“Christ, you didn’t have an aneurysm and are thinking about firing her?” Beckett asked.
Every muscle in Jax’s body tensed for a fight.
Carter choked on his beer. “Jesus, no! Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know! The way you said it made it sound really serious,” Beckett said, tossing Carter a napkin. “You have beer in your beard.”
“Can we get on with this?” Jax didn’t like unfinished business attached to Joey’s name.
“Yeah, Carter. You’re making Hollywood nervous.”
“I’m thinking we should make her a partner in the stables.”
“No shit,” Jax said succinctly. “I vote yes.”
“Oh, come on. I prepared an argument and everything,” Carter said with a mock pout.
“What’s there to consider? There wouldn’t be a riding program without her, the stables would be a pigsty — no offense to Dixie and Ham — and we wouldn’t have ninety percent of the horses we do,” Jax said, ticking off the points on his fingers.
Beckett’s face remained impassive. “So why now? What brought this on?”
Carter tossed them each a stack of papers. “This is Joey’s proposal for starting a breeding program here in a year or two.”
Smart girl, Jax thought, flipping through the pages. “Why wouldn’t we implement right away?” he asked.
“The upfront investment is pretty significant for an operation our size,” Carter explained. A good stallion would cost—”
Beckett cut him off with a low whistle.
“I see you found the numbers.”
“Holy shit,” Beckett said.
“Yeah, those are conservative projections. The profits, even with cautious estimates, are worth talking about.
Jax and Beckett tore through their packets to the last page. Beckett squinted over the figures. And Jax frowned. “It looks like she’s budgeting low for the stock.”
“She’s doing this with our numbers in mind. We don’t have bottomless bank accounts to throw big money at newly retired racehorses. She’s looking to start slowly and selectively so we don’t go bankrupt.”
“Hypothetically if we doubled or tripled what we’d be willing to invest—”
“Then the profits would increase exponentially,” Carter answered.
Jax grinned as a plan took shape. A plan that would give Joey everything she ever wanted and more. The ultimate apology.
“Well, in the immortal words of Joey Greer, we’d be ‘fucking stupid’ not to move forward with this.”
“Which brings us back to the partnership discussion,” Carter reminded them.
“You already know my vote,” Jax said, raising his glass.
They looked to Beckett who was still pouring over the figures.
“Well?” Carter kicked him under the table.
“If we can get this off the ground, it’s going to mean a tidal wave of cash for the farm,” Beckett said, frowning.
“And?” Jax asked, a hint of belligerence in his tone.
