Having made that promise, I could only pray Chef Damon wouldn’t choose that night to have a relapse. When he was sober, he produced amazing meals. Unfortunately, the man liked his wine, and the grapes made him unpredictable.
I parked the truck outside our main office, a small log cabin with a tiny front porch and a welcome sign on the door.
“I’ll check you in here,” I said. “Then my right-hand man Tyler can take you and your bags to your cabin. We don’t have roads for our trucks all throughout the guest areas because you wouldn’t want to hear us driving around when you’re trying to rest and relax. Instead, we use golf carts to deliver things to the cabins and cottages.”
We had twelve guest cabins of varying sizes and layouts, as well as two large houses, the Cottonwood Cottage and the Bluebell Cottage, that extended families or groups of friends could occupy. Unfortunately, we hadn’t rented out the cottages in a while, but a large party was arriving in about three weeks to rent the entire ranch.
As we stood on the office’s porch, I gestured toward the nearby buildings.
“That’s the dining room over yonder.” I shamefully peppered my speech with words likehowdyandyonderwhen I was with guests to add to their Western experience. “And that’s the Round Room where we have events like dancing and storytelling.”
“And it’s actually round,” she said. “What a pretty wrap-around porch.”
“Yeah, that’s probably my favorite place on the property. In case you need to find me, you can look here in the office first, and if it’s empty, pick up one of the walkie talkies and give me a shout.”
“So the other office staff won’t be here?” She looked completely perplexed that there would be no one else to answer phones and greet guests, and I wasn’t about to inform her why that was the situation.
“Sometimes another staff member is in the office, but we’re often out on the property somewhere, helping guests or delivering things. You can also try my cell phone, but the walkies work better out here.”
“Okay.”
She was probably used to calling downstairs for room service and buckets of ice at all hours of the day and night. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money for full-time office staff or overnight employees to cater to our guests’ midnight whims. I could only hope that the scenery and activities at the ranch would be enough to keep her happy. Those were the reasons people came here, not the premium service, although guests never seemed to mind. What we lacked in sparkle and shine, we made up for with warmth and personality.
We went inside the office so I could check her in using an archaic laptop whose processing speed was so slow it would have been faster to power it with a hamster on a wheel. As we waited for my screen to load, she looked at me warily.
“You do have WiFi, right?”
Well, crap.
“We do. It’s not the strongest signal in the world, but we do have it. The office has the best connection, so if you need to do work while you’re here, I’m happy to let you use my space.” I pointed behind me. “I have a small private office back there.”
“That’s kind of you.” She pulled off her sunglasses, and I got my first look at her eyes. Big brown peepers with thick, long lashes. Doe eyes, my mother would have called them. I stared into them, getting lost in their mahogany depths, until she spoke again. “Is it possible to get a glass of water?”
“Of course! Feel free to get a drink of your choice.” I gestured over to the beverage station in the corner of the office, which was basically a water cooler and a machine that made hot drinks. When I replaced my parents’ ancient Norelco automatic drip coffee maker, I thought I’d made a serious upgrade. Now, the single-serve beverage maker and basket of plastic pods that went with it, looked terribly low budget.
She crossed the room to take a closer look. “Ooh, what flavors of tea do you have?” Her face fell as she picked through our selection. “Actually, I think I’m okay right now.”
“What’s wrong?”
She smiled politely. “It’s fine. I don’t drink caffeine this late in the day and there’s nothing decaf.”
Well, crap on a cracker. “I can definitely order some. What do you like?”
“Decaf green tea is my favorite,” she said. “But I don’t want to put you to any trouble.” She paused and licked her lips. “I do enjoy matcha lattes with oat milk in the morning. Do you have a coffee bar with a barista somewhere at the ranch?”
I felt my eyes widen. “A barista? Uh, no, ma’am.” I still didn’t understand how one squeezed milk from an oat or a nut, but I knew better than to admit that. “I’ll do my best to get some matcha though, and I believe we have non-dairy milk in the kitchen.”
The screen door to the office swung open with a loud creak.
“Hey, boss.” Tyler sauntered into the office with our wrangler Walt close behind him. I’d radioed Tyler about taking the new guest to her cabin, but I didn’t know why Walt was there, too. My first thought was that there was bad news.
“Everything okay?” I asked Walt.
“Yep.” He leaned against the doorframe, kicking the heel of one boot in front of the toe of the other. “Came to tell you Sam got Doug sorted out. He gave him an injection for the swelling and said he should be fine in a day or two.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. My brother Sam took care of the ranch horses free of charge, and if he said Doug would be okay, I believed him.
“Excellent news. Please let me introduce our guest Lauren Wagonblast from New York.”
