“Hey, Jenn?” I lifted my head to see her kneading a dough of… something at the island.
“Yes?” She looked amused. It was likely she’d been doing her thing while I was stuck in my work at the kitchen table.
“If I wanted to have my meeting with….” I did some mental math and continued, “You and Mike, Fern, Hawk, Bodhi, and Crew. How would I go about that?”
She smiled. “Well you could grab the two-way radio and ask when everyone’s free for that sort of thing.”
Fair. I went to where her radio—and a backup—were on the side table and grabbed one.
I decided to go alphabetical to remember everyone. “Ville for BH, CH, FH, HH, and Mike, over.”
One by one everyone but Bodhi checked in.
“Bodhi is likely at Yellow Ribbon,” Jenn told me from the side.
“I have gathered all the information I need for a sit down with you guys. When would you be free? Doesn’t need to be today, but the sooner the better. Over.”
Everyone coordinated like a well-oiled machine, and we had a date for an hour from now, barring Bodhi’s schedule.
“I’ll give him a call and let you know if there’s changes. Over.” I put the radio back where it belonged.
Jenn was done with the dough, so she grabbed her cell phone. “Let me call him.”
“Thanks.”
I looked at my numbers and decided to make one more call, just in case. Like I had before, I lifted my phone at Jenn, then headed for the small home office she had in the back. She’d offered to let me work in the office, but somehow her energy was soothing to a point that I chose to stay in the kitchen after lunch was cleared away.
I called an acquaintance about better cameras than the already high-end ones I was going to suggest. These ones would be extras, put in locations where humans shouldn’t be unless they were working. The cameras had a system that would alert whoever was at the house that there was movement where there normally shouldn’t be. It was overkill, but I knew I at leastneeded to have a quote from the guy who could get them for me to present to the Harringtons, because Wren would want me to do it.
Once I had the numbers, I went back to the kitchen.
“Anything I can do?” I asked Jenn, who had moved on to using some sort of a gadget to cut potatoes for… French fries? I couldn’t remember the last time my dinner had included homemade fries.
“Yes, you can start the coffee and grab the carrot cake from the left side fridge so we can finish it.”
She instructed me through setting up for the meeting, and by the time Mike walked in, everything was ready at the table, and Jenn had enough French fries to feed an army, which… close enough..
When Crew walked in, I found myself immediately asking about Jaina. Payton had tried to be so very brave about it, but I could tell he was genuinely worried and he’d left for his library trip with a little frown.
“She’s going to be fine. Emery was right, it was definitely gas.” He smiled as he headed to wash his hands.
One by one, the rest of them arrived, even a scowly Bodhi. Okay, maybe I was projecting, but I felt like he was scowling at me more than usual.
Fern helped me with pouring everyone coffee, and once everyone had their treats, Mike gestured for me to take his usual spot at the end of the table which I appreciated. I took a sip of my coffee first to center myself.
“So, we all know why I’m here in general, and why all of you are here right now,” I started and looked at each of them.
“The security measures around the ranch,” Crew stated firmly.
“Exactly. So here’s where we’re at: we have the more immediate concern with the wedding and with Wren attending, not that I expect his visit to matter, but….” I gestureddismissively as I grabbed the A3 sized map I’d fashioned together earlier.
“But it is a concern for everyone here. Wren is family. He needs to be safe,” Bodhi piped up.
“Yes, but I doubt there’s going to be any bigger threat to safety even if he’s here,” I clarified as Fern and Hawk moved a couple of the dishes so my map fit in the middle of the table. “His team is very tight-lipped about his trips for obvious reasons, and he’s flying private to get here. The chance of someone finding out where he’s going is miniscule, and he’s not to be in any social media posts about the wedding until well after the fact.”
Bodhi grunted but stayed quiet. I wish he and Wren just got their shit together one way or another.
“So this is not to scale, obviously, but I’ve marked the entrance point in red,” I began my little demonstration.
