Chapter 99: Goodbye, part 1

EMMA

"Emma, I know I said this the other night when we had dinner together, but it bears repeating. I'm thrilled that you had a wonderful vacation, but we missed seeing your face around the farm." Anna beamed at me from her seat on the steps of her front porch, where she was watching me cavort with the baby goats . . . who weren't so much babies anymore.

"I can't believe how much they grew in just over two weeks." I caught one little girl and scooped her into my arms, nuzzling her soft head. "Thanks for covering my part of the care while I was on vacation. I thought about asking Jenny to do it, but I figured she might be more trouble than she was help."

Anna chuckled. "She's not exactly farm-friendly, that one. Sweet girl, salt of the earth, but she doesn't know one end of a pitchfork from the other."

"You're not wrong." I sniffed. "Did Deacon tell you that she and Nico are moving up north?"

"He did." Anna's voice gentled. "That's going to be hard on you, isn't it?"