Chapter 45: Jennifer

Her grinning, joyous Stetson was gone, and in its place was a stone-cold wall of...nothing. He began backing away, shaking his head as he did so.

What just happened here?

She took a few tentative steps towards him, and he held his hands up defensively. He looked...

Angry? Upset? Dead to her? She suddenly couldn't read him, and that scared her more than anything.

He dropped his hands and straightened up to his full, towering height over her. "I'm not selling the wheat," he said flatly, staring down at her.

"Wha...what?" she stuttered. Her whole world shifted to the side, cockeyed and weird and out of focus. "But...but I did the math!" she protested. "If you can find a buyer for that wheat who'll give you at least $6.25 a bushel, you can make the bank payment and cover the late fees. You'll be all caught up."

"I am not selling the wheat for less than $9 a bushel," he replied, his normally warm, brown eyes instead hard as flint. He was staring at her like...