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Chapter9

Shooting did not startin four months.More like six and half.And instead of Montana, shooting was moved to the much more appropriate ranch near Cambria, California.Considering the movie was set in California, not Montana, it made a lot of sense.Plus it meant Ted could bringCharley.

Yep.Ted and Charley were stilltogether.

A whole lot of together.Turns out for all that lecturing I got about safe sex and being irresponsible, it wasn’t me that came home with a souvenir.Charley was damn near full term now with their daughter who they namedEvangeline.

Nowthatwas a story.Believe me.When Charley found out she was pregnant, she was pissed.I didn’t blame her one little bit.An unplanned pregnancy with a man she’d just met?A man who was over-the-top in every sense oftheword?

Except that she was absolutely nuts about Ted.Just as much as he was about her.It was a rocky few weeks while they figured it out.They both had tempers and major personalities, but I couldn’t imagine any two people more perfect for eachother.

“We’ll be in here,” he said as he opened the door to a bungalow just off the main house.He waited with a smile as his very pregnant wife drifted inside with her bag.To say Ted was happy was probably an understatement.He was over the moon ecstatic.Besotted.On Cloud Nine.“Would you like to lay down or come onthetour?”

Charley tossed the bag onto the four-poster bed with a sigh.“Tour.I want to know this place beforeIpop.”

The ranch had come to us through a friend of one of the Holt Pictures executives.Apparently they were childhood friends.He’d been trying to get the owner to allow us to film here and when the ranch in Montana fell through, he caved.It sounded to me like we weren’t exactly welcomed guests, but if it got the picture made on time and on budget, then I didn’t really care what the ownerthought.

I watched as Ted darted around the room making sure everything was as expected, before he took Charley’s hand and guided her back out into the warmafternoonsun.

Summerwashere.

“The director, Joley, is staying here beside us.The cast has the main house, including you,Princess.”

My assistant, Tabitha, had already taken my bags tomyroom.

“This place isenormous,Ted.”

“Exactly.It fits our needs perfectly.There will be minimal shooting at the main house.Sets have been built in the south pasture for principal shooting.And then we have all the cattle, horses, and land we need for setting andbackground.”

Ted had been acting weird for weeks.I put it up to his impending fatherhood, but now that we were here, his weirdness was growing by leaps andbounds.

Boundsbeing theoperativeword.

He bounded everywhere.It was like he was nervous orsomething.

I tried to ignore it as we moved from the bungalows to the gardens, the main house looming above like an adobe-castle hybrid.It wasn’t strictly adobe, even though it was clearly influenced by that southwest desert style.But it wasn’t traditional in structure either.Large fountains dominated the gardens that were filled with colorful flowers.Beyond the house was a massive swimming pool, dividing the home from the pastures.It was the kind of estate you imagined royaltylivingat.

“How is possible for one person to own all this?”I was thinking more to myself than trying to start a conversation, but Ted decided to answer meanyway.

The Landry estate owns the winery, hotel, fields and pastures.The current Mr.Landry is the owner of the house and the connecting farmland.”He gestured to the crops on the opposite side of the house.“We won’t be filming there.Those are working fields and it’s a busy time of yearforthem.”

“The current Mr.Landry?”I asked.“How many arethere?”

He shot me a knowing smile.“Says the current MissLawrence.”

I stuck out my tongue, which only made himsmilemore.

“The Landry family has owned this land since 1865.It passed to the current Mr.Landry fourteen years ago when his father died fromcancer.”

That was sad.“And how do you know all this, Mr.Tour Guide?”Ted knew a lot of things and he loved to be prepared, but this was pretty specific and extensiveknowledge.

He missed a step but I didn’t think anything of it.He had most of his attention on Charley.“Once I started doing the research for the contracts I found that I was fascinated by the history of the ranch and how closely it resembled the script.Turns out the writers are also friends of theowner.”

“Wait, so they used this ranch as theinspiration?”

Ted shrugged.“It does explain why the Holt people were so dead set onfilminghere.”

“Talk about a serious group of friends.”Mega ranch owner, Hollywood executives, and writers?And here all I hadwasTed.