Boots Up (Port Ranch Book #1)

Chapter 39

BRIELLE

There is so much going on all over the ranch that I’m not sure any of us have had more than a few seconds to take a deep breath. To start, we’re in the middle of wedding season which means we’re back to a wedding (or two) every week. Jenn is really enjoying having Bev here to help plan. After doing so well at the retirement party, she’s started to give her more and more chances to work on her skills.

Of course, it is a little bittersweet to see my baby sister grow into an event planner that is kicking ass and taking names. In a few short months, she’ll be graduating and then heading off to Chicago. Like a little bird leaving the coop. Because of that, we’re all trying to spend as much time with her as we can.

In addition to all the weddings, the construction has started on the pavilion, MY little project and they are about halfway through at this point. Oliver was right that his guys move quickly. I go down a few times a week to take a look at the progress and every time they’ve done more than they did the time before. At the last check-in, he said that it should be completed by the end of April, just in time for us to begin to advertise it for summer weddings.

“Hey, are you ready to go?” Mitch asked as he walked out of the bathroom and I walked in the door.

“Give me like three minutes so I can change my shirt.”

“You look fine just like that.”

“I know, but I was sweating up a storm today, so just..yeah just give me a second.”

I change into a clean blouse and reapply my deodorant. In the bathroom, I brush my hair and pull it up into a high ponytail, apply a couple of squirts of body spray, and lotion up my hands.

“Okay, I’m ready!”

Mitch slides his arm around my waist and we head out to the Gator that is parked in front of our place. We make our way down to the site where our house is going to be and see our contractor and designer there waiting for us.

Mitch shakes his hand first, “Hi, sorry it took so long, we’re so busy around here during the week.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” he laughed, “I almost caught a traffic jam driving down here.”

“Can you believe weekends are even worse?” I added.

“I believe it. This place is gorgeous, I’m sure you’re busy year-round.”

“We are and we love it,” I respond as I squeeze Mitch’s hand.

“Hopefully, the love continues,” he motions behind him to the house. “I know it doesn’t look like much, but we’ve got all the framing for the foundation up and tomorrow the cement truck will be here. Before we do that we just want to review our final plans with you since once we put the concrete down we can’t make any changes.”

“For sure!” I excitedly reply.

“We can’t wait to see what you’ve got.”

Michael, the designer, unrolls the final copy of the blueprints. They are similar to what Mitch had given to me as my Christmas gift, just a few tweaks here and there. A couple of things they weren’t able to do, like a walkout from the basement. Most of that had to do with the final location we decided on.

Michael points out a few locations on the blueprints. “So this is where the entry will be. We added the full wrap-around porch as you asked for. Since we can’t do the walk-out from the basement like you wanted, the wrap-around is going to look great.”