McFarland's Farm: Hope, Book 1
Length: 2 hrs and 34 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date: 11-11-14
Wealthy, attractive Lucas Reika treats life like a
party, moving from bar to bar and man to man. Thumbing his nose at his
restaurateur father's demand that he earn his keep, Lucas instead seduces a
valued employee in the kitchen of their flagship restaurant, earning himself an
ultimatum: lose access to his father's money or stay in the middle of nowhere
with a man he has secretly lusted over from afar.
Chapter 1
"Jared, it's
me."
Jared McFarland
sighed and moved his gaze away from the jumbled numbers on the screen to the
answering machine on the other side of his desk.
"I know
you're there. Pick up the phone."
Susan couldn't
know he was there. She lived in Phoenix, and he
lived a hundred twenty-five miles west in Hope,
Arizona.
"The reason I
know you're there is you never leave your property and it's nine o'clock at
night, which means there's not enough light for you to be working
outside."
Susan's ability to
read his mind terrified him.
"Plus, I know
you're on your computer."
Lucky guess.
"And the
reason I know you're on your computer is last time I visited, I uploaded a
program that tracks everything you do on there."
Jared froze,
thinking through the ramifications of that claim.
After a pause,
Susan continued. "Do we need to have a conversation about the porn
addiction?"
Grappling for the
phone, Jared lost his balance on the rolling office chair and almost fell.
"I do not
have a porn addiction!" he shouted into the phone. When he heard no
response, he realized he hadn't answered it. After pressing the green button,
he tried again. "I'm not addicted to porn!"
Pulling up a
website a couple of times a month when the loneliness got to be too
overwhelming didn't constitute an addiction. Besides, he didn't enjoy it very
much. The men on the screen weren't real. He couldn't smell them, couldn't touch
them, couldn't taste them.
"Of course
you don't have a porn addiction," Susan said incredulously. "I've
known you your entire life. I'd know if you had a porn addiction."
He pulled the
phone away from his ear, stared at it, and then put it back. "But you just
said—"
"I said what
I needed to say to get you to answer your phone."
"So you don't
have a program on my computer tracking everything I do?"
"I might, but
that's not the point," she said dismissively. In his head, he could see
her waving her hand and flipping her long brown hair over her right shoulder.
"It's called manipulation.
It's the same way I got you to do everything I
wanted when we were married."
Susan had been his
high school sweetheart. They'd gotten engaged right after graduation, married
six months later, and then divorced two years after that. Susan had moved to Phoenix with Phillip
Padrez, her new boyfriend—now husband. And Jared still loved her just as much
as he did on the day they got married. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough now, and
it hadn't been enough then.
"Jared, stop
feeling guilty. It took two people to get married and two people to get
divorced."
Thankfully the end
of their marriage hadn't meant the end of their friendship. Susan still called
Jared a few times a week and came to see him when she visited her mother in
Hope, which made computer spying a viable possibility. And though Jared was
much more comfortable with that type of relationship, he sometimes still
regretted that he hadn't been able to give Susan more.
"But if I
wasn't… If I could have…"
"If you
weren't gay, I still would have been miserable living on that farm, and we both
know it," Susan said. "Just like we both knew you were gay, even if
we were too young to admit it or realize you didn't need to change."
For many years
Jared had wished for that very thing. But at age thirty-two, he had long since
stopped wishing he could change himself and fall in love with a woman. Instead,
he longed to meet a man he could love who would love him back.
"I
know," he said quietly.
Susan sighed.
"I hope that's true because I worry about you being out there on that farm
all alone."
"I'm not
alone," he denied. "There are people around all the time, working,
and I go into town to buy supplies and—"
"Are those
men working on your farm also working it in your bed?"
He started
coughing. "That's none of your business."
"Uh-huh,
that's about what I thought. Jared, isn't it time you made an effort to meet
someone?"
"I know you
and Phillip are happy, but that doesn't mean everyone wants to be in a
relationship."
"I'm not
talking about everyone. I'm talking about you. Don't bother arguing with me
about it, because I know it's true. You live out on that farm, away from the
world, and you're dying to have someone waiting for you in the house every
day."
Denying it was
pointless. Susan had firsthand knowledge of just how much Jared longed for what
she described. After all, he had married her, hoping for that very thing even
though the love they'd shared had been one of friendship and not what anyone,
them included, would have described as romantic or passionate.
"Wanting
something and being able to have it aren't the same things," he said.
"That's
because you don't try! If you ever leave your farm, it's to go into Hope, which
has a population of nothing, and even then you don't talk to anyone."
"Hope isn't
that small, and you don't understand."
She couldn't
understand noticing a man across a dark room and gathering the courage to
approach him only to see the light of interest in his eyes dim once he got a
close look at a scarred face. The beard could only hide so much. Plus, Jared
had a hard enough time making conversation; it was impossible when a guy
couldn't look at him without flinching or kept darting his gaze around to make
sure none of his friends saw him talking to the poorly dressed weirdo from the
sticks. The only thing men in bars wanted from a six foot five, beefy guy with
shaggy red hair and an imperfect face was a hard fuck in a dark corner with
their backs to him. Finding release with the porn on his computer demoralized
him less.
"Yes, I
do," Susan argued. "I know how amazing you are. Any man would be
lucky to have you. All you have to do is flash those green eyes, smile, and
make a little conversation."
If only it were
that easy. He swallowed down his emotions and said, "Let it go,
Susan."
He didn't expect a
simple request to work, especially not the first time he said it, but
amazingly, it did.
"Fine,"
she said. "That's not why I called anyway."
Distracted by the
miracle of avoiding more nagging about his non-existent dating life, Jared was
oblivious to the punch slated to take its place until it landed its mark.
"What are you
doing tomorrow?" Susan asked.
"Doing?"
"Uh-huh."
"Um. It's
Tuesday. I'm working."
"I'm sending
something your way. Do you have time to run into town to pick it up?"
Each day's
schedule mimicked the one before—wake up at sunrise, work with the organic
produce he grew in greenhouses throughout his property, warm up dinner, eat
alone, and go to bed, also alone. About once a week, he headed into town to
pick up supplies and treat himself to a decent meal at Jesse's Diner. Nothing
prevented him from making the next day supply day. Maybe he'd get lucky and
meatloaf would be the day's special.
"Sure. Is it
at your mom's house or at The Mailstop?"
"Neither
actually. He'll be at the bus stop at a quarter after six."
"Wait.
What?"
"A quarter
after six at the bus stop," she said.
"I heard that
part. Did you say ‘he'?"
"Yes. I'm
sending Lucas to you for a couple of months. Well, technically my dad's sending
him."
Already reeling
from the unexpected turn of events, Jared got dizzy from the mention of Susan's
half-brother. With chestnut hair, sky blue eyes, tan skin, and a sleek, compact
body, Lucas Reika was the single most gorgeous person Jared had ever seen.
Susan was young when her parents divorced. Her mother had moved to Hope,
seeking a simple life.
Her father had remained in Los Angeles, running an increasingly more
successful chain of restaurants. He had remarried and had a son, who he had
raised alone after his second wife passed away.
"Why is Lucas
Reika coming to Hope?"
Being around Lucas
aggravated Jared's already debilitating fear of social situations and turned
him into a stammering fool. Thankfully, Lucas never gave him the time of day
long enough to notice. He was always too busy flirting with whatever man he had
on his arm, and often with many others. Lucas was the center of attention
wherever he went, and Jared was a guy who he was "pleased to meet" when
they were introduced even though they had already met more than once—at Susan
and Phillip's anniversary dinner, christenings for their children, and a few
events thrown by Susan's father, whose restaurants were Jared's biggest
customers.
"Because
spending time away from his friends and the whole LA scene is the best chance
Lucas has of getting his head on straight."
"I don't
understand." Jared shook his head and furrowed his brow. "Lucas is in
some kind of trouble?"
"Oh please.
Lucas is trouble. You've seen it for yourself."
Lucas was loud, he
drank too much, and he thought a lot of himself.
"What
happened?"
Susan sighed.
"He finally finished school in June, barely. Took him five years, but he
finished. Then he spent two months partying and didn't make a single move to
find a job. My father finally got fed up and told him if he wanted to keep
getting money, he had to start earning it. He even offered to teach Lucas the
business, which basically meant having him rotate through the restaurants and
learn from his executives. But you know how my brother is."
"Lucas didn't
do the work?" Jared asked.
"That too.
But the bigger issue is he had sex in the kitchen at Northstar before they
opened for the Saturday dinner service. With the head chef. The head hostess,
who's also the chef's girlfriend, walked in on them. She started screaming.
Half the waitstaff came running in. At some point the chef or the hostess—I
can't remember which one—stormed off and the other one followed, which meant no
head chef and no head hostess on a Saturday night at my father's flagship
restaurant. It was mass chaos. People were seated late, food came out late, and
don't even get me started on my father's meltdown over what they were doing on
a prep table. Totally unsanitary."
Groaning, Jared
shook his head in dismay. Paul Reika took his restaurants very seriously. The
papers joked that everything he touched turned to gold, but in truth, Paul
worked day and night to make his restaurants a success. The fact that he
trusted Jared—and nobody but Jared—to supply his produce was a huge honor, and
very lucrative.
"I can't
believe he did that."
"Oh, I can
believe it. Lucas is an entitled, self-absorbed, lazy, snobby prick. I'm
guessing he's done a lot worse but my dad kept turning a blind eye."
"But this was
in his restaurant," Jared said, understanding how angry that would make
Paul.
"Exactly.
Ignoring his kids is one thing, but you know how my father feels about those
restaurants."
Jared knew she
didn't aim the comment to get pity. Susan was well aware of who her father was
and who he wasn't, and she had accepted it long ago. Having an incredibly
caring mother and stepfather probably helped, but mostly Susan was a strong as
nails, ‘glass is half-full' type.
"So Lucas
feels embarrassed about what happened, and he wants to hide out from the world
for a while?" Jared said, still trying to wrap his head around why Lucas
Reika was coming to stay with him and how he'd get through it without
stuttering, staring, and being socially awkward. Or at least without stuttering
and staring.
"Embarrassed?"
she scoffed. "Please. I have no doubt he did it on purpose, and I've seen
absolutely no indication that he's embarrassed."
"Then why
does he want to get away? And why here? Susan, I don't think he'll like being
here. It's boring." The farm, the life, Jared. All of it would be boring
to a guy who grew up in Beverly Hills,
surrounded by a gaggle of beautiful friends, and spent his nights at the
trendiest clubs.
"Boring is
just what Lucas needs. And it's not a matter of what he wants. He doesn't have
a choice. My father is making him go."
Furrowing his
brow, Jared said, "What do you mean he doesn't have a choice? The guy's
what? Twenty-three, twenty-four?"
"He's
twenty-four. And you're right, technically he has a choice. He can stay here
and get cut off, or he can go stay with you, get his head on straight, and keep
his credit cards."
"Your father
wouldn't do that to Lucas." Paul was a ruthless shark in business, but he
wouldn't cut off his only son.
"Lucas
splattered semen all over the prep table in my father's flagship restaurant
before the Saturday night dinner rush. My father had to find a new chef and a
new head hostess. He not only would do that to Lucas, he did do it. I had to
beg him to give Lucas another chance." She paused. "Beg. And the
little shit didn't even bother to thank me."
"And sending
your brother to stay with me was the only way you could think of to torture
him?"
"It wasn't my
idea," Susan said. "I begged my dad to give Lucas another chance, and
he said he'd do it under one condition."
He waited for
Susan to continue, and when she didn't, he said, "What's the
condition?"
"You."
"Me?"
"Yes. Lucas
has to go stay with you. That's the deal."
"That makes
no sense," Jared said.
"Actually, I
think it's brilliant. So brilliant I wish I could take credit for having
thought of it."
"What's
brilliant about it?" Jared asked. "Does he have any farming
experience? Irrigation experience? Horticulture experience?"
"Nope."
"Is he a hard
worker? A fast learner? Eager to try new things?"
"Nuh-uh."
"Then I don't
think it's a brilliant idea, and I don't want him here."
"You're going
to say no to my father?" she asked in amusement.
Jared genuinely
liked Paul. He wouldn't deny that the man was sometimes cold, often grumbly,
and a workaholic, but Jared got along better with him than he did with most
people. And Paul had taken a chance on him when he was starting out. Jared's
customers came to him because of the reputation he'd earned for growing quality
produce; and he'd earned that reputation in Paul's restaurants. He couldn't
turn down a favor for a man responsible for most of his income and who he
considered a friend.
"Damn
it," Jared said.
Chuckling, Susan
said, "That's what I thought. Lucas will be at the bus stop tomorrow at a
quarter after six."
"Fine."
Jared sighed resignedly. "I'll pick him up and try to find something for
him to do around here." He looked around at his messy desk and dragged his
fingers through his hair.
"Maybe he can do the paperwork."
"Uh-huh.
Sure. He'll love that."
"That kind of
tone is not instilling confidence in me, Susan!"
"Sorry."
She laughed. "Thanks for doing this, Jared. Seriously."
He didn't have a
choice. And not just because Paul was his biggest client and a friend. Susan
was family, the only family he had left. "You're welcome. Say hi to
Phillip and the kiddos. I'll talk to you later."
"I will. And
Jared?"
"Uh-huh?"
"Good
luck."
He hung up the
phone, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes. "I'm going to need
more than luck to survive having Lucas Reika under my roof for two
months."
About The Author:
Cardeno
C. is a hopeless romantic who wants to add a lot of happiness and a few
"awwws" into a reader's day. Writing is a nice break from real life
as a corporate type and volunteer work with gay rights organizations. Cardeno's
stories range from sweet to intense, contemporary to paranormal, long to short,
but they always include strong relationships and walks into the
happily-ever-after sunset.
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