KADE
“The fence along the back forty needs to be completely replaced if you want to keep these cows here,” Sam says.
“The entire fence? I was out there yesterday. It was fine. Only needed a few repairs.”
He winces. “Sorry, boss, but I don’t think you know what it takes to keep them in. We don’t want them getting out. Would defeat the purpose of utilizing the back part of the ranch to try and bring in income.”
“How much is it going to cost?”
“All of the reserves for the back barn and about an additional five thousand.”
“Fuck. Twenty thousand dollars to replace it?”
“It’s a lot of fence.” Sam nods. “If we don’t reinforce it, it’s not going to do any good. Especially in the winter when the storms blow through.”
“When can we get started on it?”
“I can have my guy out here tomorrow. Barring any setbacks, maybe two, three, weeks of work?”
“And how is that going to delay getting the cattle here?” Iflip through the papers on my desk, trying to see when they’re due to arrive.
“About a month.”
“Seriously?” I groan, dropping my head to the table. “We can’t take many more setbacks.”
My brain is already working through where I can wrangle up the money to cover the fence. I didn’t want to have to take a loan out or to use everything I had in savings, but I might have to.
I still don’t know if I’m keeping this place. Why borrow from the bank if I can make it up later when I sell? But with the remodel taking longer in the guest rooms than I planned, I don’t know if I’ll have much of a choice.
“What do you want me to do?” Sam asks.
“Get started. I’ll figure something out.” My phone beeps at me. My two o’clock meeting. “I need to take this.”
“Right.” He stands, dropping his Stetson on his head. “Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.”
“Thanks.”
Dragging my laptop toward me, I turn it on and click into the meeting. Kelly is waiting for me, her cheery face filling the screen.
“Hey, boss.”
“Hi, Kelly. How are things out there?”
I brace myself for the answer. Seeing how today is going here at the ranch, I’m holding my breath there isn’t a disaster in the making there.
“Great. We have the final paperwork for Raven to sign to become majority shareholder of the Seattle Eleven?—”
“She’s really going through with that? A women’s soccer team?” I laugh to myself, interrupting her. “I didn’t think she could make it happen.”
“Never bet against her.” Kelly points a finger at me through the screen.
“Good. Send the paperwork over to me for one last lookand I’ll forward it on. At this time next week, Raven will have herself a soccer team.”
“Done.” She taps away on her keyboard. “You have the initial review of Seattle Corp’s assets to review before Triton decides whether they want to buy them out to look over, and if all is well there, I can go ahead and set up a meeting for the executive team.”
“Sounds good.” I find the document and pull it up.
Seeing these numbers—assets, overhead, losses—these things make sense to me.
