“Okay, where do you want to start? I want to make this as easy on you as possible.” I sit down in the chair opposite her and look over at her. She quirks a brow up at me, probably because I have never been known for making things easy for people. Not intentionally, I just have a bit too much fun giving people a hard time.
She takes out her phone and pulls up what looks to be a notes app. “Well, for starters, what’s your goal for the books and back office?”
I let out a breath. “That one is easy. As you know, my father is as stubborn as an ox, and has been doing everything on paper, and I, well, have the attention span of a squirrel and cannot spend a whole day shuffling through papers just to see what our costs have been the last few years.”This earns me a bit of a laugh, and the hair on my armsstands up. I haven’t heard that sound in years, and god does it feel good to make her laugh again.
“Glad to hear some things haven’t changed. So, you want to update things into a digital format and for it to be easily trackable?”“Yeah, some kind of sheet where I can plug numbers in and go. I’m sure it’ll be more complicated than that and need a few different forms for the costs of cattle, feed, and overhead. Basically, I want to unfile as many of these papers as possible. He’s literally kept everything from the day he took over,” I hitch my thumb over my back and point to a filing cabinet, “that only has, like, the last five years. I have boxes of years and years worth of invoices and bank statements.”
Both of her eyebrows raise. “Oh, goody, and here I thought this would be the easy part. I’ll work on a plan and give you a couple of different options. There’s a way we can scan the last ten or so years’ worth of papers into a file on the computer and then organize those by year, and I can do the last five into some sort of a file to make it easier for you.”
“I’d appreciate that.” I nod, shifting in my chair nervously. My heart is still beating like it’s trying to pound its way out of my chest.
“And the cabins?” She types something on her phone before looking up at me.
“Well, from what Mav told me, one is currently livable, so I assume that one won’t need as much work. But the other two will pretty much need ground-up renovations. I doubt they even have running water; only the one closest to us does. We can connect them to the wells, but it will need to be cleaned up first. For starters, it will need a construction team to get them up to code, and then someone to oversee decor, which is not my strong suit. My socks don’t even match today.” Socks? Smooth Weston.
A ghost of a smile turns up on her lips as she types, and my eyes get stuck on it. I am going to have to pull my shit together if I want this not to end up eating me alive by the end of the summer.
“Okay, and as we progress, we will need to touch base on insurance, an e-commerce site for bookings, and probably some staff for cleaning purposes.”
I bob my head because words are hard today.
“What’s your timeline looking like? My boss mentioned three months?”
“Yes, Maverick is the investor for the project, so I’d like to get the cabins up and running so we can start paying him back.” Maverick spent his golden years tearing up the rodeo scene. He’s retired now, but he’ll reap the benefits of his success for years.
She nods as she writes some more. “Okay, and what’s the budget?”
“I’d like to stay around the two hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar range, but if it needs to be more, just let me know. This is out of my ballpark. If you need to know what the price of cattle is this week, I could tell you that.” I’m so out of my element with this conversation, it’s not even funny. So much for my good first impression of adult Weston.
“I think I’m good, thanks,” she says dryly. “I was told you would provide lodging? Is that correct?”“You don’t want to stay with your grandpa?” I ask, surprised that she wouldn’t be staying with him, seeing as she doesn’t have the opportunity to spend time with him, living out of state.
“My old room is a little filled up at the moment. If cost is an issue, I’m happy to work with the firmto expense it.”
“There’s no issue, I just figured you’d want to stay with Vern. He always-” I cut myself off before I give too much away. “Uhm, he always loved having you around,” I say instead.
“He offered to clean out my room, but I know how physically taxing that is, and in truth, I’m going to be busy here. So does that offer still stand?”
“Yeah, of course.” I didn’t know Aspen offered lodging. Similar to how I didn’t know the love of my life was going to show up on my doorstep out of the blue. Another thing my sweet, dear sister left out. She and I will be having some choice words later. Even if she didn’t know she worked for this company, I need someone to blame, and little sisters are perfect for that. “Let me call the motel in town and see what I can get worked out. If you just give me one sec,” I say as I reach for my phone and move to step outside the office.
Fifteen minutes later, and it appears there is no availability at our one local motel. I guess I can have her stay in that cabin; it’s far from glamorous and not a place I would normally put her in, but maybe staying there would help give her some ideas. I don’t know. Fuck. It feels like I can’t think straight. I’d offer her a bed at my place or my parents but the cold shoulder I received today tells me she would shoot that idea down.
I come back into the office and brace myself to deliver the bad news. “Hey, so the hotel is booked, but I can put you in that cabin we have. I’ll just need to run to my parents’ house to get you fresh sheets, blankets, and a couple of towels. Feel free to hang out here in the office or explore the barn, I just need like fifteen minutes to gather everything,” I say nervously before nodding and walking to my truck.
As I make my way inside my truck, I take a deep breath and try to center my spiraling thoughts. “Fuck!” This isnothow I expected todayto go. For twelve years, she’s haunted me and shows up looking even more beautiful than I could have imagined, and with no warning. I need to figure out how to be around her again, how to form a coherent thought, and I need to do it quickly because it looks like this project just became my last hope.
Chapter 4
Willow
Ihate him, I hate the way he looked at me like I was his salvation, and I hate this stupid dusty cabin. It smells stale and dirty all at the same time. It looks like no one has resided here in years. If this is what he considers livable, I am seriously dreading what the other cabins will look like. That reminds me, I’m going to need to coordinate time for someone to take me on a tour of the cabins. But I think I’ll tackle some office tasks first and let myself get my bearings because being back here on this ranch brings back way too many memories. Memories that now feel jaded and wrong.
I made the rookie mistake of assuming I could use my old room and that Grandpa would be able to host me, so I was going to surprise him. Which I did, he was very surprised and when he gave me a tour of the house, I realized there was no way in hell that staying in that room was going to work. It’s now home to every single thing he doesn’t need, but refuses to get rid of. I’m sure you can find the Christmas ornament I made him in kindergarten there if you did enough digging in the totes and cardboard boxes. I didn’t want him to feel bad, so I told him that work was providing lodging.’
My grandpa has done everything for me my whole life, and I don't want to make him do anything more, so I’m going to make this work. I grew up playing in dirt and loved living in the country, but that’s not who I am anymore. That version of me died the night Westonbroke my heart and I don’t think I can see her making a comeback. Sometimes I miss that version of me. The version that trusted freely, even after everything I had been through as a kid. I blindly trusted that man with my heart. I’ll never be that foolish again.
My heart is mine and I only give bits and pieces of it away now, preventing anyone from getting too close. Josh is the most I have let anyone in since, and I guess it was just luck that he was satisfied with the pieces I was willing to give to him.
My thoughts have me spiraling, which is usually when I work. While I would love to get started on work right now, it looks like I’m going to need to make a trip to town to get some cleaning supplies because there is no way in hell am I sleeping in this crumbling cabin without a whole bottle of bleach and a good hearty dusting and sweeping. I cannot believe he thinks so little of me that he would put me in a place like this and call it livable. I had a moment of hope when it seemed like my Weston was still there, hearing him talk about his dad brought a smile to my lips, but maybe the old Weston was just as good at lying as he is now. Being sweet, only to leave you face first in the dirt.
