Jennifer quickly ran to the chopper and climbed in.
Jonathan waited till she was strapped in, and then handed her the headset.
They flew from one end of the property to the other, looking for anything suspicious.
"Darling, are you seeing anything?"
"Not yet".
They were about to circle back and land when Jennifer spotted something.
"Darling! Right there-can you land so we can go look at it?"
"Sure".
He landed the chopper and they hopped out.
"What exactly did you see?"
"It was over here. It looked like a row of new trees had been planted".
"What? That's impossible".
They walked over towards the trees till they found it.
"Darling, where is our property line?"
"Where the fence is".
Jonathan measured the distance from the fence to the new trees while Jennifer counted how many new trees there were.
"200 new trees".
"And they were planted exactly 10 feet from the property line".
They walked up and down examining the fence line, and couldn't find any holes.
"Darling, what are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking I'm going to hire some workmen to come in, build a brick wall along the property line, and then I'm going to figure out if we can save these trees and also have them replanted some place else".
They climbed back in the chopper and continued their search, and eventually went back to the house.
"I'm going to take the chopper back. I'll be back in a little while".
"Be careful. I love you".
"I love you too".
She gave him a few kisses and then headed back to the house.
About 45 minutes later, he came in and found her in the kitchen.
"Hi gorgeous".
"Hi. Lunch is almost ready"
"Great. I hired a foreman while I was in town. His name is Hank Parnell. He promised he can find a crew to replant the trees, and he can also oversee the redo of the property line fencing".
"That's wonderful".
"What would you say if I told you we might be here longer than a month?"
"I would say, that's fine. Any time I get with you all to myself is good time".
She wrapped her arms around him as he pulled her in for an embrace.
He looked over her shoulder and saw the cactus.
"Darling, has that cactus always been there?"
"No actually. While you were gone getting the chopper, our neighbors stopped by. It was their welcome gift".
"How nice".
After a nice lunch, she started working on an article, while he finalized the diagrams of the brick wall he wanted to build.
She came and sat in his lap about an hour before sunset.
"Darling, why do you think someone would sneak onto our property and plant all those trees? That had to cost them a bundle".
"Only theory that makes sense to me is that whomever this is, they are working with the people who keep offering to buy our property. And since we said no, they figured they could just take our property from us, a few feet at a time".
"But that's insane!"
"Yeah, it is. And darling, depending on who we are dealing with, it just might work. If they can forge a deed, they can make it look like we own a small piece of land, and they own all the rest".
"And there's nothing we can do?"
"We will just have to stand our ground and prove them wrong".
"Darling, how do you think they got on the property to plant the trees?"
"Well, there's no way to tell since we aren't here a lot. But my best guess is they climbed over the fence, or either removed a portion of the fence, and then drove in, and then put it back."
"I just don't understand why they want our land so bad. I mean, it's not like we are sitting on a gold mine or anything."
"Well, when we figure out who it is that wants it, we can find out why they want it so badly".
They decided to make dinner together, and spent a low-key evening focusing on each other, and not analyzing everything that had been going on.
Jennifer fell asleep on Jonathan's shoulder, so he gently picked her up and carried her to bed.
He gave her a sweet kiss and whispered "Goodnight, I love you", before he fell asleep right next to her.
***Two Days Later***
It had taken Jonathan almost all day to get a work crew out there to move the trees. They were able to save most of them, but not all of them. He also found a crew to come and build the brick wall to his height specifications to keep people from being able to climb over the fence.
Jennifer got a lot done on her research of her article, so she started typing it, and was finished within an hour. She was still in the creative mode, so she began to research the agent that she and Jonathan had seen the signs for a few days prior.
She printed everything she came across, so that she could dissect it later.
By the time two hours had passed, she was sitting on the floor of the living room surrounded by articles on Holt Gregory.
Jonathan came in the door covered in dirt and sweaty, just before sunset.
"Darling, you here?"
"In here".
"What's all this?"
"Research for an article".
She looked up and saw how dirty he was.
"Darling, you're covered in dirt! You're going to track it through the house!"
"I'm headed to take a shower, I promise".
She got up and followed him to the bedroom.
"Here, give me your clothes and I'll put them straight into the washer".
"Is that the best line you can come up with?"
"Ha ha."
She leaned up and kissed him as he handed her his very dirty clothes, and then she went and threw them into the washing machine.
She came back to the bathroom and quickly stripped down and climbed in behind him.
She began to soap his back, scrubbing the dirt off of him with very gentle and loving strokes.
"Great idea, darling".
She had him sit on the shower bench, and she sensually shampooed his hair and gave him a scalp massage.
"Oh, that feels amazing".
After she got him all clean, she straddled his lap and gave him a very passionate kiss.
He moved his kisses to her neck, and pulled her close to him.
They stayed in the shower till the water ran cold, and then took it to the bedroom.
For the next few hours, they were completely lost in each other, and gave no thought to anything or anyone else around them or elsewhere.
When they finally fell asleep together, he kissed her temple and whispered "Goodnight, I love you".
***The Next Day***
Jennifer and Jonathan woke up and had breakfast together, and then got ready.
They decided to go for a ride, and went to the garage and got on the golf cart to ride out to the stables.
Jonathan pulled the golf cart up into the parking bay, and they got out.
Jennifer selected Sundancer, an absolutely gorgeous light brown horse with a black nose. Jonathan selected Hearts Afire, a beautiful black horse with a red mane. As they were getting all saddled up, one of the stable hands stepped over to talk to them.
"Mr. Hart, I think we might have a problem".
"Hey Tyler. What's the problem?"
"Well, the company that delivers the hay for the horses, and the feed-they made their delivery 4 days ago. And they put the feed where they usually put it, in the storage stall. And they put the bales of hay in the usual spot, stall A. I checked in the hay myself. And the feed. And we had the same amounts that we always get- 440 bales of hay, and 200 pounds of feed. And this morning I went into the stall to get some more hay, and more than half of it is gone. More than 2/3 even. There are less than 40 bales left. We've never used that much hay in a 4-day span."
"So, you think someone came here and stole our hay?"
"I don't know what else to think. But there aren't any tire tracks, or any other evidence. If they had flown in here, we would have heard about it. And I promise you, there's no way someone took over 200 bales of hay out of here, one at a time, without any of us knowing".
"You're right, that's definitely a problem".
"Darling, what if we ride all the way up to the trails, and take them as far as we can? If someone is up to something up there, that's about the only way we'll be able to see it".
"That's a great idea. Tyler, call and place another hay order. And if I find out anything, I'll let you know. In the meantime, let's start locking the stall when nobody is in there".
"Yes, Mr. Hart".
Jennifer and Jonathan climbed up and headed out on their ride. For the next couple of hours, they rode all the trails they could access from their property, and saw absolutely nothing. Just as they were about to turn back and head back to the stables, they decided to ride across and go down the extreme western side of their property.
They had a leisurely ride, and then stopped to let the horses get a drink of water from the stream.
Jonathan noticed that Jennifer was staring off into the distance.
"Darling, have you ever noticed that treehouse over in that tree?"
"Now that you mention it, I don't think I have".
"Do we own that part of the property?"
"No, we don't. Our property ends where those thorn bushes are".
She wrapped her arms around him and leaned against him.
"You know something? After a month or two here, I'm not going to want to go back home".
"I know. I feel the same way".
They shared a few sweet kisses and then climbed back up on the horses again and headed back to the stables.
After the horses were brushed, and fed, and Jennifer had given them each about 100 carrots and sugar cubes, they hopped on the golf cart and headed back to the house.
Jonathan pulled the golf cart up into the garage and they hopped off.
"Darling, I think it's about to storm".
"I think you're right".
"Darn, I was hoping we could grill out tonight".
"We still can. I can back the car out of the garage and bring the grill inside the garage".
"Good plan".
Jennifer had just gotten the steaks seasoned and Jonathan had just gotten the grill inside the garage when they heard the first crack of thunder. A few seconds later, the bottom fell out.
Jonathan came inside and found her in the kitchen.
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek.
"How about a rainy day nap?"
"I love our rainy day naps".
As soon as she got the steaks into the fridge, he picked her up and carried to the bedroom, kissing her the entire way.
***The Next Morning***
It had stormed all night long, and Jennifer and Jonathan were grateful, because it gave them an excuse to stay in bed, not that they needed one.
They woke up and made breakfast, and then decided to go to the blackberry bushes and pick a few baskets full.
"Darling, why don't we take the Jeep down there, in case it's muddy?"
"Great idea".
They headed to the garage and opened the door, and headed towards the Jeep.
"Jonathan….we have a problem".
"What is it?"
She pointed to the Jeep.
All four tires had been slashed.
"What the hell….?"
"Someone doesn't want us to know something."
"I agree. Just wish I knew who it was that doesn't want us to know whatever it is they don't want us to know".
They went back inside, and Jennifer dug out the phone book.
Jonathan tossed his cap onto the couch, and missed, and accidentally hit the cactus. It fell off the shelf it was sitting on, and landed on the floor in pieces.
He began to examine the cactus, and realized that the entire thing was made of plastic and had a listening device inside.
Jennifer heard the crash and came to see what happened.
"Darling, what was that-oh my goodness, is that what I think it is?"
"Yep. Someone's been listening in on our conversations, darling".
"I'm calling the police".