She's My Kind of Girl by Jennifer Dawson Page A

couldn’t be helped. This was the beginning of the end, and she couldn’t deny her reluctance, but it had to be done. There was no other choice. “Mom, we need to talk.”
    â€œWhat is it, baby?” Tammy’s expression turned a bit wary at the edges.
    This was it. Once she started there’d be no turning back. “You need to sell your house to Revival. I know this is the house you grew up in, I know you have history here, but it’s time to let that all go for the good of the town.”
    Tammy blinked, before her eyes widened. “You think it’s for the good of the town?”
    â€œI do.” Darcy nodded for emphasis. “I’ve talked to a lot of people, Mom, and they all want this. I’ve also talked to more than one lawyer. If you choose to fight it, you’ll lose and end up with nothing. So take what the town offered for the land. You can buy a new house a couple blocks away with the money. A good house, the kind you deserve that’s not falling down around you. If Revival is your home, and you care about the town, let it thrive and prosper.”
    â€œYou think this is best?” Tammy’s voice took on a shaky quality.
    â€œYes.” It was one thing she could give Griffin. His project would go on. He’d see his dreams for the town come true.
    It was the only thing she had to offer.
    Tammy bit her lower lip, glanced around the kitchen, and her eyes filled with tears. “You’re going to leave, aren’t you?”
    â€œI am.” She’d booked the red-eye back to New York as soon as she’d returned to her mom’s this morning. “It’s time for me to go home.”
    â€œYou’re making a mistake.” Tears spilled onto her mom’s cheeks, and Darcy’s chest squeezed. “I’d hoped you’d see that.”
    Darcy’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean by that?”
    Tammy stood up and scrounged around in her cabinets before she retrieved an ashtray and a pack of cigarettes. She sat back down at the table, shook one from the pack, and lit it.
    â€œI thought you’d quit?” Darcy frowned.
    â€œI did.” Tammy shrugged and took a long drag. “Sometimes I just need to take the edge off.”
    Darcy decided this wasn’t a battle she wanted to fight at the moment. “What did you mean, you ‘hoped I’d see’?”
    Tammy blew out a plume of smoke. “I hoped if you came home, you’d realize you belong here.”
    Darcy’s heart gave a hard thump. “I don’t belong here. New York in my home now.”
    â€œI don’t think so.” Her mom gave her a long, searching look. “I think you belong here, with your family. Me and Griffin.”
    The truth sunk in, and Darcy blinked at her mom. “You planned this, didn’t you? You were always going to sell the house, weren’t you?”
    Tammy took another drag before she spoke. “Yes.”
    â€œDid Griffin know about this?” God, please don’t let him have been involved.
    â€œNo.” Tammy stubbed out her cigarette. “He wouldn’t have approved.”
    Relief flooded through Darcy. Although she should have known, manipulation wasn’t Griffin’s style. And she didn’t have the energy to be mad at her mom right now. She had to conserve all energy for what she had to do next.
    â€œI’m sorry you had false hope, but nothing has changed. And holding the town hostage is not the way to get what you want.” She’d be properly angry later, after she’d had a chance to cry. Darcy pushed the contract her mom had stuffed into her mail drawer across the worn linoleum. “Here’s the contract that agrees to the terms of the sale. I had both Mitch Riley and a lawyer in New York review it. Both of them said it was more than fair. You’ll have until January thirty-first to give you time to move. With the sale, you’ll be