It's All About Faith Pt. 09

"Mitch," Layla said, "Nita got mad and stormed out and she and Doug went back to Scranton." Mitch stopped and looked at Buck in silence.

"It'll be okay," Buck said. "She'll cool down and then we can talk about it. She was too busy exploding to listen to me before. Maybe Doug can settle her down," and Kali looked at Buck without saying anything. "Kali, can you stay with me and help me measure and stake the property tomorrow?"

That thought caught her totally off guard and she hesitated until Buck added, "If you can't I understand."

"No...I mean I'm sorry, I just had to think for a second. I can stay, but we have no food here or a vehicle or anything."

Everybody in the restaurant was listening to the unfolding drama so Wendy said, "You can use my car tomorrow if that would help."

"That would help a lot," Buck said. "We'll need groceries and things like stakes and hammers and...hell, all kinds of things."

"Aren't there stakes and rolls of twine in the old hardware store?"

"Oh right, there is. Well, that helps a lot, but thanks Wendy, we will still take your offer for the car, but we better do that soon, because we'll need supplies for tonight and in the morning."

"Let me know when, and we can walk over and get the car."

"Thanks, I owe you, love." She just smiled because she had her Bill to see to her needs now.

Buck settled down, and then Mitch joined him in one more beer, and they talked for several minutes before Mitch had to get back outside and make nice with the potential buyers.

Layla put her hand on Buck's thigh and asked him in a whisper, "Are you going to be able to convince Nita that you did the right thing?"

"I don't know. All I can do is try. Layla, this isn't a risky thing that I'm doing. It's much more conservative than buying Phoenix Lane that's for sure, and look how that has turned out. You and Mitch are making a killing here now."

"I have to admit Mitch has worked a miracle as far as I'm concerned. I had no hope at all that we'd even recoup our investment, let alone make a lot of money with it."

"Mitch," Wendy said, "You'll have my cottage to sell too, because I'm going with Bill in a month or two. We're going to get married and live in State College."

That about knocked the wind out of Buck and Layla, but Layla said, "Wendy, I'm so happy for you, and you too Bill, congratulations."

Wendy smiled and said, "Thanks. Bill asked me last night so I don't even have a ring, but we're going to take care of that soon."

"Everybody is really going to miss you, you do know that don't you?"

She smiled again and said, "I'll try to get back once in awhile to say hi and see how the place is growing. It won't be easy to leave this lifestyle or all of my friends here."

"What will you do there?"

"I'm going to open a boutique, but I won't be selling the things that I sell here and I'll have to have dressing rooms. But I have a few ideas of how to make it a little different and more fun for the guys that are forced to shop with their wives. Things like over sized dressing rooms so they can go in together."

"Well, good luck Wendy, and let us know the name of it so we can come shopping."

"I'll do that."

Buck smiled at Kali and said, "See. More of those changes we talked about, only they are happening faster now." Buck slipped off of the stool and then holding his hand out to Kali said, "Let's go explore the hardware store again and go look at the fields. We have some decisions to make."

"We?"

"I'm not only welcoming your thoughts and your help honey, I'm asking for it."

Chapter One Hundred Fifty Nine

Buck and Kali rummaged through the old hardware store and found the stakes in a corner near the back. The cord was brown and reminded Buck of the baling twine on his grandpa's farm when he was a kid. But there were not hammers or other tools so they still had to go to the hardware store first thing in the morning. Kali stopped Buck and putting her arms around him she asked, "What are you going to do about your argument with Anita?"

"I'll talk to her tomorrow when I get home."

"Buck, she isn't totally wrong you know."

"Kali, I really didn't have time to check with her. I should have checked with Mitch too, to see what he thought, but that would have been like trying to form a committee to make a decision that had to be made while Faith was on the phone."

"But you don't know that."

"I couldn't take a chance with it, Kali. I would have beat myself up for a long time had I not grabbed that opportunity right then. Maybe I could have called her back in a couple of hours, but I was afraid to risk it. For once in my life I had to take a risk. But damn it, I know I did the right thing. I know as sure as I'm breathing that it will be easy to make good money with that land. You know, Jim seems pretty savvy, so let's go talk to him and see what his thoughts are. It's too late to back out now, but maybe this will help us to figure out the best way to utilize the property."

"You go find Jim and I'll see if Mitch can spare some time."

"Honey, see if Ethel can get away, because we'll need to talk to her and Mitch about there being more potential buyers."

"So we're forming a committee after the fact."

"That's right."

It wasn't hard for Buck to find Jim and Delia, because they were sitting at one of the patio tables and talking to Brenda over coffee. He kissed Brenda lightly and dropped into a chair next to her. "Okay, now I need your help." He looked at the three of them and added, "From all of you in fact."

Brenda smiled at him and said, "I heard that you're in trouble with Anita."

"Yeah I am, but there's a lot more to the story than just that."

He went on to tell them about Faith selling the whole farm operation to a consortium and Delia asked, "What do you mean a consortium? Who makes up this alliance?"

"A group of three of her farm managers is all I know. Anyway, I'm buying a hundred acres next to Phoenix Lane. That's what got Anita so totally pissed at me. I didn't have time to consult her."

"Oh Buck, bad move."

"Delia, I had minutes to decide. I asked for fifty, but she said a hundred minimum, so I said yes. Damn it, I keep saying this. I can and will make money with it. Hell, I got it so cheap that I can sell it to the alliance and make some money with it."

"But Anita doesn't see it that way."

"I guess not, but I'm not sure, because she lost her temper so we weren't communicating very well. Anyway, we'll work that out"

Mitch and Kali joined the group and the discussions began about the property.

"First of all, Jim," Buck said, "Do you see buying the property as a bad move, and be honest."

"Well, not knowing just how it will be configured, I'll say this much. Unless you paid too much for it, you made a smart move. It may take awhile to see any rewards with it, but I think with what Mitch has accomplished this could take off even more. Now if your venture is successful, volunteer association management will have to become a paid position, because it will too much to handle by volunteer labor."

"You know who would be great in that position? Peggy."

"Damn, she would be at that. I wonder if the association could approach her now and then work out the money as we go along."

"All you can do is talk it over with her." Then Buck looked at Mitch and said, "As Kali and I were looking at the land, I realized that we about have to take the property to the west, and not behind Phoenix Lane, simply because of access. If we want to develop it, that's about our only choice. The property would be from the far side of the hardware store, and on for about a half of a mile, and back for about a quarter of a mile."

"Oh my God, honey," Kali said, "Is it that much land?"

"Yes. At least in rough numbers it would be about twelve or thirteen hundred feet by about twenty six hundred feet."

"Wow."

Mitch was listening as he watched everybody talk and then added, "That would mean another square or something like that, because a road would have to go in a loop in order to provide access to all of that land. That would be one hell of a lot of money."

"Another thing to consider," Jim added, "With all of that developed there might be enough to support a general store and a one pump gas station if we could find somebody willing to invest in something like that. The outlying farmers would certainly come back here for at least their basic supplies, rather than drive into Renovo or Williamsport."

Buck was running his fingers through his hair and said, "Damn, this is scary. The only way we could develop that property would be to put in a straight road and develop that portion and then grow from there, little by little. Mitch, I'm just beginning to really appreciate what hell you went through selling this property."

"It can keep you up at night so be prepared for that." Their little meeting broke up. After the others left, Mitch, Buck, and Kali, sat there for a few more minutes. Mitch told Buck, "You need to get home to Anita as soon as you can and talk about things."

"I'll be home before she gets home from work. Mitch, Kali, and I've touched on this, but that's about all. We're certain Anita and Doug are seeing each other. By that I mean, just the two of them and more than once, but I have to admit, we can't prove it."

"Why would she do that? Our lifestyle allows trading anyway."

"I'm not sure yet, but at least for me, there's a difference between being alone with somebody you care about so much, and just doing a swap for a few hours or whatever. The emotional investment is quite different, and Kali and I found that out very quickly." Anita and I have been out to dinner and so forth, with Doug and Kali, and we've traded partners for that, and Anita has made love to Doug and all of that is fine as far as either Kali or I are concerned. Anita knows how it hurts when your spouse is with someone else and they are away. It changes the whole dynamic of the situation. It's no different for me. When I learned that she and Doug had spent time alone in our house, and she never told me or admitted to me that it happened, it hurt me. Let's get back to why she did that for a minute. Right off, I'll tell you I'm not sure. But I'll speculate that things started to change when she came close to saying she wanted to marry you Mitch. I'm not sure she ever returned to where she was in our relationship after that. She knows that I love Kali so much, and I have to wonder if that didn't do more damage that either of us thought. I don't think she was able to just sweep that under the rug and forget it, and I don't blame her for that at all. I don't think any of us will ever be our old selves again. I don't believe our thought processes will ever be the same again either."

Kali sat there quietly as Mitch said, "But you still love her."

"Of course I do, and I'm sure I always will. I'm not just turning my back on her. We have to talk and be honest with each other. Not just about this land purchase. Hell, I think, as much as anything, that was a trigger, not the source of what made her go into that rage. She and I have to talk about Doug, and she has to be honest with me about them being together, and then we can go from there."

"Buck, I'm only going to say this as a friend, so don't think I'm trying to pull a trick. If it turns out that the property really is the whole cause of the problem, I'll come up with the money and buy that property for twice what you paid for it. We both know it's worth more than that, but that's all I can do. But if that will help, the offer is there for you."

"Thanks Mitch, and I'll keep that in mind. I never intended to get into this Phoenix project beyond being a friend and helper, so I'm still trying to sort that out."

Mitch looked at Kali and said, "You've been quiet through all of this. Is there anything you want to add?"

"Just that I agree with Buck on a few things, I'm sure that Doug and Anita are seeing each other. I've been thinking about calling it off between Doug and me, and knowing that now, it will happen when I get home. I also think Buck did the right thing by buying that property, but that said, I can understand why Anita reacted the way she did. Look at the grief you and Layla went through with what you did. And as I remember it, you didn't involve her in those decisions either."

"You're right, I didn't handle that very well."

"To Anita, I'm sure, it seems like that scenario all over again, only this time she's the one that stands to loose a great sum of money if things fall through. She has to be going through some real soul searching right now. How much does she still love Buck? How much does she love Doug, and yes, I believe she feels love for him, and he for her. Call it woman's intuition or whatever, but I really believe that. I think Anita and Buck, for whatever reason, are slowly falling out of love with each other. We'll never know what really is in her mind and in her heart, and I'd bet that if we could see all of that, we'd say, she shouldn't have acted this way or that way. I've done some pretty irrational things in my life too. Some good and some not so good, but that's based on cold objective thinking after looking back. We're humans and we don't operate like machines. What would incite anger in me, might make another woman shake her head and shrug her shoulders, and get on with life. What I see as harmless or at least nothing to get excited over, another woman might cause another woman to commit murder. We're all wired differently. Knowing her as I do, I doubt I could ever condemn Anita for what she thought, felt or did." With that, Kali stood up and sharing a thin smile said she was going up get ready for bed. "All at once I'm exhausted for some reason."

Mitch smiled and said, "Well, the mess from the weekend is pretty well cleaned up so I'm going to hit the road home. I have a ton of work to do in the coming days, so I better get a good nights sleep. If you two get into trouble with transportation, call me and I'll get help to you by mid afternoon tomorrow."

"Thanks, Mitch," Buck said. "When we can, we need to get together and talk about details."

"We sure do. You my friend, have really opened up possibilities and opportunities for problems. We need to head the problems off, and be ready to capitalize on the opportunities." Then Buck joined Kali, and Mitch hit the road home with his mind jumping with thoughts and ideas.