Page 19 of Loved By Tandy

“I deal with an agency most of the time. Occasionally, I’ll ask, but not often anymore.”

“I was considerate and kept my shirt on while working the job at your house, but let me know if you want me to work without a shirt at the ranch.” I drop the menu and wink at her.

She kicks me under the table. “You can keep your rivels of wisdom protected from the sun.”

After telling the waitress what we want, I grab my pencil again. “So this is what I was thinking for the layout of the cabins. Obviously, I’ll get real plans drawn up, but what do you think of something like this?” I sketch a floor plan for a one-bedroom cabin.

Tandy leans over the table, cocking her head. Then she huffs and slides out of the booth. “Move over.”

I scoot toward the wall. “This is cozy.”

“I want the guest cabins to share a wall. Specifically, the bedrooms need to share a wall. That’s important.” She takes the pencil out of my hand and modifies the sketch. “I’m thinking something more like this. Each building will have two sides, two cabins.”

“How many of these buildings will be on the ranch?”

“Five maybe. I haven’t decided. At the beginning, I’ll only have one couple at a time, so to start, we don’t need more thanone of them. I know they take a while to build, and I don’t want to delay the opening. We only need one double cabin to start.”

“I have an idea about speeding up the building process.” I search up pictures on my phone to be able to show her examples of what I’m thinking.

“I’m listening.” She leans closer to me, trying to see my screen.

“The wrangler cabin is traditional construction. And I’m guessing you want the same for your house. But what if the cabins and other buildings were Quonset huts? Like this. Curved metal on the outside with the inside finished off like any other space. The ceilings are curved. That’s the biggest difference seen on the inside.”

Nodding, she takes my phone and scrolls through pictures. “Look at this one. They have an open breezeway connecting two of them.”

“You could have a kitchen on one side and the rec room with games and tables across the breezeway.”

“And I could put in a fireplace at one end and have a cozy seating area. Maybe just a love seat, which forces people to sit together.”

“Right. What do you think? It would definitely help you open earlier.”

“Love it. Let’s go that route. I’m so excited.” She runs a finger over the sketch of the property. “Over here by the new horse barn, we’ll need another barn-type thing for cattle stuff, right? And we’ll need a chicken coop. Should the goats and sheep share a barn with the horses?”

“Are you matching people or starting a petting zoo?”

She elbows my rib cage. “People like watching sheep and goats. They’re funny. It’s a ranch. I want it to feel like one, with cows and cowboys.”

“And who, pray tell, is going to take care of all your ranch animals? Your new young friend?”

“Colt will handle the horses. I need to find a ranch foreman to deal with the rest. And I have an idea, but I don’t want Beau to hate me.”

“Your sister’s kid?”

She nods. “Dallas. He’ll hate the idea of matchmaking, but I bet he’d love to run a ranch. He’d be good at it.”

“I’m sure Beau will understand. Dallas is family.”

“We’ll see. But don’t breathe a word about that. Please.”

I tap my lips. “I’ll keep your secret.”

When the waitress brings our food to the table, Tandy slides the notebook out of the way, but she doesn’t go back to the other side. And I’m not complaining.

CHAPTER 9

TANDY

Idump my fresh-out-of-the-dryer clothes, which are still warm, onto the couch, then rub my temples. My head feels like it’s about to explode. But I need to get my undergarments folded and put away because Colt will be here any minute. And I have a feeling that if he sees lacy things, he’ll change his mind about staying here. I’m guessing that even if my undies weren’t lacy, he’d still make up an excuse and stay elsewhere.

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