"I'm going to change that misconception," stated Ally. "Just you watch."
"Ally, Ally, Ally." Kat shook her head. "Now back to the business, what do you have planned?"
"Oh, Kat, I thought about this last night. What have you done for marketing? How are you getting business? What's your plan?" Ally rattled off the questions.
"I don't have a plan," said Kat confused. "It all started with the other wives. If their families came down to stay, they called me to cook for them. I don't charge them that much, but more and more people are learning about me."
"What about birthday parties?" Again, Ally began making notes.
"Well, no. I haven't done any of those." Kat looked guilty.
"Why don't we do this," suggested Ally gently. "Let's take inventory of where we want to go with this. What can we do? What do we need to do what we want? What markets do we want to target?"
"This sounds like too much work." Kat looked discouraged. "All I wanted to do is cook for people."
"You can do that. Are you willing to go full-time or do you just want to do this part-time?" Ally gently prodded Kat.
"Let's shoot for full time. Tom isn't due back for another nine months and the money is nice."
"Tell you what; I'll put together a plan and I'll show it to you so you can at least have a base line. The most important thing to do right now is to advertise, print out some brochures and business cards. It would be a great idea to join the local Chamber of Commerce and introduce the business to them. We could even start by catering a small luncheon or breakfast for their meeting. We need to set prices, too. You have to at least cover the cost of the food as well as your time and effort, but be reasonable. Kat, there's so much to do. I can't wait to get started."
"When did you get so smart?" Kat looked at her younger sister in appreciation.
"It's not the years, it's the mileage," said Ally, shaking her head and laughing.
Kat left around three and Ally had so much on her mind she couldn't think straight. With the business in the forefront, Ally had to accomplish all the chores that come along with moving like, calling the security companies, taking her car in for a state inspection, get a new drivers license and register Tank. As a matter of fact, she didn't even know what day garbage pickup occurred and would they take her boxes? All of these mundane chores she wouldn't be facing if she still lived in New York. Welcome to her new life. She sighed and decided to take advantage of the warm, sunny weather. Ally walked by the pool and stuck her hand in the water. The water felt warm to the touch and then Ally remembered the brochure's description boasting of a heated pool. She could go skinny dipping at night if she wanted to; then maybe not. Not with Caleb being able to look over her fence at anytime. She glanced into the pasture to find an older, but still regal looking horse staring at her. As the animal moved closer, Ally noticed it was a mare.
"My, aren't you a pretty lady?" asked Ally as she walked cautiously to the fence. The mare whinnied to her as Ally approached. She touched the muzzle of the mare. The mare’s large eyes large reminded Ally of warm hot chocolate. Her mane and tail were black and her coat shimmered of a beautiful chestnut brown. She let Ally stroke her and muzzled Ally's hand looking for something to eat. "Your dad would be upset if I gave you anything, especially after what happened today." The mare shook her head up and down and ambled away, leaving Ally behind. Ally turned on her heel to walk away when two cattle came to the fence to stare at her.
"Who are you?" Ally stared at the cattle, amazed at how big they looked up close. Those horns looked like they could do some major damage. The cattle gazed at Ally while munching on some hay, as if deciding what to do with her. They then reached up and started eating the leaves off the tree in Ally's back yard. "I don't know if you're supposed to do that," she warned. A good question for Caleb, since technically the tree stood on her property. Caleb. Ally tried looking for his house, but couldn't see it from here, being well hidden by the trees. Regretfully, she went inside.
****
"Mission statement," typed Ally sitting at her laptop. "To provide high quality food and exceptional service at reasonable prices." She sighed and thought some more. "I'll let Kat name the company. I don't care what it's called. Okay, then. Services provided; breakfasts, lunches, dinners and parties. Selection of food? Recipes? I don't know what Kat makes." Ally took a yellow sticky and jotted down her question. "Okay next, brochures and business cards. Is there a local company to make some up for us?" Another yellow sticky went on the page. "Where does Kat shop?" Ally stuck yet another yellow sticky on the report. "Equipment? Gas allowance? Help?" Ally sighed. She poured herself a glass of wine and Tank followed her faithfully. She looked at the clock, surprised at the late hour. Ally yawned because of lack of sleep due to that damned rooster. He better not do that crow thing again. She needed her sleep, because of her modeling contract. No dark circles underneath her eyes; Henri would have a fit. Tank barked at her, which startled Ally.
"What boy? Gosh, I haven't fed you or me." Ally shuffled to the pantry and prepared Tank's dinner. She opened the fridge to see what her choice of food for dinner. Left over pizza? No, she'd bloat up from that. She decided on a veggie omelet with wheat bread. She pulled out the pans to prepare dinner and Tank let her know he had to go out. Ally turned on the outside lights in the back and let him out. Tank ran and did his business and barked to come in. While the door opened, she heard voices in the distance which sounded like kids yelling. Had those kids come back again? She left the lights on and locked the door. A trickle of fear went down her spine. She went to her bedroom and retrieved her pistol in case she needed it. She debated whether or not she should call Caleb. No, she could handle this. Feeling stronger, she went outside and fired three shots up in the air to scare anyone away. Minutes passed and her cell phone rang.
"Ally, what the hell is going on?" barked Caleb. "Why did you shoot off your piece?"
"Those kids are back, Caleb. I wanted to scare them away. Where are you that you could hear the shots?"
"Right behind your house because I heard those kids, too, and the police are on their way. Jeb's got his gun trained on them."
"Figures." Ally felt foolish.
"Just stay put. I'll stop by when they're done here."
"No, it's okay, really. I've bothered you enough."
"Have a drink waiting for me when I get there."
Ally prepared Caleb's drink and then ducked inside the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and figured she at least looked presentable in her jeans and a sweater. Ally ran a comb through her tangled mess of blond curls and went back into the kitchen to wait for Caleb..
When Ally answered the door, the sight of Caleb struck her through the heart. He made her warm and tingly and he hadn't really touched her. Ally had to constantly remind herself this man would not break her vow of celibacy. She mentally shook her head and greeted Caleb with a smile. "Hey."
"Hey, you," Caleb smiled lazily at Ally. "It sure is exciting having you for a neighbor. I thought you couldn't top yesterday, but you did."
"As I said, my life is never boring," said Ally, shaking her head. "What happened?" She handed him his drink and they sat down at the kitchen table. Tank rested his head on Caleb's feet, as if he belonged there.
"Five boys from the next town over have been trespassing on my property for the last month. Jeb said he's been seeing beer cans in the fields and thought someone had been dumping their trash. Still don't know what triggered them to poison the cattle, but they're denying it. The good news is they're in custody, so they won't be bothering us for a while."
"What about your animals?"
"Had to put at least eight of them down." Caleb looked sick and Ally felt sorry for him.
"Now, the police could charge you for shooting off your gun, but I talked them out of it."
"Why? I'm only trying to protect myself." Ally answered.
"Just be more careful in the future." Caleb stared at Ally and Ally didn't break the eye contact. "Besides this and firing random shots, what else did you do today?"
"My day went downhill from there," laughed Ally. "You see, I'm trying to help Kat with her catering business. She's a great cook, but when it comes to business, she gets kind of lost. So, I tried to organize things for her and I ended up with more questions than answers." Ally showed Caleb her attempt.
"What do you know about running a business?" asked Caleb, somewhat surprised at Ally's determination.
"I'm a model. I know what goes on," said Ally defensively. Caleb seemed to have a second sense zeroing in on her insecurities.
"Didn't you have an agent?"
"Yes, but I still understand about negotiations. The only thing I would need help with is taxes and finances. I want to join the Chamber of Commerce in order to get started. I want to cater a breakfast or lunch for them once we get up and running."
"You're one ambitious person." He smiled at Ally's enthusiasm. "You know who the president of the Chamber of Commerce is?" Caleb sat up straight and cleared his throat as if to make a speech.
"You're the president?" Ally paled.. Would he still help her?
"We have special help for start-up businesses. You need to attend one of our seminars."
"Sure." Ally shrugged her shoulders.
"It's on our website." Caleb poured another drink. "What else?" He looked at Ally, knowing something else bothered her.
"Um. Trash pickup?" Ally looked at the bottle of whiskey, which had been full when she moved down here. Only a half remained.
"City Hall is right down here on Main Street. They'll have all of that information. Do you know about your sprinkler system?"
"I have a sprinkler system?" Ally laughed. "I probably have this 'deer in the headlights' look on my face. No. I don't even know where it's at. I know where the fuse box is."
"Here in Texas, you need to keep the foundation of your house wet or else it will crack. There are city ordinances where you can only run it at certain times. Y'all need to have someone come out and check all the sprinkler heads to make sure they're working. Let's see if we can find it." Caleb stood up. "Are you coming?" Caleb felt sorry for Ally in a way. She had just jumped into this move without even thinking. How could she survive? He watched as all five foot nine of her stood next to him. She smelled good enough to eat and those legs; Caleb tried hard to suppress an inward groan. Also, not to mention those luscious lips and wary blue eyes. X-rated thoughts kept crossing his mind and he had to concentrate not to act upon them. Ally seemed to cast a spell around him and he didn't want to be roped in. Caleb had promised himself not to come over to see her and now look where he had landed.
"Here it is." They had reached the garage and Caleb wandered over to a gray box on the wall. "Let's see what it's set on." He flipped open the lid and peered into the digital display. "It’s like a clock," he explained. "Here's where you set the time and day when you want the water to go off. Also, you can set how long it will go for. Right now, it's set for Monday, Wednesday and Friday to go off at five in the morning. It will run for ten minutes."