However, he could take the ranch and turn it into something that the old man could never have dreamed of.
Sharing the land, sharing all this beauty, rather than gatekeeping it, that would piss his dad off, and Cody liked that idea.
He liked it a lot.
That didn’t mean he wanted to run a resort, though.
Painted Ridge was a working ranch. That was part of the draw. At least, when he had done up his business plan for the resort, it had been part of the draw as far as the bank was concerned.
Ranching was tough business. If you weren’t factory-farm level, it was tough to pay to keep the lights on. But they were a couple of hours away from Bend, which was a major tourist town, and also pretty heavily populated year-round, which made them a good getaway, not only for people coming out this way to vacation, but for people who lived somewhat locally. All things that he had factored in when he had created the plan for the resort.
They would still ranch cattle. The cattle operation would take place as it always had, running about a mile away from the Painted Ridge Resort. Then, in the resort area, they had cabins and the hotel, and they would have some walking paths in the trees, one of which would take their guests to the new bakery that was opening near the highway, on the ranch property.
There were more adventurous hiking trails for people to take solo, or guided, on foot or a rented bike. Then there were trails for guided trail rides.
They also had kayaks, and fishing equipment for rent, plus a sauna near the river.
It was damn near fancy on the resort side of the ranch.
“It’s a couple, right?” Walker asked.
“Yeah,” Cody said, looking out at the horizon. He and Walker had been out early that morning, not that it was notable that they were out early, but it had been a little bit earlier than normal. Because he had this meeting to deal with at some point, which meant he needed to get ranch chores done as quickly as possible.
“And they’re from… New York?”
“I don’t know if that’s where they’refrom, but they’ve been running a bar there. It’s really busy. They’ve helped launch quite a few businesses. It seems like he runs a lot of front-of-house stuff, and she’s the brains of the operation. Good at keeping records and managing things. They were at a bed-and-breakfast before that. In Maine, I guess.”
Thinking about them, about her, made Cody’s stomach tighten.
Last time he’d talked to her, he’d felt like he needed to lock the door. That husky, feminine voice coming through the other end of the phone had done something to him.
Something hot and dirty that he needed to recover from –and quickly – since she was about to arrive with her husband in tow.
“Still. Seems a far cry from a ranch,” Walker said.
“Yeah. It does,” Cody said, not entirely connected to what his brother was saying because his mind was still on Marlowe’s voice. “But I think it will be good. A good perspective. I don’t know jack about running a luxury resort. I don’t even know what kinds of things people want from that. I mean, I do, because now I’ve done a lot of research on it, but I sure as hell don’t want to be responsible for executing it.”
“Yeah, if I’m honest, you’re not the hospitality type.”
“Which is why I’m outsourcing. Because I’m not the hospitality type, but I’m not a dumbass.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“Shut up, Walker. If it weren’t for me, you’d be in prison.”
“Honestly, I’m only thirty. There’s plenty of time yet. Prison could still wait for me.”
“Don’t make it a goal.”
“You’re always saying that I should have goals,” Walker said.
“You have goals, at least I hope you do. Which includes marketing my new resort and managing the VIPs.”
“Oh, I didn’t know I needed a set goal for that. I thought I could just show up and look pretty.”
He looked at his brother, and all his universal golden boy good looks and appeal.
Sadly, that was all he had to do. Show up, smile, charm everyone.
