Chapter 7
Ville
Iwasn’t huge on horses in general. They were majestic animals and all that, but they were also prey animals with brains the size of a pea who spooked at their own farts and got sick or broken if someone looked at them wrong.
Now, that wasn’t to say I couldn’t ride one, because I could, and I respected the hell out of the Harringtons and what they did here. It just wasn’t something I was enthusiastic about.
All that said, as I stared at my map and my notes on a separate notepad, I was pretty sure I was nearly done with the initial planning.
“Hey, Jenn?” I lifted my head to see her kneading a dough of… something at the island.
“Yes?” She looked amused. It was likely she’d been doing her thing while I was stuck in my work at the kitchen table.
“If I wanted to have my meeting with….” I did some mental math and continued, “You and Mike, Fern, Hawk, Bodhi, and Crew. How would I go about that?”
She smiled. “Well you could grab the two-way radio and ask when everyone’s free for that sort of thing.”
Fair. I went to where her radio—and a backup—were on the side table and grabbed one.
I decided to go alphabetical to remember everyone. “Ville for BH, CH, FH, HH, and Mike, over.”
One by one everyone but Bodhi checked in.
“Bodhi is likely at Yellow Ribbon,” Jenn told me from the side.
“I have gathered all the information I need for a sit down with you guys. When would you be free? Doesn’t need to be today, but the sooner the better. Over.”
Everyone coordinated like a well-oiled machine, and we had a date for an hour from now, barring Bodhi’s schedule.
“I’ll give him a call and let you know if there’s changes. Over.” I put the radio back where it belonged.
Jenn was done with the dough, so she grabbed her cell phone. “Let me call him.”
“Thanks.”
I looked at my numbers and decided to make one more call, just in case.
Like I had before, I lifted my phone at Jenn, then headed for the small home office she had in the back.
She’d offered to let me work in the office, but somehow her energy was soothing to a point that I chose to stay in the kitchen after lunch was cleared away.
I called an acquaintance about better cameras than the already high-end ones I was going to suggest. These ones would be extras, put in locations where humans shouldn’t be unless they were working.
The cameras had a system that would alert whoever was at the house that there was movement where there normally shouldn’t be.
It was overkill, but I knew I at least needed to have a quote from the guy who could get them for me to present to the Harringtons, because Wren would want me to do it.
Once I had the numbers, I went back to the kitchen.
“Anything I can do?” I asked Jenn, who had moved on to using some sort of a gadget to cut potatoes for… French fries? I couldn’t remember the last time my dinner had included homemade fries.
“Yes, you can start the coffee and grab the carrot cake from the left side fridge so we can finish it.”
She instructed me through setting up for the meeting, and by the time Mike walked in, everything was ready at the table, and Jenn had enough French fries to feed an army, which… close enough..
When Crew walked in, I found myself immediately asking about Jaina. Payton had tried to be so very brave about it, but I could tell he was genuinely worried and he’d left for his library trip with a little frown.
“She’s going to be fine. Emery was right, it was definitely gas.” He smiled as he headed to wash his hands.
One by one, the rest of them arrived, even a scowly Bodhi. Okay, maybe I was projecting, but I felt like he was scowling at me more than usual.
Fern helped me with pouring everyone coffee, and once everyone had their treats, Mike gestured for me to take his usual spot at the end of the table which I appreciated. I took a sip of my coffee first to center myself.
“So, we all know why I’m here in general, and why all of you are here right now,” I started and looked at each of them.
“The security measures around the ranch,” Crew stated firmly.
“Exactly. So here’s where we’re at: we have the more immediate concern with the wedding and with Wren attending, not that I expect his visit to matter, but….” I gestured dismissively as I grabbed the A3 sized map I’d fashioned together earlier.
“But it is a concern for everyone here. Wren is family. He needs to be safe,” Bodhi piped up.
“Yes, but I doubt there’s going to be any bigger threat to safety even if he’s here,” I clarified as Fern and Hawk moved a couple of the dishes so my map fit in the middle of the table.
“His team is very tight-lipped about his trips for obvious reasons, and he’s flying private to get here.
The chance of someone finding out where he’s going is miniscule, and he’s not to be in any social media posts about the wedding until well after the fact. ”
Bodhi grunted but stayed quiet. I wish he and Wren just got their shit together one way or another.
“So this is not to scale, obviously, but I’ve marked the entrance point in red,” I began my little demonstration.
Half an hour later everyone was on the same page with me on what needed to change.
“I think we can handle the initial cameras, and maybe invest in those fancier ones if there’s need later down the line,” Jenn said with the gravitas of She Who Made Decisions.
“That’s reasonable,” I agreed, then pointed at the end of my map where, eventually, the ranch property changed into Bodhi’s.
“What you might want to consider down the line as well is building a security fence here. Just to separate Yellow Ribbon from the ranch proper. Put in a gate there as well for the odd time when people and animals need to move through.”
Bodhi nodded solemnly and didn’t object. He cleared his throat. “I’ve assessed the prime spots for cameras on Yellow Ribbon’s side. I assume we can bulk order mine with the ranch’s?”
“Absolutely. I have a guy I use, and I know you’ll get really good stuff and at a discount to boot.”
“What about the gates for the driveway and the event barn?” Fern asked, her arms crossed over her chest.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Hawk said, scratching his jaw.
He reached for a muffin before saying, “We have too many people to give them clickers for their vehicles. We have so damn many ranch vehicles and people use their own. How many staff do you think we have total?” He looked around the table.
“I have two to five, depending on the event,” Fern replied.
Crew squinted in thought. “About ten people on top of that on a regular basis for the rest of the place, right?”
“Ten to fifteen, depending on the season.” Mike got up to grab the coffee to top us off. “You’re right, Hawk. Keeping track of the clickers and their batteries and whatnot wouldn’t work.”
“Then we’ll go with a code box. Give everyone their individual code or group people in certain ways, whichever works,” I said easily. “If Jenn is here most of the time, then we put in a system that allows people with no code to ring the house directly.”
Fern grinned. “Like a fancy house with a buzzer box.”
Bodhi cleared his throat. “Doesn’t need to be Mom’s responsibility. We can just have a number to call, and we each take turns with that phone.”
“To be fair, I am here most of the time.” Jenn smiled. “And Dad is too.”
Mike nodded. “It can be our thing. There aren’t that many people who wouldn’t have a code, after all.”
“Hell, even people who do regular deliveries, like Trip, can have his own code. Not that he’s here often, but he just dropped by to bring Jaina the extra Banamine just in case.” Crew poured some creamer into his second mug of coffee.
“Matigan should have one, too. It would speed things up in an emergency,” Hawk mused.
I smiled. “See, this is all the stuff I wouldn’t think of. Maybe I should have a meeting with everyone’s employees, too?”
Crew hummed. “That sounds reasonable. Early one morning this week?”
“That works.” I wrote it down in my notepad. “All right, here’s the figures I have now for everything. I know it seems like a lot with the installation costs added in, but I’ve made sure it’s all things you don’t need to keep replacing. You pay more now—”
“To pay less running costs,” Mike concluded approvingly.
They all looked at the sheet of my calculations for various aspects of the whole job.
“You haven’t put in any payment for your services.” Jenn frowned.
“No, I haven’t.” I grinned in what I hoped was a rakish way. “I’m on loan from a man who pays me very well, and who wants his family safe. So you can take it up to Wren if you want.”
There were chuckles around the table, and I knew at least Mike and Jenn would try to offer Wren money for my workload in this.
He’d never accept anything, but at least it wasn’t my problem.
Besides, I would’ve done all this for free anyway.
It was as if I was on a vacation, doing something completely different that barely felt like working, while also having my favorite doctor to play with on my free time.
Crew shrugged. “I think everything looks reasonable and we can trust that it’s quality without anything extra. You know, hidden costs some vendors might try to sneak in without Ville’s expertise.”
I nodded. “That’s a big part of why I wanted to do this. I have all the right connections.” I flipped onto another page in my notebook. “Now, your son’s idea is also coming into fruition,” I told him.
For a second, Crew looked confused, then incredibly pleased. Everyone else smiled at him.
“The dogs?” Hawk asked, after glancing at his brother fondly.
“Yes. So here’s the deal.” I explained the situation with Nessa’s suggestion, and everyone was on board with it in no time. “They obviously won’t make it here before the wedding, but they’ll be a great addition to the ranch. I just wonder why you don’t already have dogs?” I had to ask.