Which was exactly why he’d felt comfortable retiring to Florida to join his daughter while leaving the tree farm in Ivy’s hands.
The only problem was, Mike was having a bit of trouble letting go. Especially with the problem of Tanner King hanging over their heads.
“The man’s been trying to shut us down for the last two months, Ivy.” Mike settled deeper into his worn, brown leather chair. “I don’t see how you going to work for him is going to make the situation any better.”
Ivy grinned at the older man. “To quote my grandfather… ‘Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?’”
Mike snorted and shook his head until his flyaway gray hair nearly did fly away. “That’s Abraham Lincoln, not me.”
“Yes, but you’re the one who always said it to me.”
“So I’m supposed to feel better that at some point you actually did listen to me?”
“Exactly!” Ivy crossed the room, sat down on the brown leather ottoman in front of him and placed her hands on his knees. “You said you trusted me to take care of the farm. To protect the Angel family legacy. Did you mean it?”
His mouth worked furiously as he sucked in a gulp of air. “Course I meant it, but that doesn’t—”
“So that means you trust me to make the right decisions for us, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Pop…either you trust me or you don’t. So which is it?”
“You know all the right words to use when it suits you, don’t you Ivy?” He reached out, patted her cheek and sighed. “Just like your mother, God help me. Never could win an argument with her, either.”
While Mike went on to complain a bit more, Ivy took a minute to simply enjoy the sound of his voice. In a few days, he’d be on a flight headed for Florida. Even if she had to tie him into his seat.
“I don’t feel right about leaving here,” Mike said, his voice a low grumble. “Seems to me until this gets straightened out, I ought to be here. Backing you up. In case you need help.”
Though she loved him to pieces for wanting to stay, Ivy was just as set on his leaving. Oh, she was going to miss him desperately, she knew. But sometimes change was a good thing. And it would be for the beloved grandfather whose arthritis was bothered more every winter on the mountain. Besides, Ivy’s mom really needed him.
Her mom had moved to Florida two years before and now she wanted her father—Mike, to move out there with her. He had been excited about the move, too. Until Tanner King had started making trouble for them. Her grandfather was too much of a mother hen to want to leave.
“Pop, you know as well as I do that Mom needs you. She’s started that nursery and you’re the plant guy in the family.”
He rubbed his cheek with a work worn hand. “You need me, too, Ivy. Going up against a King isn’t going to be easy. That family’s practically royalty in California. If he goes to a judge, he might shut you down. Then where will you be?”
“Fighting him in court, if I have to,” Ivy said, wincing at the very thought of it. She couldn’t afford a court case. Heck, she probably couldn’t afford to hire a lawyer at this point. She had every spare dime invested in the tree farm. Not to mention the loan she’d taken out to finance her dreams.
She had such plans for the place. And some of them were already working out. For the last few months, they’d been hosting weddings at the farm and had made such a name for themselves that they were getting couples from as far away as Los Angeles and Seattle. With the acres of trees, a wildflower strewn meadow boasting a fast-moving stream, Angel Weddings was fast becoming one of the hottest spots for a romantic setting in the state.
Then there were the birthday parties.
She cringed a little, remembering Tanner’s grumbling about the kids running from her property to his. But in her defense, it wasn’t always easy corralling fifteen or twenty kids. A few of them might have strayed onto his yard, but mostly, they were content to play in the bounce house. Or to help feed the animals Angel Farm kept in a small petting zoo. Hmm. She was willing to bet that Tanner didn’t know about the pygmy goats or he’d have been complaining about them as well.
But the thing she was most proud of was her new Adopt-a-Tree program.
People could choose their Christmas tree months in advance and then come whenever they wanted to, to help care for the tree, water it, shearing. Kids learned how trees grew and how important the environment was to everyone and their parents enjoyed spending time with their kids.
Adopting a tree stretched out the Christmas season and to Ivy’s way of thinking, kept families wrapped in that lovely spirit all year. And, while the people were at Angel Christmas Tree Farm, they usually had lunch at the newly established café and bought decorative items and crafts made by the ladies in town at the gift store.
She was turning their family business around and helping the local economy. She was so close to making Angel Christmas Tree Farm a year-round financial success. At least, she would be, if she had the chance. But if Tanner King did end up hiring a lawyer, all of her plans would drain away. She might even end up losing the home she loved so much to pay for lawyers she couldn’t afford.
“It’d be different if only David hadn’t—”
Her grandfather’s words ended abruptly, but it wasn’t soon enough to keep an old familiar ache from settling around Ivy’s heart. David. The man she had been about to marry four years ago. Until the car accident that had killed him instantly.
“I didn’t mean to bring it up,” Mike said quickly. “But damn it, if David were here, it’d be different. I could leave knowing you were safe.”
She forced a laugh she knew he needed to hear. “Pop, I’m perfectly safe here and you know it. I’m not some fragile flower in a hothouse. I’m a tree farmer and most of the people who work here helped to raise me.”
“It’s not the same.”
“No,” she said wistfully. “it’s not. But David’s gone.”
She’d mourned his loss for a long time, but as her grandfather reminded her, you couldn’t bury yourself along with your heart. You had to move on and keep going.
Besides, it wasn’t as if she would be really alone when Mike moved, anyway.
Not with ten part-time employees, people constantly running in and out of her house and an entire small town far too interested in her life. Still, she thought as she watched her grandfather worry, it was going to be hard, not having her family with her every day.