“Thanks.” I hand her my bowl then turn my attention to Top. “What if each trip was short? We could operate out of Portland and if we planned it right, I think each episode could be done in a single week. The network wants ten episodes per season. You were planning on getting five episodes out of this trip, but to be perfectly honest, I think you’ll only get three. This mountain range isn’t interesting enough for five episodes. The views we get on YouTube are from the crazy situations Ash and I get into. The locations are only a small part of it. Not only is this mountain a bit boring, but we’re just hiking. There’s not much excitement in that. So, let’s say you get three episodes from this trip. That means we need seven more for this season. Doing one trip per month in the PacificNorthwest, we could have seven episodes before November. I wouldn’t mind getting them done before the end of August even. That would put us way ahead of the network’s schedule.”
Rhonda hands me my bowl, full to the top. “That would be incredible. And I haven’t even shown you guys half of what’s out there. You could do an episode at the coast, one in the eastern Oregon desert. The Deschutes River would be good. And wait until you see Horseshoe Ridge.”
Ash gets up to refill his own bowl. “When we were in Sweetbriar, I was looking at the Horseshoe Ridge area online. It’s incredible.”
“I took a hard look at different areas too,” I point out. “Using Google Earth, I made a list of places I wanted to visit. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about the show, but looking back, they’re perfect with everything you could ask for.”
Top is staring into the flames. “It would keep costs down and we would have a chance at staying on schedule.” He hesitates. “But they’ll never go for it. You don’t know them like I do. They’re convinced that they need exotic locations like places in Africa or Mongolia. I don’t think they would even consider what you’re proposing.”
I’m not the least bit discouraged. There’s too much riding on this. “We can be done here in a week. The footage we just gave you is probably good enough to pack up now, but we want the network to be happy, so let’s give it another five days. Ash and I will pull out all the stops and get some more footage everyone will like.”
Top glances over at Rhonda. She’s sitting on her chair with a bowl of jambalaya she’s hardly touched and gives him a subtle nod. I have no idea what that’s about, but it seems to have been the push that Top needed. “Five days would begood,” he says. “As long as the footage is great, the network will be thrilled if we can finish early. But what does this have to do with Elsie going to Sweetbriar Hollow?”
I finish the last bite of my jambalaya and set the bowl at my feet. “Before this trip, Ash and I told our sister about Oregon and how much we liked it there. We even suggested moving her entire operation to Portland. If she did, it would be easy for Ash and me to move to Sweetbriar. You’d have to see it to understand the appeal, but we both fell in love with the place.”
“I guess that makes sense, but I’m still not tracking,” Top admits. “I thought this was about the show.”
“It has everything to do with the show,” Rhonda blurts excitedly. “It sounds like Elsie might be coming to see everything for herself and that would mean she’s open to the idea of moving her company. If she likes Riggs’s new idea for the show, and she’s already there, she can look for a location for her business.”
“Exactly,” I tell her. “Assuming she’s on board, she can scout out a location to run the show from. We already have a pretty good studio for our YouTube channel, and I’m sure she’d be willing to upgrade it to the network’s standards. That way, we could run the entire operation from there.” I turn to Rhonda. “Can I ask a favor?”
She’s already nodding. “I won’t say a word to Maddie, I promise. Besides, if she gets her hopes up, and this doesn’t work out—”
“It would kill her. Trust me, I know.” I turn back to Top. “You know the people in LA. What areour chances?”
“Honestly? Slim. They can be very risk-averse, and to them, any type of change carries a lot of risk. It’s just the way they’re wired.”
I thought he might say something like that, but only because it’s true. “Get us a meeting with them so we can present the idea, then they can decide.”
He laughs. “To do that, we only need to make one phone call.”
I’m not sure what he means. I doubt he has access to the upper echelons at National Discovery. If he did, he would have been able to voice his frustrations about the people he’s been forced to work with and how they keep quitting. But so far, he hasn’t been able to get a single complaint heard. “One phone call to who?”
A wry grin tugs at the corner of his mouth. “Who else? If anyone can get us a meeting, it’s Elsie.”
Ash chuckles. “He’s not wrong.”
“Okay, then let’s call her.”
I put my satellite phone on speaker and place the call. Elsie listens to everything, then starts talking about the kind of presentation we’ll need. She’s on board one hundred percent. “I think we have a coin-toss chance of convincing them,” she tells us. “But we’ll give it our best shot. Let’s talk as soon as you get back. In the meantime, I’ll have my people get started on the details.”
“That went well,” Ash says.
I’m glad she seems to want this as much as we do. Still, I need to try to keep my expectations in check because if it doesn’t work, it’ll be devastating. But how do I not get my hopes up? I pick up my bowl, and when I look up, I don’t seeRhonda anywhere.
I don’t know where she ran off to, but it’s just us men, and Top looks like he’s about to confess to a murder or something with the way he’s suddenly fidgeting. After an awkward moment of silence, he clears his throat as his gaze lifts to Ash with, “Um, I was wondering—”
Ash snorts. “She’s all yours, buddy.”
Top hesitates, then seems to gather his courage. “Nothing has happened between us. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
My brother leans back, relaxed, with a friendly curl to his lip. “I appreciate that, but seriously, I’m okay with whatever happens. I think she and I will always be friends, but that’s all we can be. If it works out between you two, I’ll be the first to congratulate you.”
I can tell this is going to get more awkward the longer we sit here, so I throw my brother a lifeline. “Let’s get resupplied and hit the trail. I have some ideas to run by you.”
“Yeah,” Ash says. “We better get going.”
CHAPTER 48
