26. Noaz
26
NOAZ
Some mornings when I get out of the shower, I find Briar outside in the backyard exercising. Doing crunches and push-ups, planks, lunges. Things I despise and which make my muscles tense just watching.
It makes me realize maybe I haven’t shared the fact we have a gym on-site with him. Not just a home gym, but a professional gym. Yes, surprising, right?
Van Doren Estate isn’t right in the middle of a town. It’s twenty minutes to the closest, which meant getting to a decent gym took forty minutes out of each day in travel alone. Since we employ so many people, Jalon built a state-of-the-art gym in the office building. He even hired physical trainers and dedicated staff to keep the gym current with technology and whatever.
Last I knew, they offered different classes based on interest too. Everything from dance aerobics to martial arts.
What I’m not sure about is whether they have a boxing bag.
I send my brother a text to let him know we’ll be stopping by and Briar needs an access key to the gym before stepping outside to watch my man get sweaty. The backyard is surrounded by trees, so the sun only peeks through the canopy overhead. When it touches Briar’s skin, it glistens.
Why is that so hot? Why do I want to lick his sweat?
Briar gets to his feet after a torturous round of something that gives my abdominals phantom pains. I mean, I knew this man exercised. His aren’t the kinds of muscles that just happen. I hand him his water bottle and watch as he takes a drink, smiling as he does.
“We have a gym here,” I say. “I forgot to tell you.”
He chuckles. “I’m not surprised. Do you have a mall, too?”
“Don’t suggest it too loud. If Jalon thinks you’re serious, he’ll build one.”
Briar shakes his head, laughing under his breath as he takes another long drink of water.
“Let’s go. I’ll take you to the gym.”
He looks down at himself. “All right, but I’m already pretty sweaty.”
“We’ll take the side-by-side. That way, your sexy sweat doesn’t soak into our car seats.”
He’s still amused with me, but nods. I lead him to the shed concealed within the trees. Calling it a shed is probably a little misleading. It’s small, but it’s big enough to house my side-by-side utility vehicle and a whole lot of outdoor equipment, which is all brand new because I don’t tend to my own landscaping. Don’t ask me why I bought it.
However, hiding between lawn equipment is the occasional weapon because you never know when you’ll need a machete. I might need something to hack through the thick foliage that creeps its way onto my lawn. Or a shotgun. There are coyotes after all, and we have a plethora of livestock to protect.
Also, there are badgers, and while they look adorable, those things are nasty. Don’t make a mistake thinking they’re docile.
Most of my weapons of choice are pretty well hidden in plain sight. Just how I like them. Honestly, it’s not like I’ll ever need them on my property or the Van Doren Estate at all. It’s rare that I’ll pull something off my own shelves when I need a weapon for any reason. We have actual stores for that.
Briar doesn’t give the contents of the shed much consideration as he climbs into the passenger seat of the side-by-side. I’m thankful. There are secrets I should share with him, but… how do you tell someone as genuinely good as him that you’re a killer? The fear that he might not love me after he knows is a little loud right now.
Besides, it’s not like I plan to continue that life. It’s behind me. A closed book. Except for conversations with Lorissa from time to time, I’ve washed my hands of it.
But then, what if he asks who Lorissa is? I don’t want to lie to him. Ever.
“Why’re you so quiet?” Briar asks.
I let a breath out, my cheeks puffing. “Just thinking.”
His hand drops to my thigh, and I smile. Maybe my big brother will have some advice on this.
Thankfully, nothing is so far apart on the Estate that it takes more than ten minutes to get from one place or another. Okay, I suppose that’s not entirely accurate. The second garages are quite a ways off. As is the third barn. But anyway…
The business building—which we refer to by many names depending on why we’re going there—is accessed by keycard only. Not just to protect our employees from the same non-existent threat as my weapons hidden in my shed do, but also because of what’s hidden in the bowels of the building. The secrets that we hide.
I realize Briar’s key will have access to those places, but unless he knows about them, it’s not going to matter. Family has full access. As my husband, that includes him.
What isn’t immediately obvious is we are ready for World War Z. As such, full access is necessary for our entire family. Not that we ever expect that likelihood. Great-grandfather might have been the visionary behind expansion, but he was also a doomsday prepper and slightly paranoid about… everything.
Conspiracy theorist? Yes. That was Great-granddad.
However, since the structures and infrastructure are in place, Jalon keeps it up. Keeps everything modern and ready for the end of the world, should we see that in our lifetimes.
I’ve never taken Briar to this building before. Actually, besides the big house, I’m not sure Briar’s been anywhere else on the property. Maybe instead of going home after this visit to the gym, I’ll take him around and show him the hidden gems. Not the secrets, just the beauty that isn’t immediately obvious.
I bet he’ll love our cows.
“So, a lot of buildings on the property are keycard accessed,” I explain as I let us in. “Including my home and my brothers’ and nephews’. It’s easier to program a keycard than it is for someone to carry around a hundred keys.” I say keycards, but they’re actually fobs. Way back in the day—like fifteen years ago—fobs were introduced to get rid of the bulky keycard access panels. However, we’ve mostly kept calling them cards instead of fobs. Force of habit, I guess .
I bring Briar up to the top floor and to Jalon’s office. As we move down the hall, Briar looks into offices as we pass, seeing everyone working. There’s only one door closed on the way to Jalon. “We believe in an open-door policy being literal,” I tell him. “It creates a friendlier and more inclusive workplace environment. A survey Jalon did quite a while ago revealed that if a door is open and someone has a question or needs help, they’re over fifty percent more likely to ask than if a door is closed.”
“Huh,” he says. “I can totally understand that.”
Jalon’s standing at the side of his desk on the phone when we arrive. He smiles and waves us in as he listens to the caller. I know he’s listening to someone babble because he nods as if they can see him.
“Good to hear. Listen, Jeannette, I have to go. I have company.”
Ah, the girlfriend. She’s… an interesting choice of partner. Made even more curious since I don’t think they’ve gotten together since we moved back home.
“Okay. Talk to you later.” Jalon hangs up and pockets his cell phone. From the desk, he holds up a keycard. “Here you are, Briar.”
Briar accepts it with a smile. “Thanks. This is your master headquarters, huh?” he asks, looking around. I mean, I get it. The office isn’t anything over the top, nothing that screams ‘super billionaire in charge of a hundred companies.’ At the very best, it says CEO of a bookstore chain. Bookstore because he has a lot of books piled on bookshelves far too small for his collection.
Jalon chuckles. “It is. You look underwhelmed.”
“I expected a room like the one Noaz just built for me. But the size of our house. ”
I grin stupidly big because he called it our house. Not mine, but ours.
Jalon laughs as he retakes his seat. “I have a picturesque view of the lake. I work on my own property, from my own home, surrounded by people I love.”
“The conference rooms are more impressive,” I offer.
My brother shrugs.
“He’s an eccentric billionaire who likes to appear upper middle class and maintain that appearance,” I tease.
“I’m not offended by that,” Jalon says.
Grinning, I tell him, “We’re going to say hi to Levis and go to the gym.”
“Stop in the café on your way out.” Jalon holds up a smoothie. “This new one is addictive.”
“Will do.” I take Briar’s hand and lead him out the door and back into the hall.
“There’s a café?”
I laugh. “Not everyone likes to bring their own food. We have a cafeteria with world-class chefs from around the world who rotate weekly and yes, there’s a café too because America is addicted to coffee.”
Briar shakes his head.
We continue the loop around until we reach Levis’ office. He’s just how he was the other day when I stopped by. Leaning on his stand-up desk as he reads what’s on his screen.
“I think he could place a wax figure in that position and no one would know the difference,” I say .
Levis glances up and smiles at us in his doorway. “A lot of reading,” he offers and straightens. “Finally coming out of the honeymoon phase and exploring the property?”
Briar raises a brow. “Not at all. We’re scoping out other places to continue our honeymoon. Those chairs look good.”
Levis snorts.
I enjoy seeing Briar with his friends. Their easy friendships and teasing are endearing.
“This is a nice view,” Briar says as he crosses the room to the window.
Levis nods. “Stunning gardens. Fascinating to watch the machines, too.”
“Sounds distracting.”
He laughs. “That too. It’s easy to stare at them since it’s not something I’ve been exposed to in the past.”
Briar drops into one of the chairs Levis and I sat in when I was asking for advice about what I could do for Briar. I talked to him, Honey Bee, and Brek because I had access to them rather quickly, and while they hadn’t given me any ideas outright, they all said the same thing.
Briar wanted a family. He wanted a spouse, children, a home, and a happy career. I feel relatively confident that we have accomplished two and the third will be here in less than two months. That left the career. While I can’t just hand that to him, it’s the one thing that stuck with me.
I may not be able to give him a fulfilling, happy career, but I could create a space where he can work in comfort, luxury, and privately, if need be .
Thus, the library office. Because every office depiction I found that spoke to me in inspiration for Briar was actually a beautiful library.
“I hear this place is like a little town,” Briar says.
Levis meanders over and leans against the wall, leaving the second chair for me. I take it and listen to them talk for a few minutes. Levis continues to tell Briar all the things that are in the office building that I hadn’t thought all that unusual, but based on the way they muse over it, I suppose it is.
When we leave Levis, we head downstairs to the gym. It’s a large space and we walk through it together. I note that there isn’t a punching bag. I’m going to have to suggest to Jalon that we make room for one somewhere.
Then we pile into the side-by-side and I bring him to the pastures. We park at the cattle gates beside the other utility vehicles and climb out. We’re immediately greeted by recon cat and one of the livestock guardian dogs.
“This is Nightlily,” I say, bending down to pet recon cat. “We call her recon cat. She’s always scouting at night and through the CCTV cameras all around the pastures, we’re pretty convinced she communicates assignments to the dogs.”
Briar chuckles.
I pick up recon cat, carrying her in my arms, and snuggling her as I open the gate to let us in. There’s a herd of sheep trotting our way. We have the friendliest animals, I swear. This could be a petting zoo.
“This beasty is Luna,” I introduce, patting the dog who came to greet us. “Luna usually stays at this end of the field, guarding the gate. Even at night when gate activity stops, she’s usually toward this end of the pasture. ”
“She’s big,” Briar says.
“She’s a Great Pyrenees. The three guardian dogs are big, but we also have two border collies to herd the animals away from danger if needed. I’m always in awe when I see how well the dogs communicate with each other.”
“What dangers do you have? Just coyotes?”
I nod. Recon cat jumps down and leads the way through the sheep deeper into the pasture. “Mostly coyotes, yes. There are also wolves and the occasional black bear. Snakes. Cougars.”
“Are they a huge problem?” Briar asks as he holds his hand out for one of the brave sheep who wants to get close.
“Not for us. The dogs are a great line of defense. As the herd grows, the number of dogs protecting our herd grows. I think Voss mentioned that they’re looking to get another one in soon. We train them from puppies. And by we, I mean primarily the other dogs. We—the farmers—train them to obey human commands, but as far as training them to protect the herds, the dogs train each other.”
“That’s really remarkable. I didn’t know that’s how it happened.”
In the distance, I see our showpieces. Our big, hairy pets. I grip Briar’s arm and point. “See the cows?”
“Hairy cows,” Briar says, grinning.
“Yep. Highland Cows. We have three; Jelly Bean, Toffee, and Coodles.”
Briar laughs. “Coodles?”
I grin. “Yep. The Highlands Cows were referred to as coos and Coodles is a cuddler. So… Coodles. ”
He laughs as the cows finally spot us. I’m not surprised when Coodles is the first to approach. He has flowers woven into the fur on top of his head, which is pretty typical for him. One of our ranchers loves to dress Coodles and Coodles turns into a puddle when they do. “Watch the horns,” I warn. “They have no concept of the fact they’re wearing spears on their heads.”
Coodles stops at me right away, nudging his big snout into my chest. I rub his face, cooing to him. But then his attention is on Briar.
The big cow isn’t gentle, nor does he have any understanding of his size and weight. In an attempt to get close, he knocks Briar to the ground and then practically lies on top of him with his big head. Briar is laughing as he gives in to being pinned to the ground by a cow. I track the horns to make sure my big cuddle cow doesn’t impale my husband by accident.
Now that Briar is down, the other cows meander over. As do sheep and goats and one of the border collies, Tasker. But by and large, Briar’s attention is dominated by Coodles.
“There’s nothing like Coodles’ cuddles,” I say as I sit beside them, my hip at Briar’s head so I can pet Coodles, too. One of the goat kids climbs onto my lap and settles.
Briar grins and closes his eyes, his hands continuously scratching Coodles’ head.