Page 120 of The Guy Who Stole My Ranch

“Maybe they moved,” Nanette said. “I’ve left plenty of crap in my old apartments.”

Silence descended, and we all stared at the wall of stuff before us.

“You know, this feels a whole lot more like work than it does fun at the moment,” Nanette said.

“Agreed,” Ashley said.

“When did this become unfun?” Jessica asked.

No one answered. I thought about her question. We’d started doing this so we could stay connected. We’d loved the mystery of what might be inside the storage units, and just a year ago, we would already be diving in, looking for the most interesting thing to share with our viewers.

Now we all stared at the mess before us with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

What had happened to the magic of it all?

Had finding boyfriends and getting married ruined the fun?

Or had we all moved forward with our lives and now had less time to spend on it?

If we weren’t feeling it, then our audience certainly wouldn’t be either.

Nanette let out a sigh. “I think every creative hits this point.”

“What point?” I asked.

“The moment when play turns into work, and you’re not quite sure what to do about it.” Nanette had her own YouTube channel where she composed music that she put over scenes in old movies. For instance, she’d take a romance and write a horror soundtrack for it. People loved it. She loved it.

I tilted my head and looked at her. “Do you want to quit your station?”

“Not at all.” She waved a hand. “But there was a time, a few months ago, when I felt bogged down by the administrative side of everything. Each time I made music, all I could think about was all the effort I was going to have to put into editing the video and audio, advertising, what I was going to offer my paying followers, and then knowing the next free moment I had I was going to have to start all over again. For a while, I lost the excitement of it all.”

“How did you fix it?” Ashely asked.

Nanette shrugged her shoulder. “I’m still working on that.”

“Excuse me.” A man’s voice sounded from behind me, and we all jumped and turned to look at him.

It was the same guy who had walked by us and had noticed Ashley. His blond hair was combed to perfection, and he wore a pair of skinny jeans and a graphic T-shirt that hugged his thin frame.

“You’re part of the Curvy Girl Crew, right?”

I blinked. He recognized us?

Jessica stepped forward with a smile. “That’s right.”

“My wife and I love your channel.” He offered Jessica a hand. “You ladies inspired us to do something besides watch TV in our free time.”

Jessica shook his hand. “What do you guys do?”

“We go to estate sales and purchase dressers and cabinets still full of whatever’s inside.” He waved at the literal wall of stuff that stood in front of us. “It’s easier than handling something this big. We actually have a unit full of what we’ve bought just a few rows over. We just started to learn to refurbish old furniture, and we’re going to sell the pieces.”

“That’s great!” Ashley said with a grin. “Do you guys have a YouTube channel or anything?”

“Nah.” The guy looked embarrassed. “We really just do it for fun. It’s been a great bonding experience, and just like you ladies, once in a while, we find something that’s worth enough money that we can go to dinner or maybe on a short vacation.”

A buzz sounded, and the man pulled his phone from his pocket. “Sorry, ladies, I need to run. My wife is going to be so excited to hear that I met you.”

“What’s your name?” Ashley asked.

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