She headed out of the office and stopped in front of the salon, then fished her phone out of her purse. If she wanted to do this, she just needed to do it—not sit around worrying about it. Taking a deep, calming breath, she called Rick.
He answered immediately, which despite her nerves made her smile. “Zoey, finally.”
“Hey, Rick.”
“We’ve been worried about you. Are you ever coming back?”
Hunter’s face appeared in her mind, followed with an immediate no. She shook her head. It was too soon for thoughts like that. “Don’t know …”
He breathed out, and she could almost picture him pinching the bridge of his nose. “What is it with that town? Say fiddlesticks if you’re being held hostage and need rescuing.”
She grinned. “Fiddlesticks.”
“That’s not funny,” he said.
“Then quit joking.” She chuckled. “Come on, I haven’t been gone that long. You guys can’t miss me that much.”
“We do, Zoey,” Rick said. “We miss you so much.”
Her heart warmed at the confession, thoughts returning to the very reason she’d decided to come to Harvest Ranch in the first place—to fix her family. She shoved back the twinge of guilt she felt for having pushed it aside, and she remembered why she’d called. “I miss you guys too. But listen, I’m calling for a reason. Are you free tomorrow morning around eight for a conference call with me and Brandon?”
“A conference call? About what?” Rick asked.
“I’d rather tell you and Brandon at the same time,” she said.
“This isn’t another Zoey-train idea, is it? Because …”
“No, it’s not.” She huffed and then gathered her business voice. “Rick, there are things we need to discuss.”
“Listen, Brandon and I have made things right between us—”
She waved her hand as if he could see her. “No. Not about what happened, although I’m happy to hear you two have talked.”
“Weeell …”
She held in her groan of frustration. “We can review communication skills another time. This is important. I’ll send you a packet of information to go over tonight.”
“A packet?”
“Yes. Please review it before our meeting.” She held her breath. Her brothers were used to her asking them to do things, but not like this. Not professional requests.
The phone went silent for a moment. “I’ll be waiting for your call at eight.”
She grinned. “Thank you.”
* * *
Zoey satin the upstairs library of Brandon’s house on his leather sofa. He sat to her right, and Rick was chatting from the screen on the wood coffee table in front of them. She’d sent them both an email last night with her idea laid out in detail: maps and photos of the land she wanted to buy, the cost of it, the projections for how long it would take to recoup their money, what kinds of fruit trees she wanted to plant-based on what had the highest likelihood for ROI and what grew best in Harvest Ranch, and the cost of trees, employees, and everything else they could possibly need.
Her initial instinct had been to wing the entire thing. She’d always been good at winging things, and her brothers never said no to her—but then she’d remembered that they’d never really given her a fair part in the company either, and that she’d never pushed it.
When she’d come to Harvest Ranch, she’d done it on the pretext of fixing her family, but now she realized what she’d really wanted to do was fix her brothers. That wasn’t fair. Her family did need fixing, but she was a part of what was broken. So she decided to start with their relationship with her. If she wanted them to treat her like an adult and as an equal in the company, she had to act like she was. So she’d channeled her inner Hunter and made a foolproof plan to win her brothers over.
She explained it all, and she was met with silence.
“So what do you think?” she asked.
Rick sighed. “I think we’ve been Zoey-trained.”
