Hearing squeals of laughter upstairs, I smiled and sat at the table with Nash while Wild brought the mugs over, placing one in front of each of us.
“Okay, what are we going to do?” I asked, feeling deflated but having an idea of what I wanted to happen. “Do we talk to this company, this Nate Jenkins, or just throw his letter in the trash?”
Nash shrugged. “I don’t know. What do you both think?”
“It would help start the camp,” Wilder offered. “We wouldn’t have to get other sponsors involved or do any crowd funding.”
“We’d probably still need other funding, though.” I picked up my mug and took a drink, considering whether to try it with creamer the way Cassidy took it. “If we want to make it non-profit. And, if we don’t, then we’ll need financial help until it starts to make money.”
“You think it should be non-profit?” Nash asked.
Cassidy and I had talked about this, and it was something we were undecided on. Maybe even at odds about. “Depends what our priorities are as a ranch. As a family. Besides he may tell us to fuck off once we tell him how against the development we are. Or do we go with the trash can option?”
“Not necessarily.” Wilder tapped the table. “We talk to this guy face to face and then maybe we can get him to see sense.”
Nash gave a slow head nod. “Maybe. What do you think, Gun?”
“Is a guy like that going to actually listen?” I didn’t want to appear obstructive, but we needed to be sure we covered every scenario.
“Well,” Nash said, fishing his phone from his pocket and tapping on the screen. “I did a bit more digging and found out he’s quite the philanthropist.” He put his phone on the table and turned it to face Wilder and I. “He sponsors a kid’s charity in Florida, a school in an African village and runs an apprenticeship program at his firm for under privileged kids who can’t afford to go to college.”
“Wow, quite the Saint.” Wilder peered down at the screen. “He’s a good-looking bastard, I’ll give him that.”
“Handsomeandgenerous,” I said. “Not unlike myself.”
“Yeah,” Wilder cocked an eyebrow. “Just like yourself.”
“He is both those things it seems,” Nash added. “But he’s also responsible for a few housing developments in rural areas. Building an industrial unit alongside one of them is a new thing for him. He’s never done that before.”
“The housing wouldn’t be so bad if it was sympathetic in style.” Wilder sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Actually,” Nash picked up his phone and flicked at the screen again. “His developments are pretty nice. The houses are high end rustic ranch and craftsmen bungalows. All the landscaping is sympathetic with the area, with appropriate planting and water features like ponds. And,” he said pointing at the sale price on the website, “they’re not cheap.”
“Maybe we should ask the County if we can get some images of this development. They must have some mockups,” I suggested.
“Yeah,” Nash agreed. “I’ll get on to Cal and see what he can organize. In the meantime, what do we do about Mr. Jenkins’ offer?”
“I think we should meet him.” I banged my palms on the table, my mind made up a couple of hours ago to be honest. “Listen to what he’s got to say, but I don’t think we agree to anything without thinking about it further.”
“Absolutely agree.” Nash nodded. “Wilder?”
“Seems like a plan. Do we need to ask Cassidy?” my youngest brother asked. “It was her idea.”
I cleared my throat. “No need. She agrees with me, we talk to him, see what he has to offer and then discuss it further.”
Both my brothers looked at me, their mouths dropping open in unison. Surprise didn’t seem to cover it, because as far as they knew Cassidy and I didn’t converse unless necessary.
“And how would you know that?” Nash asked. “How would Cassidy know about the letter? Did you call her?”
“Of your own volition?” Wilder’s eyes were wide with astonishment.
I shook my head. “Nope. I took the letter when I went to have lunch with her and showed it to her. We talked about it and agreed we should speak to this Jenkins guy and then think about it. I just wanted us to consider all the options before I said anything.”
“You had lunch with her?” Wilder looked at Nash and then back to me. “Without throwing plates at each other?”
“Yep. I had lunch with Cassidy because we are dating. We went out for dinner last night and had lunch today. I know it’s a bit of a turnaround seeing as we hated each other only a short time ago, but it is what it is. Life is too fucking short.” I looked between them both. “Any other questions?”
They both shook their heads, surprising me. I’d expected Wilder at least to ask some sort of stupid bullshit question but he stayed silently shocked.
