“My office.”
“Oooooh,” Alicia playfully murmurs under her breath. I roll my eyes at her.
When I enter Jenny’s office she tells me to close the door. The pinched look on her face sends an instant rock into the pit of my stomach.
“Good morning,” I say cautiously.
“Got any job offers yet?”
“I’m sorry, what?”
Jenny’s lips press together. “I monitor all my employees’ internet activity, Charlotte. I am fully aware that you’ve been searching for a new job, while on company time.”
My mouth opens, but she keeps talking. “If you take this small amount of success and try to leverage it into a new job, I will leave you a scathing reference to anyone who calls. I will make sure no event planning company in the entire state willhire you. You work for me. You learned from me. Every skill you have is one I helped you attain.”
There is no point in saying anything.
“And if you even try to take a smidge of credit for the Alden event? I’ll sue you.”
I swallow.
“Get out of my office.”
chapter twenty-six
Caleb
Friday morning is here before I know it. The first annual Alden K9 Foundation fundraising gala is tonight. With any luck, twenty years from now, we’ll still be having yearly fundraising events and helping so many dogs that no one will ever have to say a retired working dog doesn’t have anywhere to go. That’s the goal. I picture myself twenty years from now. I’ll be approaching fifty, probably with gray hair like my dad. When I think of myself older, am I still single?
“Yo, Caleb!” Owen jogs downstairs wearing a tuxedo. His socked feet slide across the hardwood floor and he does a pose. “How do I look?”
“Like you’re going to prom?” I say, sipping my coffee.
He rolls his eyes. “That’s what Max said.”
“Isn’t that your prom tux?”
“Yeah, but I’m not wearing the tie.” He does another pose.
“Please tell me this isn’t what you’re wearing to the gala?”
“What else am I supposed to wear?” He groans, tossing his hands in the air. “I don’t have a fancy wardrobe. I’m in vet school. I’m out here studying to save lives, bro.”
“Jeans and a button up shirt will look better than whatever that is,” Leo says, walking into the living room with his own cup of coffee.
“Wear your scrubs,” I say jokingly.
Owen snaps two finger guns at me. “That’s not a bad idea. All the ladies will be into me.”
“This event is for the dogs, idiot. It’s not for finding a soul mate.”
“Says the guy who is totally in love with his party planner,” Leo mutters over the rim of his coffee mug.
I’m this close to flinging a couch pillow at him, but then coffee would go everywhere. If Mom were here she’d be so proud of my massive willpower. “Y’all know I’m not in love with anyone,” I say. “Charlotte and I are friends. There will be no shit-talking allowed because she’s the savior of this event. She’s the reason we have so many donors.”
“No one is shit-talking her,” Leo says. “We like her.”
Owen nods. “She’s perfect for you.”
