Chapter 1
"Julia, are you still going to take my last name?"
" Yes, I lost fair and square in billiards. I just need to change Robertson to Ruiz to match our marriage license from Greece. Everything else has been done. I will do that tomorrow. We still have a week before we have to return to work. Our schedules will be busy for a while per both of our secretaries. James and Lisa should be home. Lisa texted me saying they are coming from Las Vegas, and they both won big. They cashed out each time before they had to claim it on their taxes. Maria made sure of it. I can not believe they both got married while we were on our honeymoon in Madrid. We still have to go get them their wedding gifts. Are they wives moving into our home, or are they moving into the rentals we have on the ranch?" "Cindy, they all liked the two houses we moved out of when we had this one we are in now. I told them what the monthly payment would be. They are responsible for everything except the maintenance unless they damage something and the taxes. They signed the leases and left them in our office. The elderly people left us gifts too. We need to open them and send them thank you cards. What do you want to do for their for their wedding gifts?"
"Julia, they all want a swimming pool and remove the dough boys we had. Within the pool, they would like a hot tub and fire pit. I told them I would discuss it with you. They left the bids too on my desk before we all went to Greece."
Cindy went to look at the bids and contacted the one who had a better reputation for completing the job and not taking off with the money. She saw the checks written that they left for us on her desk.
" Wow, babe, that is a lot of money?" "No it's not. We just had solar panels and landscape the yards. I figured they all could afford it. I included the highest bid too for what they requested."
I got the calculator and tallied everything up. My wife was correct. About half an hour later, they arrived. We opened a bottle of champagne and toasted the newlyweds. The four of them got really close . We weren't surprised they had a double wedding in Madrid. They toasted us, too. Julia told them we would do the add ons as long as they took the dough boys and decks and had them taken to the veterans' community center so they could enjoy them. We both had fake wood. The deck that surrounded them were still in good shape. They had to build a new frame around it. They could use the existing frame and deck. They agreed to it all. We told them to contact the contractor and have him come out today so we could meet him and pay him one-third for each build. James made the call. We left to go to our bedroom to unpack. We asked them to text Cindy with the time. It was barely 9 in the morning, and we both were jetlagged. We flew Cindy's helicopter from Sacramento Airport to our home. James came and told us 11:30. Julia told him we were going to take a shower and a nap. We took the quickest shower since we started dating. We got dressed in shorts and a tank top. We fell asleep immediately.
