14. Zoe
FOURTEEN
ZOE
“ O kay, the drone is at full charge. It’s ready to go,” Amy said as she handed me her phone so I could use the virtual controller. “Easy peasy.”
When I’d told Shannon about my idea of using a drone to take some aerial photos of the ranch, she’d immediately called Amy, who’d agreed to come over.
Evidently, she worked in the mayor’s office, and they had a drone that they used to take photos during town celebrations.
She was more than happy to allow me to borrow it, with her supervision.
“Like this?” I tapped to turn on the drone and then gasped when I was able to get it to lift off and fly. “Whoa, this is amazing.”
“Right? I’ve got it set to take video, but if you want some stills, you can change the setting here.” She pointed to the small orange button.
“Got it. Do you happen to know the range?” I didn’t want to risk losing the mayor’s drone if I accidentally let it fly out of range.
“Easily two miles. Probably more,” she assured me. I grinned as the drone circled around shooting video that I wouldn’t be able to get otherwise.
“This is amazing.” I flew the drone toward the entrance to the property and then made a wide arc. The virtual control was similar to my video game controller, making it easy for me to use.
The size of the video feed window was small but from what I could see, I’d be able to pull some amazing stills off it and possibly snip some short vids to add to the website and use on Instagram and TikTok.
I took the drone up higher, adjusted the camera and gasped.
Below were riders on horseback racing toward the ranch.
I dipped the drone lower to made a wide sweep and was able to make out Josh on Indigo along with Dustin and Mitch riding what looked like Goliath and Gatsby.
Josh must have heard the drone because he took off his hat and gave us a big wave.
I followed them as they raced across the grassy knoll, my excitement building.
Once they reached the barn, I flew the drone away and did another wide sweep, taking in the entire ranch and all the outbuildings, eventually catching some of the horses out in one of the pastures.
I flew lower, hoping to get some photos of the horses up close without having to do it myself, but after a minute, it was clear that the drone was making them nervous, so I circled back up again.
I did one more sweep before a small flashing yellow light began to strobe. “Uh-oh, that’s the low battery warning. Time to bring her in,” Amy said.
I directed the drone back toward us and brought it in for a relatively smooth landing on the field in front of us. Amy ran over to retrieve it and brought it back to place back in its carrying case.
“That was amazing. Thank you so much for letting me use the town drone,” I said, my excitement bubbling over as I laughed. “That’s going to give me some amazing footage for their website.”
“You’re welcome. As soon as I get back, I’ll download the video and get it up on our cloud and send you the link. I’m fairly sure the files will be too big to email to you directly,” she said.
“Sure, that sounds perfect. I appreciate all your assistance on this.”
“No problem, though I may ask you to pay me back in trade. I was never very good with the drone myself, so if you’re really happy with the footage, I might ask for your help with some aerial shots I’ve been meaning to get.”
“Happy to help, if I can.”
I walked Amy to her car and once she loaded the drone, she handed me a flash drive. “I downloaded a few that we had saved of the surrounding area. They’re old and a bit blurry, but maybe you can clean them up—if you do, though, please do send the corrected ones back to me so we can use them, too.”
I took the drive and stuffed it in my pocket. “That’s great. Thank you again. I can’t wait to see the videos.”
“Then I better get back.”
When I entered the house, I was surprised to see it empty.
I’d figured that Josh would have made it back to his office by now.
He probably got stuck in the barn working and Shannon wasn’t due back for hours.
She’d headed to Broadville to look at a stallion she was interested in using in her breeding program.
Shannon had been grumbling about the high stud fees and the owner wasn’t interested in selling, but she went anyway hoping to talk them down to a lower dollar amount.
I knew that my BFF could be tenacious and convincing when she set her mind to something and I hoped it would turn out to be a successful trip .
I made myself a sandwich and sat down to look at the files Amy had given me.
She was right. Some were blurry but with a bit of work, I was able to clean them up.
I chose two that I thought would work best for Lost Valley, and then zipped up all the cleaned-up ones into a file and sent them to Amy with a quick note thanking her again for the drone use.
As I was finishing my sandwich, my computer pinged with an email—the link to the videos.
“Oh! These are amazing.”
“What’s amazing?”
I squealed in fright and looked up to see Josh standing in the doorway, his hat in his hand. “You startled me,” I chastised him, and he grinned before grabbing a soda out of the fridge.
“So?” At my blank look, he added, “What’s amazing?”
“Amy just sent over the link for the drone footage we took. Come see.”
Josh came up behind me and leaned on the back of my chair as we both looked at the videos I took. “This is going to look fantastic on the website. Look, there you are.” I pointed to the three of them racing on horseback. “If that doesn’t bring in interested clients, I don’t know what will.”
“Wow, this does look good. And you can get pics from it, too?”
“Definitely. See?” I zoomed in on Josh riding Indigo and paused the video.
Then, inching forward a microsecond at a time, I got the framing that I was aiming for and took a still of Josh.
He was smiling as if he was exactly where he wanted to be.
This was the Josh Cafferty I had fallen for all those years ago.
“I think we found your profile photo for the website. ”
Before he could reply, Shannon was back, stomping down the hall in a way that sounded ominous. She was early and frustrated. She pushed into the kitchen and frowned when she saw us. “Remind me again why I shouldn’t smack sense into some of these damn ranchers?”
“Because they’ll probably call the sheriff and then you’d have to deal with another lecture from Brian?” Josh said, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.
Shannon raised her hand and wiggled her finger side to side. “Oh no, he’s a reasonable man—I’m sure he’d say it was justified. I swear, if one more man refers to me as ‘little lady’ when I’m trying to conduct business, I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
Josh tensed as she complained and I knew he was going into big-brother mode. For my part, I found it charming, but I knew Shannon wouldn’t appreciate it. “Who was it? I’ll go have a talk with him,” he said.
“Because that doesn’t scream ‘a woman needing a man’s help.’” Shannon sagged into a chair next to me. “I appreciate the offer and the sentiment, but I just want to drown my sorrows in ice cream.”
“Shouldn’t you eat first?” Josh said and then held up his hands in surrender when she shot him a look that should have incinerated him. “Never mind. I can see that nothing I suggest will be useful right now. I’ll just get out of your way and see you both later.”
Before he walked away, he squeezed my shoulder. “Great job with the drone. I can’t wait to see what you do with it all.” Then he stepped farther back and gave Shannon a wide berth as he headed to his office.
I got up and went to the freezer, pulling out the different pints I saw stacked in the door.
Bringing them back to the table, I grabbed two spoons, sat down next to my friend, and took the lids off all the containers.
Handing her a spoon, I pushed chocolate with brownie chunks in front of her and grabbed the strawberry for me.
“Eat up and then tell me what happened, I’m all ears.”