Page 35 of Heating Up (Nugget)
“You’ve got to be making this up.”
“I swear on my real estate license. When we get back, you can read all about it in theNugget Tribune.”
“Did he kill the rustler here?”
Dana shook her head. “Did you see the ranch we passed, the one with the big sign that said, ‘Lucky Rodriguez’s Cowboy Camp’? It happened there. But it was an anomaly. Nugget is about as safe as you can get.” Dana didn’t want Gia thinking the town was a hotbed of crime.
Gia got up, walked down the trail to rinse her hands in the river, and stared out at the endless pastures and the mountains beyond. “It’s a spectacular place. Are those his cattle?”
“Ray had to sell his herd to help pay for his defense. The land’s leased to another rancher who runs his cattle here, at least until Ray sells the ranch.”
“It’s for sale?”
When Dana nodded, Gia asked, “Can we make an appointment to look at it . . . officially?”
“Yes, I’m the listing agent. But Gia, it’s over a thousand acres, and the asking price is more than your four-million-dollar Manhattan penthouse.”
Gia’s eyes grew large. “How much more?”
“Close to eleven.” Dana knew that number was negotiable. If Ray’s defense lawyers didn’t get paid soon, they’d turn his case over to the public defender or a court-appointed attorney and Ray wanted the dream team. But as the listing agent, it would be unethical for her to tell Gia how desperate the seller was. “It’s one of the largest and oldest cattle ranches in Northern California. The only one in the county larger is Clay McCreedy’s spread, which butts up to this property.”
“Still,” Gia said. “Eleven million seems rather exorbitant.”
“If you saw what kind of prime real estate we’re talking about here you’d understand why.” That was the truth, not Dana doing a sales job.
“Okay, show me.”
“Let’s go. It’ll give me an opportunity to finally see what you do and don’t like.” Dana laughed because there was nothing not to like about the Rosser Ranch. “Let’s drive up to the house and then I’ll take you through some of the stables.”
“I’m good to go.” Gia scrunched up her trash, packed it in one of the burger sacks, and carried it back to the car with her.
When they pulled through the cobblestone circular driveway in front of the house, Gia’s mouth fell open.
“This is what I’m talking about,” Dana said. “It’s eight bedrooms, all with en-suite baths, a billiards room, a wine cellar, a solarium, and a gourmet kitchen. There are guest quarters over the five-car garage, bunkhouses for the staff near the stables.”
Gia unbuckled her seat belt and was out of the car before Dana could say more. She liked this enthusiastic side of Gia much more than the poker-faced Gia. Punching in the code to the lockbox, a key dropped out and Dana opened the door. Mrs. Rosser was in Colorado with her daughter, Raylene, indefinitely, so the house was vacant.
“The furnishings are included in the price,” Dana said. “Or you could negotiate to buy the place without them.”
Gia wandered through the grand foyer into the great room. “A lot of animal heads. Not really my thing.”
“Ray is a big-game hunter.”
“Yeah, apparently human too,” Gia said, and Dana quickly covered her mouth to keep from laughing. “Regardless of the heads, the place is stunning.”
Over the next hour they went from room to room. The property was too big to see all of it by car, but Dana showed Gia the pool and cabana, the stables, the barns, the horse paddocks, and the lily pond. The more Gia saw, the more her eyes lit up.
“Is the land dividable?” she asked.
“It’s a little complicated. Based on the trust written up by Ray’s grandfather, no Rosser can subdivide the property. It was his way of keeping his heirs from developing the land or fighting over pieces of it after he died. However, it’s zoned agricultural, with a forty-acre minimum.”
“I don’t get it.”
“It means that if you bought the land, you could divide it. However, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to turn the land into a housing division or a shopping center.”
“But I can use it for commercial use as long as the use is somehow agricultural?”
“For the most part. It doesn’t necessarily mean you could put a processing plant on the property, or a slaughterhouse. But some of these ranches—Lucky’s, for example—goes under the header of agritourism, which means any kind of tourism that promotes agriculture.”
