Page 8 of The Match
“I’d still prefer to go now,” I admitted.
“Well, then, Mr. LeBlanc,” Grace cut in, “why don’t you take a walk by yourself and look around while Gaston, Felicia, and I have a chat inside?”
I stared at her. Why was she antagonizing me?
“The suggestion was for all of us,” I emphasized.
“I, for one, prefer to take Gaston’s advice. After all, he’s the one running this place and knows best. Unless you expect us all to simply do your bidding?”
Whoa.
“Is there a problem here?” I asked her.
“You tell me.”
Gaston and Felicia looked at each other. I was beginning to think Marcel hadn’t jumped to conclusions for no reason.
“Shall we go inside, then?” Felicia asked. “I made some sweet tea.”
“Sure,” I said.
Grace gave me a sardonic smile.
What the hell is going on?
Once we entered the foyer, I could see that the house looked better on the inside than the outside.
Gaston gestured to the room. “This is where we live.”
“You only offer camps, right?” I asked.
“You’ve looked on our website!” Felicia said. She sounded thrilled.
“Yes, of course. I asked around a bit before I even called you.”
Next to me, Grace huffed. I looked at her again. Her eyes were icy. How could a woman so beautiful be so stuck up?
Felicia looked at Gaston, who shrugged. Grace was shooting herself in the foot. She was being completely unprofessional. Not my concern, though. In fact, it worked in my favor.
“Having camps makes the most sense. I mean, we’re three hours from New Orleans, where most of our clients come from. No one would come for just an afternoon session,” Gaston explained.
“We do weeklong camps with kids who love, love,loveour horses. And then we also do camps for adults and veterans. We handle those a bit differently, space them out and so on. In here, we have the group therapy sessions.” She pointed to four empty rooms. “It’s also where we have meals for everyone.”
“How many therapists do you have?” I asked.
“We recruit for each camp as needed, though most are repeats. Depending on the size of the camp, between five and ten.”
This ranch was a valuable asset to many people, and the fact that they managed it all on their own was impressive.
Felicia added, “Clients work mostly with the animals, like a working ranch. They’ll brush them, clean the stalls, and of course ride the horses around the perimeter. Physical work with animals is very healing.”
“That is quite an endeavor,” Grace said. “How long have you two been doing this?”
“It’s on the website,” I said. Had she not checked it out at all?
She bristled. I had no idea why I’d put her on the spot like that. It was unlike me, but she’d already ticked me off. Besides, she’d been doing the same to me. I figured she was fair game.
“We’ve been running it for thirty years,” Felicia said, unfazed. “I studied psychotherapy myself, and I wanted to do something different. Not many people were offering this at first. After my parents passed away, I had a small inheritance I could invest. And that was the last time we had any money to pour into this place. That’s why it needs a thorough renovation.”
