He wasn’t impressed, either. He’d have to have a talk with Dane later. “Apparently so.”
“Give me a second.” Rachel had brought her laptop along and was returning emails from a hot spot she’d created with her laptop and her cell phone. “Almost done.”
She needed to set some pretty substantial boundaries with her clients, because they were walking all over her. He’d asked her what they paid for the kind of service she provided—as in, always available to drop everything and do whatever they needed at literally any time of the night. She’d dodged the question.
The only thing she was more committed to than her work was her kids.
Travis was hopeful that soon she’d find room in there for him, too.
He stretched across the interior of the SUV and kissed her on the temple. “Whatever they’re paying you, it’s not enough.”
She gave a soft shake of her head. “You know what I’d like to do?”
“What’s that?”
“I’d like to have staff.” She was fidgeting with the dangly bracelets on her arm.
He got the feeling this conversation was of the important variety. So he turned in his seat to face her. “Yeah?”
“So it’s not just me.” She went back to typing away at the keyboard. “I guess that’s my dream. So whenever anyone needs anything—at any hour—someone is monitoring the inbox. And they could be from all different time zones so it’s not a big deal if a three in the morning request comes through. Where they are, it won’t be bedtime.”
She was definitely on to something.
“Take some of my money. I’ll hire you a staff.”
Given the look she gave him, that was not the answer she wanted.
“Or do it your way,” he said. “That works, too.”
“I need to have enough clients to pay for help, but to do that I need to have more time to build up my client list. I already know I prefer fewer high-paying clientele than lots of smaller ones.”
He knew, without a doubt that any of the Franks would invest in her company if she asked. If she didn’t want him involved because of their extracurricular activities, the others would toss in for it.
She finished up the email, closed the laptop, and slipped it into the padded case before stuffing it under the seat.
“Okay, let’s go.” She pushed her door open before he could get around the front of the vehicle to open it for her.
He linked his hand with hers as they headed toward the building. The barn.
Light spilled from the open double barn doors and as they got closer, a loud stream of country music coming from inside filtered out into the mountain air.
Dane had said this was the place in town to hit up on a Friday night. He knew, from his chats with Molly, that Rachel and her friends tended to hit up trend-setting martini bars. Not old barns in the middle of nowhere.
He’d have a talk with Dane later about his suggestions on date locations.
Although he was pretty sure there was not a martini bar anywhere in the Twin Lakes region.
“You’ve never been here before?” she asked as, tethered together, they weaved through the parked trucks, various off-road vehicles, and a few luxury SUVs that seemed oddly out of place.
“Nope. Dane’s the social guy. I usually hang out at the house, hike, hit the lake, that type of thing.” They emerged from the parked cars and…the barn had a bouncer.
That was as unexpected as a pair of overalls at The Cruise Room.
A big, muscled guy manned the door. The size of this guy rivaled the bouncers at Brek’s Bar in Denver when Dimefront stopped by.
“Name?” he asked, swiping across the screen of an electronic tablet that seemed fancier than the ones Gavin had bought the boys for Christmas.
“Frank, Travis.”
