Page 102 of Grit
“Is it the hair?”
“Maybe it’s the hair.”
Bud Rogers had actually brought a gavel to the meeting. At five minutes before the hour, he started banging it.
“We’re a little early, but let’s get started. Uh… now I know that this is an unusual meeting because we’re having a vote tonight, but we still have to follow protocol. So right now I’m going to read the minutes from last month.”
As Bud read the meetings from the month before, Melissa mentally reviewed everything that had happened since that first meeting.
She and Cary had become friends who kissed. And then more.
The note on her ranch had been called in.
Her first harvest of mandarins was almost ready to pick.
She’d hired a new employee who had taken over a lot of duties on the ranch.
The bunkhouse had been renovated.
She discovered her in-laws were even bigger assholes than she’d realized.
And Abby had a new goat.
“I really need a vacation,” she whispered.
“And that is nearly impossible until Christmas.”
A tiny whimper left her throat.
Cary leaned forward and kissed her temple. “Maybe we can find a weekend to take the goat queen camping.”
“That would be nice.”
Bud finished reading the minutes of the meeting and banged the gavel again. “Now,” he said, voice booming, “because of the unusual nature of this meeting, we’ll be opening the floor for questions.”
Everyone started talking, and Bud banged the gavel again.
“You know, I thought it was maybe overkill,” Cary said. “But that gavel was a good call.”
“It’s very loud.”
“This will not work unless we have order!” Bud shouted.
Nobody was listening.
Tammy Barber stood and shouted, “Everybody, be quiet and listen!”
Tammy had been a teacher in the high school, and half the people in the room had probably taken biology or chemistry from her. She didn’t mess around, and within seconds the room was quiet.
She pointed at the front of the room. “Okay. On either side, we’ve set up microphones. Form two lines so everyone can ask their questions.”
Everyone started shuffling around and lining up while Tammy kept shouting directions.
“You getoneminute for your question, so you better not ramble. The people from the developers will have three minutes to answer.” She glared at the JPR Holdings people. “Three minutes, and we want real answers for real questions. I’m sorry we have to put such a tight schedule on you all, but there are a lot of people who want answers and we only have two hours.”
More muttering, but the lines formed.
One of the first people up was the Yokuts representative. “There are several members of our community who have important family sites on the Allen ranch. It is our understanding that when the land was sold, one of the provisions Mr. Augustus Allen made was that those families would continue having reasonable access to those sites that are sacred to them. Will JPR Holdings be honoring that part of the sales contract? We’re in the process of obtaining those records right now.”
