“One trip to us and she could fix everything in a matter of minutes,” someone agreed. “We wouldn’t risk that or her.”
“Yes, but several would do anything to keep her then,” Nora cut in. “And you might, but let’s be honest that some of your relatives who joined you this visit aren’t to be trusted as far as Inez could throw them.” She gave Marta an unwavering look. “We had the same problem. We did, but we did not pull apart the whole facility. We took out the broken pieces and sent them to her to fix.”
“Yes, it’s more taxing and annoying than her coming and fixing it, all but it also respects she’s not our little genie to use as we wish,” Hanna added. “She has vast lands and much that’s coveted here. Her security would go with, and someone stupid would try to take over, even with a day trip, as she would have to fly to you.”
“That might be what we need help with then,” Marta said after a moment. “We do not know which of these pieces to take out or replace.” She glanced between Nora and I. “You had engineers who helped you pinpoint the parts and locations, yes?”
“Yes, a few of mine worked with several of hers, and it was a matter of opening the backs of machines and pulling out fuses, circuits, or other components that I do not understand either.” She leaned down and tried some of the caviar. “A small gift of one of your sturgeon’s eggs and maybe a wheel of your gorgonzola, and I’m sure mine can give you a day or two of their expertise pulling out all the parts to be fixed.”
“That would be wonderful,” Marta sighed, looking relieved. “We plan to have many acres of wheat now that we have the machines with electric engines and many, many acres of solar panels being put in, but we have so much established that it would be a waste to ignore it.”
As they talked, I was happily eating shrimp and dumplings, the tray almost completely eaten by me.
Kristof leaned in and ate the shrimp out of my hand. “You will get sick if you have too many. They are very rich. I know you do not remember them, but you can have them as often as you want.”
I nodded, liking how his lips had felt on my fingers. And if I had to guess, he knew that. Dirty old fart.
His eyes flashed amusement. “Yes, but I’m your dirty old fart.”
I felt my whole body flush as I realized I’d said that out loud and in front of so many. It was even worse when he leaned in and kissed my hand he’d just eaten from.
“I hate to interrupt but I need to speak with my princess,” Nick said from the back of the group. People made a hole for him to get through, and his eyes went wide as he took in the large present since it was fancy food, and that meant he got to play with it.
“It’s a wonderful gift,” I told Marta. “Thank you. I have no problem fixing those items you send, like I did for Nora and Hanna for their facilities.”
“Thank you, Inez, truly, thank you,” she whispered, looking much lighter. Yeah, I knew the feeling of having so much on me, and I was new to being a princess and in charge. I couldn’t even imagine the stress and crazy of this all happening to an established one.
“We’ve had some input on the menu tomorrow,” Nick told me, shaking his head when I frowned. “Not in the way you’re thinking. Most are on board with the more relaxed atmosphere and had some requests of food missed most.”
“Like?” I sighed, wondering what they would ask for now after all the trouble started.
“Cheeseburgers, and most are fine with it not all being beef, but some mixture of meat we have,” he answered. “Most haven’t had one in years and that sounds much better than sushi as we’ve been stuffing them with seafood today.”
“That does sound wonderful,” Marta agreed. “Fresh grilled ones—such a comfort food.”
Nick nodded. “And that seems to be what they want, comfort foods. We were also asked for our American fried chicken.” He nodded when I sighed. “Yes, but we can do it. If people allowed their teams to help us today instead of raiding or whatever was on the agenda, Vitor found an excessive amount of chickens down in Mexico that Safie was taking from.
“Apparently, it was a ginormous Tyson chicken farm that someone thought to open all the cages before fleeing the farm from corrupted. The birds have done what birds do and made a lot more birds, feeding off the land like wild ones used to. We have the buttermilk too, and the walk-in fridges in Albuquerque where we could do it, but we need help making that happen.”
“What about all the hamburger buns and—” I started to argue.
“Seattle can handle it as people requested more gelato tomorrow instead of pies,” he cut in. “People basically want a cookout. Gelato and boozy cupcakes, punch fountains with burgers and fries, and fried chicken with whatever fixings we can come up with. Cole slaw for sure, but we can get it done. We brought the fryers here as backup and for some of the dumplings.”
I had only one question then. “Which is easier for you?”
He debated it a moment. “If we get the help grinding meat into patties and handling the birds so they come to us butchered, the fried chicken, grilled shark steaks, and burgers are. All the side dishes are easy, given we have help already that can get things going. I mean, it’s not hard to chop a million potatoes for
