Josh laughed as he watched Ally type a text message into her laptop letting her assistant know she would be a few minutes late in connecting to the Zoom meeting. She let her know that it would be all hands on deck after the call.
“OK, I need to call Daniel now to lock him in” said Ally turning to Josh as she pulled up his number on her cell phone and dialed.
“Do you still need him, now that all the drama is over and it’s a done deal?” asked Josh.
“Oh hell, yeah!” replied Ally. “I want to take him off the board. I don’t want to run the risk of them changing their minds and trying to retain him themselves. There’s no one better at this stuff than him.
“What if he says no,” asked Josh.
“Even if he does, after I talk to him, he would probably have to recuse himself,” replied Ally. “We win either way.”
“You certainly seem to have all the angles covered―”Josh started to compliment Ally as she lifted her hand to cut him off when Daniel answered the phone.
“Yes, and nice to talk to you again so soon too, Daniel,” replied Ally. “But this is a business rather than social call, if you don’t mind.”
From the way Ally was listening, Josh could tell that her conversation with Daniel had quickly transitioning to a business call. It sounded as though he was going through his boilerplate legal spiel to a new client.
“Well, here is the long and short of it,” said Ally into the phone. “I just got a call from Bree. It seems that Andrew got hit with a similar play to the one you were telling me about with Michael’s company.”
Ally paused and listened.
“Apparently they are undercapitalized and Michael and Bree have asked me, my company, to be their white knight, so to speak, and I agreed,” continued Ally. “I’d like you to handle the transaction and make sure both parties are equitably treated. There is no one more qualified than you to handle the deal and because of all of our personal relationships you are uniquely suited for the task. There would be a level of trust. Would you have time?”
Again, Ally paused.
“Oh, yes! I’m glad you reminded me,” replied Ally. “Yes I told my staff that we should retain Andrew to run the company and provide him with a generous compensation package―with your approval, of course.”
Another pause.
“Oh, wonderful!” replied Ally. “I’ll have my people make the initial contact with you and I’ll leave it up to you how to proceed. Thank you so much, Daniel. Again, please let me know if there is anything I can do for you. Love you too! Bye!”
“So that’s it? asked Josh. “It’s a done deal?”
“No, not quit,” replied Ally. “This could still go south if we can’t agree on a price. And there are other things that could go wrong too. But we’re in a better position now than we were a couple of hours ago.”
“Are we going to need to cut the trip short?” asked Josh.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Ally. “For the next couple of weeks most of the action will be at staff level, and with Daniel, of course. I think we are OK for now. Besides, I want to avoid any direct involvement. I want this to be purely a business transaction and keep emotions out of it.”
“Other than you fucking Andrew,” replied Josh pointedly.
“Yes, other than me fucking Andrew,” answered Ally with a sly smile.
~~~~~
Friday Evening / Day 8
Lois, Dan and Nick busied themselves preparing dinner as the sun began to set. Everyone except Ally and Josh had spent a long afternoon at the pond. While Lois and her two sous chefs prepared dinner, Sandy and the other boys set the table, opened the wine and then lounged around the great room watching the Giants play the Dodgers on TV. Ally and Josh remained in the master bedroom, apparently still busy with Zoom calls back and forth with their office.
Ally had texted Lois at the pool earlier to let her know about her call with Bree and the impending purchase of Andrew’s company, and that Daniel would be handling the transaction to make sure everyone was treated fairly. Ally asked Lois to inform the others and told her that she and Josh would probably be tied up at least until dinner time.
Ally and Josh never rejoined the others at the pool. Once they were into the Zoom call with the team at the office, the new acquisition took on a life of its own. There were multiple calls back and forth between Ally, Josh and their team at the office and a couple of calls with other attorneys at Daniel’s firm.
Josh had been surprised at how quickly things were moving, and even more surprised at how adept Ally was at fielding each of the questions that came up. He was amazed at how she seemed to take it all in stride.
After the first hour or so of frantic activity, both Ally and Josh realized that they would have to sequester themselves frequently for the duration of their stay at the ranch.
Ally had Josh bring in one of the folding tables from the garage and a couple of the folding chairs to place in a corner of the master bedroom as a work area. That would provide them with some privacy when they were communicating with their office without disturbing the others. Ally anticipated that the communications would continue all weekend, and certainly during the following week until they left for home.
When Dan knocked on the bedroom door to let them know dinner was ready, Ally was just finishing up her final call with her assistant, giving her marching orders since the staff would be working through the weekend.
~~~~~
Lois outdid herself yet again at dinner, preparing her own recipe for lasagna, substituting pancetta for Italian sausage in the sauce. Everyone had second helpings along with more of the Greek salad that Lois had the boys prepare.
Dinner turned into a three hour affair as the group constantly ate and talked, with most of the conversation, and questions, centering around Ally and Josh’s acquisition of Andrew’s company. They went through six bottles of the Tuscan Meritage that Lois had brought along. It was a blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Sangiovese that matched the lasagna perfectly.
The conversation continued through dessert and coffee. Dessert was warm, freshly baked double-dark chocolate brownies served with a drizzle of raspberry coulis on the plate, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream with fresh raspberries and sliced strawberries on top.
Nick turned out to be handy in the kitchen too, especially since he was very adept at operating the professional grade espresso maker on the corner of the kitchen counter that had gone unused up to that point. Espressos, Lattes, Mochas and Cappuccinos continued to flow as the evening wore on, as did the Sambuca.
Everyone pitched in cleaning up after dinner and everyone retired to their respective bedrooms, since the dance cards for the evening had already been filled. Eventually, each of the women and their partners drifted off to sleep after a night of intense lovemaking, with their partners arms and legs draped over them from either side.
~~~~~
Saturday Morning / Day 9
Ally could hear her phone vibrating on the nightstand next to her as she awoke bleary eyed. The first thing she noticed was that the sun was beaming directly through the windows. As she reached over Mike’s body to retrieve her phone, she verified that it was, indeed, already a little after 9 a.m. The third thing she noticed, and much to her displeasure, was the colossal headache that throbbed between her temples.
“Just a sec,” whispered Ally huskily as she answered the phone, seeing that it was Bree. “I don’t want to wake either of the boys up.”
“Either?” asked Bree chuckling. “Who are the ‘eithers’ you slut?”
“Just a minute,” replied Ally, still talking in a whisper as she scooted to the end of the bed and headed toward the bathroom. With each step, her head pulsed with more and more pain.
“Mike and Josh, if you have to know,” replied Ally indignantly, not in any mood to be teased at the moment, her head feeling as though it was about to explode.
“Sorry, I don’t mean to snap,” apologized Ally as she closed the bathroom door behind her and immediately filled the glass on the counter next to the sink with cold tap water and sucked it down.
“Are you OK?” asked Bree, laughing quietly. “You sound a little out of sorts. Is everything OK?”
As Bree talked, Ally tried to focus on what she was saying. However another thought was competing for her attention at the moment. She was remembering a line she once read in a Somerset Maugham novel about a guy who woke up hungover. Maugham described him as feeling as though something had crawled in his mouth and died. That’s how she felt at the moment as she poured and gargled a second glass of water.
Ally could hear Bree giggling on the other end of the line.
“Too much wine and sambuca last night,” lamented Ally as she sat down on the toilet to expel said wine and sambuca, as well as the prodigious amount of cum that still filled both of her cavities after allowing Josh and Mike to ravish her body late into the night.
“It sounds like I woke you up,” said Bree apologetically. “I’m sorry. I thought you would be up by now. I just wanted to call and thank you for yesterday―for everything!”
“That’s OK. I think everyone will benefit,” replied Ally, rubbing her temples with both hands as she balanced her phone on her thigh.
“Andrew sends his thanks too,” said Bree. “He says he will be working with your team and Daniel throughout the weekend.”
“I’m glad they all seem to be working well together,” replied Ally.
“That’s just the thing,” said Bree, her tone almost apologetic. “He’s so busy that he says Andy and I are getting under foot and―”
“And you and Andy would like to join us here at the ranch,” replied Ally, finishing Bree’s sentence for her.
“W-E-L-L ― yeah!” responded Bree sheepishly. “If it’s not too much trouble.”
Ally’s brain was rushing a mile a minute trying to figure out how to respond to Bree, not to mention what she wanted to do. Ally’s hangover addled head wasn’t helping matters as she tried to think through her options and the potential ramifications of her final decision.
“Oh, baby! We’d love to have both of you come back,” replied Ally finally. “We were so disappointed when you left. Do you want to drive up this morning?”
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