it,’ agreed Jack. ‘I think we both came to college to escape from something and without even looking, we’ve found a new life. We are going to do this together and I want you to know that I’ll support you so that it works as well for you as it’s going to for me.’

‘I’m going to hold you to that, you know.’

‘Say, how do you feel about my sister Tracey coming to live here too, if it’s OK with Ben, of course?’

‘Great minds and all that, I have a younger sister who also needs to be away from home when school finishes for the year. There’s enough room at the farm for Stacey too.

‘Mmm,’ mused Jack, ‘Stacey and Tracey, they could go to college in town together, like we did.’

Jack turned towards her and gently pulled her into his arms. She initiated the kiss this time and felt a little spark that could only be the beginning of a love which was destined to grow with careful nurturing. The garden that was to be Sophie and Jack’s world was ready to thrive.

End