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“Saylor already gave us the green light when she came to visit. Plus, you know that Thunder is going to make sure that all the babies stay calm, and Joan is just… Joan,” I say, moving to scratch my favorite mare’s chin. Joan, ever the lover, whickers and rests her head on my shoulder.
Clint frowns. He looks over at Thunder, who tosses her head and looks at him with rage in her very soul. “You know, I thought you and I had an agreement,” he says to her. In response, Thunder flicks her ears back and bares her teeth.
I sigh. “Thunder is no man’s peace, Clint. No woman’s, either.”
Clint grumbles, messing with the horse tack on the wall.
“Hey, were we putting all these bales out for people to sit on?” Landon calls from the barn.
I head out. “Yes, and then the quilts go over them. How’s Shane doing with the stage?”
We both peer out at where the stage is being set up.
In the last year, with Kendall’s help, we’ve decided to do something new. We’re going to host a concert.
The ranch is going to make actual money on this. It’s an experimental use of the land, one that I don’t love, but the idea came to me when Clint bought me tickets to the Big Sky Festival, a music festival that takes place in Whitefish.
They were expensive. Like, insanely expensive.
The festival wasn’t all that. The bands were great, but I spent most of my time looking around, realizing one thing. We could do that exact same thing.
So, after we came home, I got to planning. I don’t think we’re quite ready to host a festival yet, but I knew we could do a concert. And I just happened to know the perfect artist to headline.
Surveying the preparations, I feel a little swell of satisfaction. The stage looks good. I planted a ground cover early in the spring that has covered every inch of the field, which can hold about five thousand people.
The risk here is going to be the land. Having that volume of people is going to tear up the land itself… Unless we do our best to mitigate it.
After the festival, I looked into ways to keep land from getting shredded during outdoor events. Short of pouring concrete and making it into an outdoor amphitheater, the ground cover was my next best bet. I even had Juniper come out to help me do some planning, and Piper chipped in with the social media stuff. With all they helped me with, I think this will work.
Hopefully, it will work.
The hay bales are out for seating. I’m draping quilts across them to keep people from sitting on the scratchy surface or having allergic reactions to the hay if they don’t know they’re allergic yet. It’s taking forever, but…
Shane is directing the event company, who came out to set up the stage yesterday. He seems to enjoy it, bossing them around and fiddling with all the technology.
“Nora!” my dad calls. I turn, looking for him. He’s waving at me from the driveway. “Kendall’s here!” he yells.
I dash over, a smile plastered on my face. “There she is!” I squeal.
Her driver opens the door to her Yukon, and Kendall gets out and smiles. “Hey, girl.”
I stop for a second.
My best friend is alive with energy. She’s the life of the party. Heck, most of the time, she’s the one who starts the party.
Tonight, though, she seems… muted. Different, somehow.
“You okay?” I say.
Kendall blinks, like I’ve asked her something deeper than just a routine question. She looks up at me, and I can see actual bags under her eyes. I don’t think I’ve seen Kendall look this tired… ever.
“I’m fine,” she says softly. Her eyes dart to her driver, then back to me. “Where are we doing makeup and stuff?”
“In the new barn,” I answer.
When the guys helped me rebuild the barn, they spared no expense. I protested, because this is the barn for me and my ranch, but Shane explained that it was a gift. “You refuse to take jewelry, dresses, or new horses,” he rumbled. “So we’re going to buy you a goddamn barn.”
I can’t turn down gifts more than once. The barn stayed.
