First thing in the morning, I was back on Growin' Hope Farm. My nose was right against that damn pink binder as soon as I opened my eyes. I scraped every inch of it for any tiny detail I could glean from the hole punch pages. My thirst for anything I could get on Hadrian Valentine was unquenchable. But the book had bare facts about Hadrian.

The barest hint of identity on the web is hard to pull off for a normal person. We put all kinds of things online. Favorite foods, random pictures, forgotten photo albums, and all types of items. I've never underestimated Toni's stalking powers, but this is thin. Hadrian appeared out of thin air with the launch of Heron Inc seven years ago. All the coverage focuses on the three founders, yes, but it's through the lens of Issa, and Steven. There are a few questions that are asked. Who were Heron Inc investors? It's a privately held company, so that information isn't public. The market is hungry for the company to go on the stock exchanges like so many tech companies have. It's an industry leader in AI technology with Open Airi the backbone for many companies. Heron Inc. is expanding its offerings into hardware, energy, and aerospace at the end of next year.

The more I try to make sense of Hadrian, the less sense it makes. For St. Hottie, our relationship was one and done. Maybe our relationship was now extra. I didn't really know? But a tiny part of me hoped for more and I really shouldn't. Forget thoughts of Mr. Saint Hottie behind, I chided myself. I leave the binder on the little table and head outside the bus. Then I drop some food in Odin's bowl; the farm cat doesn't need it. We have to ask people to not feed the cat and everyone always feeds him. Which, in turn, causes him to get fat until we crack down again. One eye'd Odin pads up to the bowl near the shed. The cat looks at my food offering like a king looking down on me as the peasant. He accepts the offered food with the dignity of an emperor.

As Odin eats his food, peeps of ducklings follow him out. Trying to take a couple of nips at his bowl. I spread a tiny bit of duck starter feed on a towel for them. Then place the water bowl up high for my cat so the ducklings didn't try and get in it. And put the sip cup drippers for the ducklings. The three ducklings dive into their feast of seed.

I shake my head during the days of work. I've been up since three am and my concentration is split between two tasks. Figure out Hadrian, that part of the plan failed spectacularly. Also, completing the outline and brief for the Heron Project. It was less hard than I thought it would be.

I take the wheelbarrow full of wood chips and dump it in the garden with a mission. My first appointment of the day is Martin to go over the designs I emailed him this morning. I had way too much to do, and it was overwhelming. Adding more of Hadrian's projects changed everything for me. At least I've already packed the normal food delivery to the high school. But growing enough is going to be a huge gear up to meet the orders and the possible order of the luxury gym.

My biggest issue wasn't the Heron Projects. I'd gain access to a huge not-for-profit and need to work with Martin. It was an insane amount of money, but those projects could help people. I can also use employees from the company, which means I can hire new people. We try to hire regularly because it takes a long time to train people. And normally if a person has a good personality and is willing to work, we can find places for them. In some cases, we expanded our business because we hired someone and they worked out. We very rarely have employees leave, which is half the battle for a business like ours. Since farming and ranching are complex, worker retention is vital. You have to work with so many things because many of our farms are the size of a backyard in someone else's home. And sometimes as big as a rented 30 acre farm as a tenant farmer. It makes things very complex and employees help so much.

My major problem, though, was The Castle Gym. Based on Hadrian's brief, it's basically a co-op: a luxury fitness retreat on steroids. According to what I can tell, they are looking to do as much as they can onsite on larger properties over 100 acres. Those Castle properties are all over the country. The largest and oldest of which is located in California. But they have multiple locations big and small throughout the country. With every scan of the location, I became more shocked by the size of the castle's offerings. Penthouse suites, townhouses, farms and whole ranch farms from New York to California. In places like New York, they have countryside farms with gyms. Picture perfect bed-and-breakfast style settings. They even had luxury accommodation and gyms in Manhattan Billionaires' Row. So many different states make it so expansive and an absolute daunting task.

So, members have to be taught how to grow food, make some products. It's the full deal, and that's going to take more work. Because unlike our project with Heron where we can use other employees, we can't do that for the work at the castle. They are hiring us as individual contractors and only we are authorized for the property. As the castle is an exclusive member only. The members even work as employees on the property; it's nearly a closed loop system.

The more wood chips I dump, the more I get lost in my own head. I move to the front lawns line up of the people who thankfully donated them to the school for gardens. My mom comes out of her house. With the light of the morning on her dark skin, she shades her eyes, scanning the farm for me in her nursing uniform. My mom is the type who never misses a day of work and we never missed a day of school. Perfect attendance and we got free nosebleed seats Kings basketball tickets every year because of it. Back then, they were a losing team, but all of it brings back memories. Right down to the Tandi Hart on her uniform name badge. I crossed the street to say goodbye to my mother. She comes to my side, kissing me on my cheek.

The smell of honey and cocoa butter is a memory worth a lifetime of love she's given me. I smile into the kiss and hug her. And my world centers a little more in the turmoil of yesterday, washes away a little more.

"Thank you for the food delivery to the pantry, baby. The kids loved the tangerines," my mom says. "Toni!" she yells. Toni crosses the street to my mom's house. My mom kisses Toni on the cheek. "Your mother called me. She says it's been three weeks since you last called." Toni perks up a little and then my mom follows it up with disappointment. "She tells me your father is going to be backing off the oil rig at the end of the month." Toni's normally laughing toffee eyes fall. My hand goes to hers. Her father never did come to terms with the fact that she was bi. The concept seems to not fit his view of the world. If she has a choice, then she could choose to be straight. Every six months he and her brother go to work on the oil rig. Then they come back every six months. When her brother and father return from their job at the rig, it's time together. Even though both Toni and her older brother are too old for that. Even when we were in college, this was expected. Weeks visiting the family in her strict home sucked. The battle would begin between them until it blew up. My mother's sad face reflects my own. She cups Toni's dark cheeks in her warm hands, "you know you are always welcome. Your family Toni."

"Yes, Ms. Hart," Toni replies. My mother raises a single eyebrow at her. "Tandi," she corrects herself with a laugh. A mistake she wouldn't have normally made if she wasn't distracted. My mother gets into the car and heads to work.

Down the line like suburbs, clockwork cars pull out of houses to head to work. A gangly boy comes out of the house six houses down from the high school. His backpack takes up half his size. His chocolate skin drinks down the warm sun. The gangly boy stands in front of the two of us early to report for work at his first period late start. His work shirt says Growin' Hope Farm with a student under his name badge, Dante Tian. He's one of two students from the high school we employ. His mother gets into her car.

Toni and I wave, saying together in unison, "bye Mrs. Tian." She smiles at us and gives her son the mom's look. I love you, but don't fuck up today. Not a good look for Dante. "Grades off Dante?"

"Ya, I got a B in math," he says with a crack voice. At 17 Dante is all legs, arms and voice cracking. "The B won't get me a 4.0 GPA for college scholarships." He parrots in his mother's voice.

A smile teases my lips at Dante's impression. Up the street, Ava approaches with her son in her arms. With her fair skin and red hair, she's like a beacon for the approaching sunburn she's been flirting with all season. "Hi, Ava! How's the baby she says," I call out to her.

"Green poop all night long," Ava answers.

"Ew, that makes getting ready for high school pretty awful. Is he feeling better?" I ask her. Ya, I guess green isn't the highlight of any seventeen-year-old day.

"Yes, yes, yes, play, play! Yes, yes!" Her Connell, all his red curly circles looking absolutely adorable full giggles in her arms..

"I bet that green poop was something awesome, Connell." Toni takes Connell from Ava's arms and heads for her workday. I'm glad it's not my turn to edit the harvesting schedule. "Ok Big Red, were going to have a wonderful day!" He giggles up a storm for Toni.

"Alright boys and girls, today is sunflower multi cropping," I say with a big evil smile.

"Awww," both teens say together.

"Don't be sad, it's going to be Connell's first time seeing sunflowers when they grow up in a good stand. He's going to love it, plus all the kids will like it too. Sunflowers three years ago were a hit. We had cars stopping to take pictures," over 100 houses in the area have donated lawns. They donated either their front or backyard and some have donated both for gardening. Every year we grow a grain crop. Last year was corn and the wall of golden corn was an absolute sight. As school kids walk to school each day, they get to see the grain crop growing up. And by the middle end of the school year, it's normally ready to harvest or near ready to harvest. It's become a local event, with all the houses getting together and a block party at the end of the year. With the high school, middle school, and elementary right nearby for parking space. But getting the planting job done is hard. Because each house plot size is different, you can't use huge tractors. It's more acres of land total than it looks. Not every house participates, but the amount who do grow every year. Each year it grows tons of fruits, vegetables for the food bank like my mom runs, families, and the schools.

The kids slink away like prisoners going to war. "I have good news," I yelled after them. "Toni scored a bonus with this new contract. Plus, we have over 300 new customers!"

They cheered and got to work with a pep. Lilly, our farm manager for an offsite location, comes my way. Her curly hair is up in a bun for work. She rubs the sunscreen on her light coffee skin. The mix of Hispanic and black did not give her the same protection from the sun. Even though we all wear sunscreen, anyway. Lilly passes the sunscreen to Ava, who doesn't put it on her fair skin. I shake my head. Lilly smiles at me and shakes her head as well. We've had Dante and Ava working for us since Ava was sixteen and pregnant, looking for a job. Dante has worked for us since he was fourteen. Around that time we were expanding into our first proper farm, the golf course converted into a farm. We did his mom's gardening for years. I watched that kid grow up and a fierce protectiveness rolled over me as I gazed at Dante and the farm. That same protectiveness of Ava and Connell. It's almost impossible for a teenager to find a job that gives health insurance and a living wage as a teenager. When Lilly tipped us off about Ava when she used to work as a teacher for the high school, we jumped to help.

Family, my heart was so much better. I watched the kids get ready for the day. We are doing well on a farm because of them. Labor is one of the huge factors because of that. I had to stop worrying I'd mess it all up. My hand grabs Ava on the shoulder, stopping her. Then I put the sunscreen on for Ava. "Ah, no Ava, you are not going to be a lobster girl for classes this week." She gave me a frustrated expression, but she was getting this sunscreen.

"I can get by," Ava said in a pure teenager's voice. Sometimes she had these non mom moments. I can't say I'm mad she has them.

"Lobster girl," is all I said back, teasing. Once she was done, I let her get to work.

Most folks don't want to work as farm labor, so it took us years to attract people. Now that we have people, I want to keep what we can. I had a plan for the over price money Heron Inc and the luxury gym The Castle were going to pay us. Toni backed the plan 100%.

With my goofy smile plastered over my face, Toni explained the new windfall of money. What was going to be done with it? But our farm manager, who was an ex-teacher, was also making plans of her own.

"Over 300 new customers. Can we handle that?" Lilly asked. She's right, the build-up to handle that load is going to be insane. The issue isn't if we have enough food and products to fill the boxes. We do. Our gardens and farmers are, in most cases, more productive than conventional farms. It isn't a matter of too little food, it's a matter of timing. Labor to pick the food. In our system, we use less machine labor. It's closer to the farms that you see advertised on natural farm food that can be rarely advertised as they are. The longer we farm, the more productive the area we farm becomes. Which is different from typical farms that use high inputs.

My feet feel firmer than they did at the big DE Talks. This isn't a performance, it's just good solid, wonderful farming. "We can handle it. Toni and I came up with a plan to fill the contract. You take care of the offsite location with the work crews and we will take care of the corporate contract. We can do this!" I say with a full rah rah sis boom bah flourish. I can't say if it was more of a pep talk for her or me.

Ava finishes off her task, and I call out to her again. "Ava, deliver the box orders to the teacher's staff room, please. See you after school in the sewing club. Don't forget to put more sunscreen on." Lilly picks up the bottle and follows Ava. Trying to save her from another mother of all sunburns. Lilly and Ava go to fill box orders for teachers. Ava stops and turns around.

"How did the formal dress work out?" Ava asks. She and Toni designed it. I hope she becomes a professional designer because she's so damn talented. Those dresses she made for the prom gown giveaway were always on point. Plus, together with Toni, she made mine, and Toni's formal dresses for the awards dinner event. They were beautiful. Heck, it could have been sold at some professional shop.

"It was beautiful. I felt beautiful. Thank you," Ava smiles and walks away. Not even fully aware of her fairy godmother superpowers.

I join Dante and drop the sunflower seeds in the hole. "Remember to move the sheep, goats, chicks, ducks, geese, pigs, and cattle to the next paddock before you go to class. And plant out the sunflower-"

"Yeah, yeah," Dante cuts me off with a devilish grin. "Sunflower, okra starts, basil, then a strip of the pasture meadow." He says sing-song. Ok, maybe I'm micro-managing a little.

"Just remember to mulch heavily." I catch in the corner of my eye an electric car coming down the street. Its luxury is a little out of place in the firm middle-class area.

Martin steps out of the car. His normal sneer scowls in place when he sees me. It could be a smile, but I just don't see it. Yeah, I'm a little dirty before our meeting, but the meeting really was unexpected. I needed to turn in my ideas and get everything going almost instant. While still fulfilling all my work. So, yeah, I'm a little sweaty and a little dirty. I'm a farmer, sue me.

Behind Martin on the driver's side, George, the guy who was guarding Hadrian's door, comes out. He pulls his driving gloves tighter onto his hands. Martin races around the car towards me. George's stoic gaze lock on mine.

"Hi George," I say with a smile. George nods and walks to the trunk. He stacks the boxes from the trunk. A server, new laptops, new cell phones, more RiHms glasses, high-tech watches and the list goes on. It's a treasure trove of gear.

"It's already a setup plugin' play security upgrade." He carries the boxes of loot to my school bus. The gear is worth more than the school bus home, hell more than the farm. Shit.

***

"The plans won't work," Martin cuts into my thoughts.

"Why not?"

"We don't need these changes. I've already created upgrade plans." Martin says with oil to my water.

"If your upgrades were what they were looking for, I wouldn't have been hired." I could have sugar-coated it. It's not the nicest moment, but Martin isn't here to compromise. He didn't offer to go half here, go halfway there. He simply wants to throw my ideas away. Which really isn't his call.

"The sheep in the solar field will damage the panels. I really don't think you know what you're doing. Mowing will do." He says smugly. "Then we can compost it."

"Sheep work better because they can control a certain weed population. Plus, that weed causes fire and handling it with sheep or mini cattle is better than mowing or spraying. Also, it's a good community outreach. You can put a first time farmer with the sheep. It's also demonstrably cheaper than mowing. Plus, if you are hell bent on mowing, hay it is actually better. I saw a design last night that can be adapted to do it robotically without damage."

Martin looks less smug as he follows me back to the trailer. I really don't want him anywhere near Ava's son, Connell. Assholes and babies never mix.

"Look, Martin, we can fight all day over every inch of this project. I'm not going to invest that kind of time. I have an after-school program I have to deliver homecoming dress material for. A farmers' market to worry about. Getting all things planted for the Heron project. I simply don't have time for this with all due respect. If you feel your idea is better during the next meeting, put it forth. Say that this horrible plan is my fault and hang me out to dry. I get paid either way as per our contract since we normally don't work at this size. The seed flats are calling me either way." Martin comes across as the type of guy who would hang me out to dry, anyway. I walk away from him without giving him access to my home.

Inside the bluebird, George sits with Connell. His mother looks at the two with a smile. Hadrian was huge in my bus, but George is impossible. Hadrian is well built 6 '4 to George well built nearly 7ft. He doesn't fit well and if he wasn't sitting, I'm not sure anything but him could exist on this bus. Connell baby giggles up a storm for George and his resting stoic face is completely gone. Resting stoic face might be his version of resting bitch face. Then again, he was in a car with Martin for two hours from the bay area so I'd have resting bitch face too. Connell giggles and pulls off George's right-hand glove. His hand is made of plastic and metal. It's like one of those high tech sci-fi movies.

I try my hardest to not look shocked. "In Iraq with Frank Ma'am, I lost my arm to an IED," he says in a deep voice. "It's Heron's Biotech's best. My first arm was BIon, but this Heron's best is even better."

"Thank you for your service," I whisper to him. "Would you like anything to drink?"

"No, Ma'am, I'll be on my way soon." George said to me, his giant body shifting in the small bus.

Toni plugs in the computer parts and storing one of the servers in the bluebird. It was the part where the plates used to be. I guess no more plates. She has her tech haul out as a hunter would lay out a trophy deer.

"I'm not giving it back," says Toni.

I lift my hands. "I wouldn't think of it." Well, I would think of it but maybe not execute on it. It's the type of upgrade we could use. High-security encryption of everything. Plus, cloud services. Heron has government contracts, and we lacked the equipment or encryption. That is needed to be working with someone who had high security contracts.

"Not even the thought, I see it in your eyes. It's not going to happen," says Toni.

"Are you sure you don't want to have a Lord of the Rings moment? Were you saying my precious like Gollum?" I tease her.

Toni, gasped in shock. "How dare you? I'm just doing my duty here." Toni held her tech haul so lewdly, like she was cupping a butt with a big lovin handful.

"You win," I answered, "Had no plans to send it back." Mostly, I took it as part of the contract, not paying for sex. I wasn't going to be my own worst enemy here. Plus, who pays for sex with a tech haul? The level of nerdy in that would be obscene.

I walked away from the tableau of tech debauchery that was coming when Toni got to set that up. A second Heron eclectic truck pulled up to the farm. On the back of the truck was a shipping crate. George came out and signed for the truck. Connell sat on top of his head and his mother followed. Connell was taken away with the big man and the redhead had a huge guy to play his games with. Also, I liked how the big security guy went along with the little boy using the top of his head as a drum and singing.

"Ma'am, where would you like the office?" George asked me.

"Office," I asked him, walking with him to the back of the truck. The driver opens the back of the truck. It was a small working office with solar panels and batteries that still needed to be set up.

"Toni!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Toni came running out of the Bluebird rip away from her new found tech haul love. When she saw the shipping container office, she slowly walked to it like a lover. Full rolls of the hips like she had on a badass pair of vintage Valentino heels and nothing else. And like a lover, she entered the back of that new office. A home coming of tech and how she manages to make getting more tech haul into something so carnal. I covered my eyes instead of watching whatever was about to happen in that office. No good could come from it.

"Cover Connell's eyes, George," I yelled. He took the baby off his shoulder and covered his eyes.

I didn't get Hadrian at all. It felt like he was sending me tech flowers again, but not. Something useful to me could be work related but made perfect sense at the same time. It was over the top, but maybe I'm reading too much into it. I don't think it was about the sex. I'm almost certain it was just generosity towards the business, not anything to do with me. Plus, we didn't have the proper encryption. George was waiting for my reply on where to put it. I pointed to the area for him to hook the whole thing up. And he gave me a second copy of the keys to the Heron Electric Truck.

What caught me the most off guard about it is the mobility of the office itself. In the same way, my Bluebird was mobile. I could leave this office here or take it with me. The truck hauling it was a Heron Electric vehicle. It was what we needed in a nutshell. It frightened me a little at how he narrowed into it, seeing me and Toni as professionals. I didn't know what to make of it, the more my thoughts loop back to it. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to send him a text.

"George, are we going back to the city yet?" Martin says from the back of the SUV. And with that snide remark, it broke the spell. I was overthinking it and looking too much into it. He was being nice. If he reaches out for more, I'll have ideas about what to do. Do I want more? Steamy nights with his hands running over my sweaty coco buttery dark skin. The crest of his fat head teasing between the folds of my core. And the thought flashed into my head so fast it burned and I buried the thought even faster. But maybe it's best that it was a one and done. Now we both can be professional and move on. A second glance at the office left me in the same place as I started. Hadrian Valentine was an absolute enigma.

An indecent squeal came from the office. "We get to keep the truck!" Toni shouted. My hand tightens around the keys.

"Yes, Ma'am." George said with a friendly smile. Connell, happy as can be, was back on top of the huge man's head. He beats drums and screams with Toni for the joy of screaming. His fluffy baby curls red hair and cherubic fat smile on display as he lifted his hands to Toni's happy dance. So, I wasn't the only one completely ignoring Martin. Maybe it was a talent for him because he did it so smoothly, which only pissed Martin in the back of the SUV off more. George passed the happy little boy to his waiting mother. It was a long way down from George's shoulders and he reached back for the big man. A second ride wasn't coming for the little boy. But George gave him a wave bye as he walked with me towards the SUV.

"Thank you, George. Your help has been invaluable." My smile got a twitch of a grind from him. He made the last arrangements, then got into the SUV to drive Martin back to the city. Leaving me with so many new toys and Toni in tech goodie orgasm overload.

I guess it's another win for Mr. Hadrian, Valentine, CEO, Heron Inc.

A/N:// So, I've been nibbling and I took a second to think about it. I think I fixed the tone issue and I'm currently pushing through edits. 

I want to thank yall for taking a chance on this new story. This new couples because I know many of you are same couple series stans like me. 

Thank you for knowing the drill and commenting, quoting, leaving stars. Sending me keep going messages and doing everything to put me in full self root. I needed it, I'm so thankful. Yall are the dearest and show me such kindness.  

-OP