Love Means Courage - Andrew Grey

a long time, and Ruby was my best friend.

    The only reason I brought it up was to offer my help. I took accounting and business classes and worked in the Ford dealership business office.” He was starting to talk faster, hoping to get his thoughts out before Cliff went off again.
    Geoff was still sniffling as Cliff turned him around and got up from his chair. Len followed as Cliff walked through the living room and opened a door to what looked like an office. “I’ve been trying to get a handle on what my dad was doing for months.” The desk was covered with papers and what looked like invoices and bills. “I’ve paid everything on time, but the money’s going out faster than it’s coming in.”
    “Why? There has to be a reason.”
    “There is.” Cliff sat Geoff in a chair and ruffled through a pile of papers. “Dad took out a loan for two hundred fifty thousand dollars right before he died, and I can’t find the money. The interest payments are killing us. I’ve been making the monthly payments, but they’re sapping the cash reserves and my savings.”
“Did you visit the bank?”
    “Yeah, but they don’t know what he did with the money. And he used the entire farm as collateral.” 68
Andrew Grey
Len was starting to see the picture and some of the reasons for Cliff’s behavior. “So, if you don’t pay….” Cliff swallowed. “They take the farm.” “The money must be somewhere, or else he bought something with it.”
“I know.” Cliff was getting testy again. “But I can’t find anything.” Frustration was clear in his voice.
    “Okay. Your father died about a year ago, and his will was probated. Wouldn’t they have to know everything he owned?” Cliff shook his head. “Dad had the farm put in both our names years ago, so it just reverted to me at his death. What money dad had went to my sisters, and I got the farm.” “And since the debt is secured by the farm, you inherited that too.”

    Cliff nodded, looking miserable. “I lost my wife, father, and inherited this mess all at the same time.” Before Len could think—and his need for selfpreservation could stop him—he stepped to Cliff and pulled the man into a hug.

    He didn’t know what else he could do, but the man was hurting and needed some reassurance. To his surprise, Cliff hugged him back, and Len felt his traitorous body react immediately.

    “It’s okay, Cliff.” When he realized what he’d done, Len stepped away and looked at the floor, totally at a loss, mumbling, “We’ll figure something out.” He had to figure out how he could leave the room to hide his embarrassment. Cliff had to have felt him; how could he not have?
    Len looked up from the floor, watching Cliff as he walked behind the desk. “I just don’t know where to start anymore. For the 69 Love Means Courage
    life of me, I can’t find what he could have spent the money on.” Cliff picked up some more papers. “Of course, there’s also the normal operating loans that are due at the end of the season, but with these interest payments on the mortgage, the money I was trying to set aside’s been going for them. Every month I’m going further in the hole.”
    Len breathed a sigh of relief that Cliff was too distracted to notice. Despite what had happened years earlier and what Len desperately wanted to happen, he knew that Cliff would never return his feelings. Cliff had been married, had a child, and would probably marry again. He tried to get his thoughts in order and away from his now rampant libido. “If you were your dad and took out a loan for that kind of money, what would you do with it?”

    “Probably use it to enlarge the farm.” Cliff went to a file cabinet. “I checked all the deeds, both the copies in the files and the originals in the safe deposit box, and there’s nothing new.”
    “Okay.” Len thought for a while. “You have a couple issues here, and I think we need to break them up and handle them one at a time. First, we need to increase the income that the farm brings in so we can meet more of the monthly expenses and increase your cash flow. We got a boost today, and we have room for another horse now. And Nicole told me that we could add six more stalls to the southwest corner of the barn. That’ll bring in more income with only a small amount of additional expense, since you’re already paying me anyway. We could also bring in some extra one-time cash by selling the excess hay in the loft. Even with the