Page 28 of Texas Made
“She’s your baby.”
He shrugged and gave a half smile. “I guess that’s as good a way to describe her as any.”
“You’re a big softie, Marshall Walker.”
He laughed. “Guilty. Especially over horses and dogs.” Snowdrop, he saw, was contentedly munching on hay, obviously unconcerned about her injury. “Don’t feel like you have to stay. I’ll call you after Jason gets through with her.”
“Actually, I came down to tell you something.”
“Something good or something bad?” The last thing he needed was more bad news.
“Neither one. Just something necessary.”
Chapter Eleven
“I’m going todrive up to Dallas tomorrow,” Jaclyn told Marshall. “There are some problems I need to take care of.”
“You’re coming back?”
“Of course I’m coming back. My condo still isn’t ready.”
“Okay. How long will you be gone?”
“Hopefully I’ll be back Sunday evening but it’s possible I’ll have to stay through Monday and come back either late Monday or on Tuesday. I’ll just have to see how messed up things are when I get there.” And hope she was overreacting, worrying about what she’d find when she got there.
“What’s going on?”
She sighed. Maybe talking about it with someone who could be more objective would help. “You know I’ve been working remotely while I’m here.”
“Yeah. Isn’t that working out?”
“It is and it isn’t. I left Rachel, my COO, in charge of things that needed to be handled immediately and of course, day-to-day operations. But I found out this afternoon that she fired one of our main suppliers and hired another. Someone I’ve never heard of. Without consulting me.”
“And you’re not happy about it.”
“It’s a decision that was mine to make. Now we’re stuck with this new supplier and I have no idea if they’re dependable or not.”
“Do you really think she’d hire someone she hadn’t vetted at all?”
She lifted a shoulder. “No, but I wish she’d waited until she talked to me. She called last night and couldn’t get hold of me.” After she’d turned off her phone so she and Marshall wouldn’t be interrupted. It had been Damaris’s night to check on the horses.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I was the one who turned off my phone. You didn’t ask me to.”
“No, but I still feel badly about it. Why did Rachel fire the first supplier? Did she have a good reason?”
Reluctantly, Jaclyn admitted, “It sounded like it. They haven’t been sending the shipments on time and when she called the manager on it, he was a jerk. Then she talked to the owner, who basically told her to like it or lump it. Which, naturally, pissed her off to no end, so she fired him. But she wasn’t sorry. In fact, she seemed excited to give this new supplier a try.” She was trying not to be pissed but she was failing at it. “Am I wrong? Should I not be so annoyed?”
He patted Snowdrop’s neck before turning and looking at her. He gave another half smile. “You’re asking the wrong person. Most of the major decisions we make at the ranch involve at least two of us, if not three or four. It was mostly Damaris and me at first but Chase has always had a say and worked on the ranch whenever he was here. And now that he’s raising bucking horses obviously, he’s more involved than when he mostly just contributed money.” He rubbed his chin and added, “Gabe has a say, too. About the ranch, but not the horse business.”
“But you’re all partners in the ranch, aren’t you? And you, Damaris and Chase are partners in everything, horses and ranch, right?”
“Yes. Which is why I don’t know how to advise you. But I’ll try,” he said with a grin. “You can take it or leave it. Remember, you get what you pay for. I’d try to work it out with your COO. Maybe she needs more responsibility. You can’t expect to be in on every decision no matter how small when you run a big company, can you? Wouldn’t that drive you crazy?”
Yes, but she was a control freak, apparently. “You think I need to loosen the reins.”
“Doesn’t matter what I think. Do you think you need to?” He looked to the open barn doorway. “That must be Jason. I heard his truck pull up.”
