The Delivery of Decor (Shiloh Ridge Ranch in Three Rivers #7) - Liz Isaacson Page 0,114

houses to a well. It sat in the shade of one of their bigger barns, and Dot almost felt like she’d entered a fairy land. “Oh, this is beautiful back here.”

“I want to fix it up,” Cactus said. “As a surprise for Ward. He loves a good sit-down by the fire, with that guitar of his in his lap. We’ve talked about it, and we’re thinking benches, decorative rock, maybe making this well a fountain….”

She approached the well, her eyes searching the landscape and surrounding area. “You could put picnic tables here, and have a really nice lunch area.” She reached the cobbled well. “Is this not functional?”

“Not anymore,” Cactus said. “But we like to keep the charm of the ranch, obviously. You’ve seen True Blue. We were thinking with this, we could do the same thing. Keep the old, but make it new.”

“It’s amazing,” Dot said, peering down into the well. It had been blocked off, which was smart, considering they wouldn’t want a child or an animal falling down inside it. “How much room do you want to take up?”

“Bishop mentioned picnic tables,” he said. “Like an outdoor eating area. Let me call him.” Cactus got busy doing that, and while he did, Dot paced off the area she could see in her mind’s eye.

She made a few notes on her phone and said, “We could easily fit five or six picnic tables here.” She indicated the large trees on the other side of the small clearing. “The trees are nice for morning shade, and the barn provides afternoon and evening shade.”

“Hey,” Bishop said, approaching from the east. “Heya, Dot.” He moved right over to her and hugged her. “What do you think?”

She thought she was surprised by his embrace, but she covered over that and started talking again. “Rock is best for picnic areas,” she said. “Then you don’t kill the grass. We’ve got nice pea gravel that would work. Or you could do something more decorative, but you don’t need to.”

“Do you sell picnic tables?” Ranger asked, stepping out of the barn. Preacher and Mister came with him, and Dot started to suspect something was up. She looked around at the five men standing in the clearing with her.

“No,” she said slowly. “Don’t you guys build stuff like that yourselves?” She looked at Bishop and cocked her eyebrows. “Where’s Ward?”

Ranger grinned at her. “He ran back to the house to check on lunch.”

“He said we could steal you for a few minutes,” Preacher said, grinning like a fool too.

Something was definitely going on, and Dot narrowed her eyes at the lot of them. “Okay, tell me what’s going on.”

“Nothing’s going on,” Bishop said, stepping in front of Preacher as if Dot wouldn’t be able to see his face then. “Montana and Micah Walker helped with the redesign of the barn, but neither of them are that great with outdoor spaces. We were talking about it in our Friday meeting, and Ward suggested you’d be the one to talk to about outdoor spaces.”

“Funny.” Dot folded her arms. “He didn’t mention it to me.”

“He probably just forgot,” Ranger said. “He says you guys don’t do a lot of…talking when you’re together.”

Dot sucked in a breath, her eyes flying open even wider. “He says what?”

“No,” Cactus said, practically growling at the others. “It’s a surprise for him, you guys. Of course he didn’t tell Dot. He doesn’t know.”

“Be quiet, Ranger,” Mister said. “He doesn’t say anything, Dot.” He stepped in front of Ranger now. “So should we make the well the center of attention? Or have it be an accessory?”

Dot wasn’t sure what to do—step over to Ranger and demand to know more, or go with Mister and let him distract her from this otherwise embarrassing conversation?

“It’s kind of off to the side,” Preacher mused.

“I think it should be a fountain,” Cactus said. “Just think of the tranquility of running water while we eat lunch outside.” He sighed like no greater thing existed in the world.

“We can make it a water feature,” she said. “Easily. You can put a firepit right next to it too, and make a small seating area around that. Then the main picnic area over here.” She could see it all in her mind, and she suddenly wanted to work on this project very much. “It would be beautiful.”

“Can you work us up a quote?” Ranger asked as he moved over to the well.

“What’s the ground like here?” Dot bent down and pinched some dirt