The smile disappeared. "You have four hundred eighty acres of crop exposed, a financing obligation, and an equipment dealer that seems unwilling to cooperate. Sentiment isn't a business plan."
"Neither is buying land from somebody while they're under pressure."
Kessler opened his folder. He had brought a revised offer, substantially larger than the one he had made in June. The document contained a clause permitting rapid closing and another requiring Hollis to withdraw certain existing access and easement objections along the southern boundary. She read the terms slowly, pausing at a reference to a projected logistics corridor. Kessler watched her face. He expected the number to do the work for him.
"You're offering more because you need the land," she said. "Not because you feel sorry for me."
"Business has to benefit both parties."
"Then why include a waiver of the road-access objections?"
"That's routine."
"It isn't routine to me. That crossing serves three other farms."
He looked annoyed. "The county can work out alternate access."
"Then let the county do that before I sign away anything."
She handed him the folder. He tried to press it back into her hands, but she stepped aside and let it close against his palm. Wes, who had been standing near the grain cart, walked toward them but stopped when Hollis raised a hand. She could manage the conversation. She did not need someone speaking over her shoulder.
"The offer expires tomorrow," Kessler said.
"Then it expires."
"You'll regret being stubborn."
Hollis looked at the darkened western sky. "Maybe. But I won't regret reading what you asked me to sign."
He stared at her for a moment, then turned toward his truck. As he opened the door, he said something quietly enough that she almost missed it. "A little flexibility would have made this easier on everyone."
Hollis watched him leave. The words bothered her more than the threat of an expiring offer. Easier on everyone. It sounded as though the harvest dispute inconvenienced a group of people who expected a particular outcome. She wrote down the entire exchange while it was fresh. Then she called the lawyer and forwarded the land documents for review.
Half an hour later, Garnet sent another message. It contained no company files, only a reference to a publicly available list of sponsors for a regional equipment association. The names included Schaefer Implement and Prairie Meridian Holdings. Hollis knew sponsorship alone proved nothing. Businesses appeared together on such lists every day. Yet the discovery added one more line to a page now crowded with questions.