Sam had no idea, but he wouldn’t mind seeing that. “So what’s your idea?” he asked.
“The barn,” she said confidently. “Madeline and I are going to open both ends and hang lanterns inside and make it look very rustic and chic.” She ate another spoonful of the Caramel Crunch. “We looked it up. It’s kind of a thing right now,” she said, making invisible quotes with one hand. “We saw pictures in a magazine.”
Sam wasn’t a wedding kind of guy, and he had a hard time picturing it. “I’ve never seen a chic barn.”
Libby laughed. “Neither have we, except in a magazine. Gary’s mother isn’t convinced either, so wish us luck.”
She flashed a knock-your-socks-off sparkly smile, and Sam had to force himself to look at the road. But he could still feel it lighting up the interior of his truck and trickling through him.
“So what comes after the chic barn wedding?”
“That is a good question. We’re going to have to drum up some business.” She peered into her ice cream container and scraped the side of it with her spoon. “Actually, I have an appointment with the bank today. I’m going to talk to them about the possibility of a loan.”
Sam thought that was encouraging news. Maybe she was thinking forward at last, looking ahead from her split with Ryan. “Good to hear you’re thinking long-term,” he said.
She snorted. “What I’m thinking is that we need money now.”
“So are you borrowing against the ranch? Or do you have a way to pay it back?”
“The only way we can pay it back is with some business. But I have some ideas. I’m going to do some advertising around town and online with ads on wedding sites.”
“Do you think you’ll get a lot of events from people in Pine River?” He tried to imagine how many rustic weddings were going to happen in a town of roughly twenty thousand.
“That’s the plan, so I hope so!” Libby said laughingly.
“And if you can’t book more events? Then what?”
Libby shook her head. “I haven’t gotten that far. But I am going to make it work. I’m determined.”
Sam hoped for her sake that she could make it work. He thought about saying more, but it wasn’t his place to guide her. He was a deputy sheriff, for God’s sake, not a career counselor. Still, it seemed to him that Homecoming Ranch was too far out, too remote to ever become a profitable wedding venue. Who would go all the way out there?
His silence apparently made Libby anxious. “What?” she asked him.
Sam drummed his fingers against the steering wheel.
“What?” she said again.
He glanced at her, sizing her up. “You want the truth?”
“Like you’d tell me anything less?” She laughed. “Go ahead, I can take it.” His hesitation made her brows sink into a frown. “Don’t tell me you are worried I can’t take it. Let me put your mind at ease—this is very different from finding out how your perfect little world came tumbling down. Trust me, I am not going to overreact.”
“I didn’t say anything,” he protested.
Libby rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to say anything. No one in this town has to say anything, because everyone looks at me the same way since my meltdown. Come on, tell me what your problem is,” she prodded him.
She was right, he was making assumptions. He said, “I think the event destination thing is going to be a hard sale.”
“I know. You’re not telling me anything I haven’t thought to death already. But it’s all I have, Sam. And honestly? I’m a little desperate these days. I’ve got a car that’s about to tank and no money for another one. The ranch is pretty self-sufficient but there are bills. Do you have any idea how much it costs to fill a propane tank?”
“Yes, I do. Have you thought about getting a job?”
She laughed. “Of course I have. But I want to make Homecoming Ranch work. It was handed to me on a silver platter. I need it to work.”
Sam thought he understood her. He certainly understood how sometimes, the only thing a person needed was for something just to work. “All I’m suggesting is to keep gainful employment in mind,” he said.
“Duly noted. And by the way, you suggest a lot,” she said, and closed up her pint of ice cream and returned it to the sack. “I’m curious, are you like this with your girlfriend? Or do you reserve all your suggestions for scofflaws?”
“Exclusively for the scofflaws.”
Her brows rose and she laughed with surprise. “How do you have so much time to drive around and poke your nose in other people’s business anyway?”
“That’s my job, remember?” he responded congenially as he pulled off the main road onto a bumpy dirt road.
“That’s debatable, and you’re avoiding the issue. How old are you, like forty?”
“Hey!” he said with a startled laugh. “I’m thirty-four.”
“Okay, thirty-four. Most men your age are looking for someone to do their laundry.”
“Wow,” he said, smiling curiously at her. “That’s an awfully jaded viewpoint.”