Chapter 65
CHAPTER 65
OLIVIA
T he next couple weeks were full of meetings and prep for the fair. We had less than a week left to book all the vendors and attractions—and to get it all built out—and we didn’t have a minute to spare.
George had eventually gotten back to me with the go-ahead for our marketing strategy, but he’d also included a trailing email from Scarlett with all the suggestions she’d had to improve on the plan we’d put together. They’d all sucked.
I would’ve hated and ignored every last one irrespective of who they’d come from, but since they’d been from her, I’d forwarded it all to Charlie with comments explaining why each suggestion was terrible.
He had the final say and I refused to give her ammunition to use against me. If I had simply ignored them, I knew she would’ve run to her daddy, Jack, or possibly even my father to complain, so I’d run the entire thread up the chain of command myself.
They had all told me to continue with our original plan, but that they would defer to Charlie’s decision. Thankfully, he’d agreed with my logic.
My team had gone full force on promoting the event, and before we’d even known it, it’d been sold out. It’d been one of the best moments of my life—and one of the smuggest—when I’d emailed to let her know all the tickets had sold out. We wouldn’t even need a ticketing booth.
Booya! I still had to fight the urge to fist pump whenever I thought about it. Grinning, I stared at my computer but my face fell when yet another email from her popped up on my screen.
There had been more than a few tense moments between us since the meeting, but luckily, we’d only been working together online. While we hadn’t seen her in person again just yet, however, it didn’t mean she hadn’t been trying every sneaky little trick in the book to get time alone with Charlie.
The email I’d just gotten was yet another attempt. As my gaze skimmed across the screen, I shook my head and picked up my phone, still determined to keep everything I did on the up and up.
She seemed to have no issue using underhanded tactics, but I wouldn’t be dragged down with her. I didn’t play around in the dirt like a child and I wouldn’t stoop to her level. Professionally, Charlie had been appointed as the representative of a large client of the firm and he was my contact person for this project.
As such, whenever she made requests relating to him, I called the guy instead of blocking her attempts of my own accord. I scrolled to his number and pressed dial, bringing the phone to my ear while I waited for the line to connect.
“Hey, baby,” he said, and some of the anger swirling around within me melted when I heard the genuine affection in his voice. “What’s up? I wasn’t expecting to hear from you until tonight.”
“Yeah, well, she’s at it again,” I said, hating my sense of ethics a little bit right now. If I hadn’t had it, I wouldn’t even have been making this call. “She’s requesting a personal phone call with you as the representative of the ranch. Apparently, there are things that need to be discussed that do not require the input of the event planner or the marketing people.”
He didn’t skip a beat. “Did you tell her that you’re also managing the project on our behalf?”
“Yep.”
He sighed. “Reiterate the point. Anything she wants to discuss surrounding the fair can be done through you, and outside of that, I have nothing to say to her. Well, nothing polite.”
“I know the feeling.” I cradled the phone between my ear and my shoulder, quickly firing off a response to let her know it wasn’t going to happen. “Okay. Done. How’s your day going so far?”
“It’ll be better if I know I have something to look forward to tonight.” I heard the smile in his voice. “Something like, say, my girlfriend coming to sleep over?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I promised. “We’re finalizing the vendors as we speak, so there’s a chance I might be able to slip away early.”
“Well, see. There. You’ve already given me something to look forward to, even if it is just a maybe.”
In the end, slipping away early meant getting to the ranch after ten, but getting to spend the night in Charlie’s arms more than made up for the commute I faced the next morning. In a great mood and feeling rejuvenated when I walked into the office, I was ready to face whatever curveballs Scarlett sent my way today.
I’d barely finished with my first team meeting when her next attempt to get under my skin landed in my inbox. It was almost like clockwork now. At least twice a day, I received an email containing either an attempt to get to Charlie or a reminder to me that she knew her way around his home and was familiar with the whole family too.
I was in too great a mood to let it get me down today, though. Dutifully, I picked up the phone and put in yet another call to Charlie, sighing when he greeted me with, “Hello again, beautiful. What does she want this time?”
“To know whether your brothers will be helping with access control,” I said. “Something about remembering that Mason and Wyatt have done some training as part of their volunteer work with the citizen patrol program.”
He groaned. “They’ll be there, but not because she asked. It’s still our ranch and they live there, so they’ll be helping out.”
I nodded. “Great. I’ll let her know. I didn’t know they volunteered.”
“No doubt that’s exactly why she brought it up, but yeah. They used to,” he said. “Sometimes, they still do. We’ve just all picked up more responsibility on the ranch as Dad started slowing down. Some of our older and more experienced hands have also been retiring, which has meant even more extra work while we hire and train up some new people.”
“Right,” I said slowly, then exhaled a quiet breath. “Don’t worry. I’m not letting it get me down today.”
“Good.” He paused for a beat. “Do you want me to call it off yet? I will, Liv. Even if I have to find a new venue for them myself.”
“I know, but—” I cut myself off when another email popped up from her, my eyes narrowing when I scanned the contents. I groaned softly by the time I was done. “She wants to spend the night before the fair on the ranch. At the guesthouse.”
“The guesthouse is on the top floors of my place,” he said absently, then chuckled. “Let her know she can get a hotel or sleep outside. I don’t give a shit, but she’s not sleeping in my house.”
I grinned. “You got it.”
“Now if you wanted to come sleep over, I’ve definitely got a bed with your name on it.”
“Is it yours?”
“You know it,” he said happily. “Shit, Cody is going to kill himself with that darn horse. I’ll speak to you later, baby. Bye.”
I heard him yelling at his brother before the call disconnected and I smiled. Scarlett might know the family too, but they hated her. They loved me. I would not allow the fact that she knew things about them that I didn’t upset me.
We went back and forth until the day before the fair, with Charlie shutting down all her attempts to see or speak to him outside of formal communications with our offices. We stuck to the agreed-to channels and processes, and though I could tell by the tenor of her emails that she was growing increasingly more frustrated, she couldn’t exactly complain when we were nothing but professional about it all.
With Abigail’s face staring at me from my screen as I made myself a grilled cheese for supper—too exhausted to contemplate doing more—I vented about all the drama Scarlett had caused since we’d come home from New York.
“What a little snake,” she said, her head shaking as disbelief shone from her eyes. “Why on earth did she seek you out at the conference? It makes no sense.”
“Probably to size me up. I don’t know.” I shrugged. “At least the fair will be over soon, and hopefully, she’ll disappear once it’s done.”
“Well, until then, just remember who you are and rock this event like you always do.” She looked directly into my eyes. “When she tries to come at you again, remember that you’ve got the man and he’s crazy about you. You have a great reputation and I’ve looked her up. Hers sucks, and at the end of the day, you can always punch her in the tit.”
I laughed. “I really like number three.”
Abi winked at me. “I’ll let you eat before the girls get there, but tell them everything you told me. I might not be able to be there to have your back, but they will. They just need to know what’s been going on.”
“I’ll tell them,” I promised. “Things have just been so busy that I haven’t had the time to do it yet, but they’ll be here in a few.”
“Exactly, so eat. Take pictures of the fair for me, and punch her if she causes any trouble.”
Abi waved and hung up, and I laughed some more as I ate my sandwich while scrolling through comments on social media about the fair. Thankfully, we had plenty of support in the community and I was sure we were going to raise quite a bit of money for those in need.
When London and Lacey finally arrived just after I’d finished my sandwich, we poured some wine and I filled them in. My sister and my best friend looked like they were ready to go to war for me by the time they’d heard it all.
“We’ve got you,” Lacey assured me when I finished telling them about everything that had happened. “It’s all going to go great, but if need be, we’ll help you bury the body.”
“That might be a little drastic, but thanks.” I laughed, but London only chuckled a little bit before she leaned back on her chair and folded her arms across her chest, a scowl falling across her face.
“But seriously,” she said. “We’ve got you, Liv. All you need to do is point us in the right direction.”