“I need to pry up the top rail without damaging it. Then I can slip in these new boards and lock the top rail back into place.” He gently hammered it upward.
“Hold on,” Lucas told him, and grabbed a screwdriver. “Here’s the issue.” He tapped a wooden pin through and into the stall, followed by another one.
“I didn’t see those from my side.” Brendan thought that it had been nailed into place. He lifted the top rail, then pulled out the old boards before inserting the new ones. In a few minutes, they tapped the top rail into place, the boards sliding into the channel on the bottom. Lucas replaced the pins, and the side wall was secure. Then Brendan replaced the manger and trough liners before standing back.
“You know, this should be fixed too,” Lucas said as he examined the other wall. “Do you have the supplies?”
“Sure. You pull off the rail, and I’ll cut two more pieces.” He headed to the shop and quickly cut the pieces to size. Lucas had the rail off and the old boards out before he got back, so they slipped them into place and finished the stall.
“What’s next?” Lucas asked.
“If you go up into the loft, you’re going to find some straw toward the back. Get three bales, and we’ll spread them in here. The horse that’s coming in is pregnant and will be giving birth in the next few weeks, so we’ll use straw in the stall instead of the sawdust like the others. A foal can get an infection from sawdust, so we won’t use it here.”
“I’m on it,” he said, and strode away while Brendan put the tools where they belonged and cleaned up the area just before the new client arrived.
“This is perfect.” Jayanne was eighteen and with her mother, but she did most of the talking. “Is there room for the foal when it comes?”
“Yes. This is a standard stall, but before she foals, I’ll trade Princess and the foal into one of my larger stalls if I can. They’ll also have a private paddock that they can use if the weather permits.”
She seemed so happy. “Cool, I like that.” She turned to her mother. “I think I’m ready if you are.”
“What sort of barn rules do you have?” the mother asked.
“All boarders are expected to take care of their mounts, and they must help in the barn three hours a week. That way I can keep the stall and board more reasonable. If I have to hire more hands, then I have to charge more. The barn will be open at seven in the morning, and we expect everyone to be gone by seven in the evening.”
Lucas carried two bales of straw and dropped them in the stall.
“Who is that?” Jayanne asked with obvious interest.
“Lucas is helping on the farm, and he provides security for the horses and buildings. With as much money as there is in here, it’s smart to have people who understand how to keep everything and everyone safe.”
“I see,” she said, swallowing as she watched Lucas’s every move. For a second, Brendan felt a stab of jealousy, but then he let it go. Lucas was not going to have his head turned by an eighteen-year-old girl.
“Jayanne,” her mother scolded.
“Mama. He’s hot,” she said softly. She wasn’t going to get any argument from Brendan, but he kept his thoughts to himself. Lucas brought the last bale and spread it before striding past them and out of the barn, picking up speed as hewent. Something was wrong, but Brendan didn’t want to draw attention to it with new clients in the barn.
“Is there anything else that you need? The stall is ready for you.”
“The horse transporters are picking up Princess tomorrow to deliver her,” the mother said. Brendan had copies of all the agreements, and she signed them and wrote a check for the first two months’ board. “Is it possible to set up an automatic monthly payment? That way checks aren’t going to be needed.”
“Of course. I have Venmo and PayPal. The details are at the bottom of your contract. If you have issues setting it up, please let me know.” He smiled and saw them out of the barn and to the white Cadillac they’d arrived in. As soon as they were gone, he went in search of Lucas and found him shooing the goats back into their pen.
“What happened?” Brendan asked as he grabbed some carrots and used them to lure the last two goats back.
“I saw movement out here, and the goats were running around. Good idea about the carrots. The others saw me coming and turned back inside the pen. A black sedan was pulling out of the drive as I came outside.”
“Jenn. She’s really decided that this is the way to get to me.” He closed the gate and secured it fully.
“Then we get proof, and that means cameras around the perimeter. We can install them in the barn and around the area so that if anything happens, we can get it on video. We used them throughout the club. It helped cut down on people doing things they shouldn’t be doing.”
“But where do you get them? I know we can put them up, but I don’t want my home turned into some kind of lockdown zone. I mean, this is where we live, and if there’s video, then someone could gain access to it, and that just sounds so intrusive.” He hated the very idea.
“I know, but we put up the cameras for now, and then once we get what we need, we remove them again. It’s that simple. We don’t need to make a big deal of it, and there are areas of the farm that we leave out. The riding ring, for example. We set up the cameras so the front of the barn, the gates, and drive are covered, but leave the riding ring and areas farther into the property alone and hope that whoever is doing this doesn’t decide to go cross country to cause their trouble.”
“But where do we get them?”
“From Amazon. We can order them and have them here tomorrow. I’ll install them, and they can be controlled through your phone. They’re small, so I can hide them pretty well.”
