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Again, Kate dipped her chin in affirmation.
“Wow.” Joan dropped onto the nearby stool and leaned on the island. “Hunky Craig Baron from your college lit class. Who’d have thunk?”
Joan had hit the nail on the head. Who’d have thunk she’d ever run into Craig Baron again. Actually, who’d have thought she’d ever have a chance to knock Craig on his butt.
“You’re smiling.” Joan paused, a chocolate covered almond halfway to her mouth. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Mixing the ground beef and jar of sauce, she lowered the flame to simmer, then turned to her long-time friend. “You remember those self-defense classes we took last year?”
Joan nodded. “Every black and blue too.”
“Well,” her grin widened, “they work.”
“I don’t understand.” Joan’s face scrunched in confusion.
“He startled me and I sort of took him out.”
The whites of Joan’s eyes circled wide around her dark brown eyes. “You’re kidding?”
“Nope.” She adjusted the lid on the sauce pan to keep it from boiling over. “I might have overreacted a tad, but he caught me by surprise.”
“Well, good on you! I hope we never have to find out if I learned anything.”
The two of them chuckled for no good reason. But Joan was right about one thing, monitoring a nesting owl was not her responsibility. On the other hand, if everyone walked away from a chance to ensure a successful breeding season, there would be a lot more endangered and extinct species in the world. Now all she had to figure out was what was she going to do next, and just how close and personal with Craig Baron did she really want to get? Though if she had to choose between Craig and the owls, Mr. Bossy Baron didn’t stand a chance.
Chapter Four
The last week had been grueling. Even though it wasn’t his preferred method of running the business, he kept tabs on the two productions running with video calls. After only a few more days with every available hour spent scouring options for sale within a fifty-mile radius, it had become clear that nothing appealed to him the way the Martin property did. The owl was simply going to have to find someplace else to roost.
“You have that strained look on your face again. You must be thinking.” Devlin came in and dropped a stack of papers on the desk beside his cousin. “It took a little fancy footwork and fast talking, but once I got the executor on our side, he was able to convince the heirs that waiting wasn’t going to get them a better offer and it was in their best interest to take the money and run. ThoughI’mnot convinced this is the right move for you.”
If he were to tell the truth, Craig wasn’t totally sure that buying the Martin place—owl and all—was the best move he’d ever made, but nothing else fit his plans as well. He’d already reached out to a few of his cousins in the construction business and gotten guesstimates of what something of the scope he had in mind could cost. While it was a great deal of money, the potential for return was hard to walk away from. Especially considering some of the projects he had in the works. But more so, this would be a stellar opportunity to offer the diva what no one else could—a film produced exclusively in the state of Texas. It didn’t hurt any that a blockbuster hit would do wonders to skyrocket his soon-to-be studio to the top of the in-demand filming locations from the get-go.
Sitting across from him, Dev dropped his ankle across his knee and leaned back in the chair. “You worried about the owl?”
“No.”
“You realize if there are eggs in that nest you won’t be able to do construction on the barn.”
“We can start on the other buildings until I can arrange to have it moved.”
Dev’s eyes rounded. “If that woman gets Fish and Game involved, you’ll need an act of God to get the bird’s nest moved.”
“Maybe.” If there was one thing he’d learned in life, it was that the old adagewhere there’s a will, there’s a wayheld a great deal of truth. Hand in hand withit’s not what you know but who you knowand he wasn’t even a little worried about one little owl messing with his plans. Once again his mind kicked over to visions of Kate Donovan. Several times over the last few days, Craig had picked up his phone and debated reaching out to her. It hadn’t been very hard to track down her phone number. Years ago, when someone had tried to frame and blackmail Mitch for an imaginary indiscretion, the Governor had turned to a former navy Seal. Luke ‘Brooklyn’ Chapman had proven to be better at his job than the Governor had bragged and he and Craig had hit it off. To this day they remained friends. After Craig’s call, it had taken Brooklyn all of thirty minutes to track down Kate’s private cell number. Another twenty-four hours and Craig had a complete dossier on her. Not that there was much to report, but he knew when and where she was born, where she got her MBA, who she worked for up until she started her own firm, and that she was considered one of the best environmental consultants in the business for expert court room testimony. Not only was she top of the game for saving animals on land, sea or air, she was pretty darn good at putting away the bad guys destroying animal and human habitats, so to speak. He just hoped it didn’t come down to him being one of the bad guys.
The report also mentioned she’d never been married, though there was no mention of what happened to Mr. College Hunk or anyone in between. All of which had nothing to do with his current real estate plans. Any tinge of doubt he might have had fell by the wayside knowing the deal was moving forward. Bird or no bird, this was the perfect acreage to eventually establish one more Baron enterprise. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
“That works best on a needlepoint pillow.”
“Go ahead and tell that to our grandfather.”
Dev shrugged. “No, thank you.”
It took Craig several minutes to study the contract in front of him before initialing the few requests the family had. Since Texas used promulgated forms, filling in the blanks had made the process easier. The one time he’d been involved in a deal in New York it had driven him nuts that the contracts had to be drawn up by attorneys, and the fees to go with it were high enough to give him permanent heartburn. “We’d better give the title company the go-ahead if we’re going to close in less than a week.”
Dev nodded. “Already have.”
There was no hiding the grin that tugged at his cheeks. His cousin was good at what he did. There wasn’t another realtor on the planet Craig would have trusted to negotiate this deal. The family who had ignored their granddad’s land for decades had an over-inflated opinion of the value and Dev had been just the man for the job of convincing them otherwise. He initialed the corrections to the estate’s name as well as moving the closing date up from Friday to Thursday. “And we’re all done.”
