Then laughed.
“Mrs. Mercer, we're in a drought. I'd hesitate to promise anybody water.”
She studied him.
“That wasn't my question.”
Victor's smile disappeared for a fraction of a second.
Then returned.
“We haven't completed any investigations that would justify making a specific claim.”
Sarah looked toward Eli.
The boy was watching Victor carefully.
For a moment, she remembered Nora's warning.
Finding water didn't automatically create a commercial right to extract it.
But a buyer's interest in the property might involve something beyond ordinary farmland.
She took a breath.
“I'll have my attorney review this.”
Victor nodded.
“Wise decision.”
Then he added something that made her uncomfortable.
“Just remember, Mrs. Mercer, banks don't always give families time to understand what they've inherited.”
Sarah's expression hardened.
“Are you speaking for my lender?”
He shook his head quickly.
“Of course not.”
“Then I'd appreciate you not using our financial situation to pressure us.”
For a moment, Victor stared.
Then he smiled tightly.
“Understood.”
He returned to his truck.
Before getting inside, he looked toward Eli.
“Good luck with the rocks, son.”
The boy didn't smile.
Victor drove away.
Sarah stood on the porch holding the offer.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Eli approached.
“Mom?”
She looked down.
“Yes?”
“Why does he want the land so badly?”
Sarah studied the contract.
“I don't know.”
Eli looked toward the North Bed.
Then toward Grandpa's notebook.
For a moment, he remembered the strange line beneath the old garden.
Don't confuse the visible garden with the real work.
He took a breath.
“Maybe Grandpa did.”
Sarah looked toward him.
And for the first time, she wondered whether the farm's real value had been sitting in front of them all along.
The first watermelon appeared on August second.
It wasn't large.
Only a round green fruit hidden beneath a tangle of leaves.
But when Eli lifted the vine gently and saw it resting in the shaded soil, he felt as though someone had handed him a treasure.
He stared for several seconds.
Then shouted.
“Mom!”