From Left Field: A Hot Baseball Romance (Diamond Brides Book 7) Read Online Free Page B
Author: Mindy Klasky
Tags: Contemporary Romance, sexy romance, Baseball, spicy romance, Sports Romance, hot romance
of any hint of their former equine occupants. But Mr. Reeves hadn’t been joking about getting the place ready to sell. He’d filled the mangers with bales of fresh hay, and the sweet smell permeated the building.
Haley took her time walking down the aisle. Paws would have to pave the stalls, putting down solid concrete floors for the dogs. They’d have to hire a contractor to install fencing outside too—a couple of enclosed runs to complement the huge open spaces where dogs could engage in heavily-supervised off-leash exercise.
It would cost a lot, but it would be worth it.
She turned to Mr. Reeves. “The building’s fully electrified, right?”
He nodded. “It’s got lights and a heating system. There isn’t any air conditioning, but you can see those giant fans in the eaves. They keep the air circulating in the summer. With the stone walls, the place stays pretty comfortable year-round.”
“It’s perfect,” she said. And it was.
“Isn’t it a little large for your operation?”
She’d asked herself that already. “Paws wants to make a one-time investment in infrastructure. We’ll make one move to last us for decades. At least until I’m ready to retire.”
Mr. Reeves chuckled, clearly amused by the notion of her thirty-something self retiring. He led the way toward the barn.
Haley’s heart beat a little faster as they stepped into the huge building. It could easily be adapted to shelter cats, giving her feline population a variety of places to climb, to hide, to carve out their own spaces in their usual solitary way. Paws’ fencing contractors would have their hands full here too, creating a connected, enclosed outdoor space. The cats would ultimately feel like they were stalking prey on the veldt, but they’d be protected from circling hawks, kept safe from speeding cars on the road that marked the southern boundary of the Reeves farm.
She asked, “How long has it been since this was a working farm?”
“Well, aside from small crops, a roadside stand, that sort of thing, it hasn’t been planted in over forty years. There’s still a lot of old equipment in the garage down the hill—a tiller, some baling trucks. I don’t know what else.”
“It takes a lot of work to keep a farm running,” she said. It couldn’t hurt to remind her neighbor of all the reasons he was ready to move on.
As they chatted, Haley looked up in the loft, imagining it full of sweet-smelling hay. She’d long dreamed of expanding Paws to include larger animals. She’d love to provide a refuge for horses that had grown too old for labor, either on farms or for riders. There were other creatures too—pot-bellied pigs that grew larger than their owners had anticipated, the occasional llama or alpaca that proved not to be the investment ideal touted to its owners. Maybe even some goats.
At last she turned away from her dreams, stepping out of the barn and back into the spring morning. The view was astonishing—green grass stretching all the way up to the farmhouse, acres of it. Half a dozen outbuildings stood between the barn and the house, some made out of red brick, some faced with wood siding.
The old farmhouse itself—the home that Mr. Reeves had shared with Maggie for the last fifteen years—was perched on the top of a gentle hill. It didn’t take much of Haley’s imagination to picture the home turned into administrative offices and classrooms. They could have a room for puppy classes, another for obedience training. In Haley’s dream of dreams, they could convert some of the bedrooms into a surgical suite, employ a part-time veterinarian to care for the animals.
She shook herself a little, realizing she was getting way ahead of herself. She had to convince Mr. Reeves that Paws deserved this land. She had to make sure he quoted a reasonable price, one the animal shelter could hope to raise, with enough left over to do all the renovations that would make the farm perfect.
This was her chance to
Haley took her time walking down the aisle. Paws would have to pave the stalls, putting down solid concrete floors for the dogs. They’d have to hire a contractor to install fencing outside too—a couple of enclosed runs to complement the huge open spaces where dogs could engage in heavily-supervised off-leash exercise.
It would cost a lot, but it would be worth it.
She turned to Mr. Reeves. “The building’s fully electrified, right?”
He nodded. “It’s got lights and a heating system. There isn’t any air conditioning, but you can see those giant fans in the eaves. They keep the air circulating in the summer. With the stone walls, the place stays pretty comfortable year-round.”
“It’s perfect,” she said. And it was.
“Isn’t it a little large for your operation?”
She’d asked herself that already. “Paws wants to make a one-time investment in infrastructure. We’ll make one move to last us for decades. At least until I’m ready to retire.”
Mr. Reeves chuckled, clearly amused by the notion of her thirty-something self retiring. He led the way toward the barn.
Haley’s heart beat a little faster as they stepped into the huge building. It could easily be adapted to shelter cats, giving her feline population a variety of places to climb, to hide, to carve out their own spaces in their usual solitary way. Paws’ fencing contractors would have their hands full here too, creating a connected, enclosed outdoor space. The cats would ultimately feel like they were stalking prey on the veldt, but they’d be protected from circling hawks, kept safe from speeding cars on the road that marked the southern boundary of the Reeves farm.
She asked, “How long has it been since this was a working farm?”
“Well, aside from small crops, a roadside stand, that sort of thing, it hasn’t been planted in over forty years. There’s still a lot of old equipment in the garage down the hill—a tiller, some baling trucks. I don’t know what else.”
“It takes a lot of work to keep a farm running,” she said. It couldn’t hurt to remind her neighbor of all the reasons he was ready to move on.
As they chatted, Haley looked up in the loft, imagining it full of sweet-smelling hay. She’d long dreamed of expanding Paws to include larger animals. She’d love to provide a refuge for horses that had grown too old for labor, either on farms or for riders. There were other creatures too—pot-bellied pigs that grew larger than their owners had anticipated, the occasional llama or alpaca that proved not to be the investment ideal touted to its owners. Maybe even some goats.
At last she turned away from her dreams, stepping out of the barn and back into the spring morning. The view was astonishing—green grass stretching all the way up to the farmhouse, acres of it. Half a dozen outbuildings stood between the barn and the house, some made out of red brick, some faced with wood siding.
The old farmhouse itself—the home that Mr. Reeves had shared with Maggie for the last fifteen years—was perched on the top of a gentle hill. It didn’t take much of Haley’s imagination to picture the home turned into administrative offices and classrooms. They could have a room for puppy classes, another for obedience training. In Haley’s dream of dreams, they could convert some of the bedrooms into a surgical suite, employ a part-time veterinarian to care for the animals.
She shook herself a little, realizing she was getting way ahead of herself. She had to convince Mr. Reeves that Paws deserved this land. She had to make sure he quoted a reasonable price, one the animal shelter could hope to raise, with enough left over to do all the renovations that would make the farm perfect.
This was her chance to