“You think the foundation will be successful?”
“I know it will,” she says with a sincerity that goes beyond the satisfaction of seeing her ex’s family drop out. “You’re serious. You’re not chasing fame or easy results. Rex is in the best handshere. You promised that you wouldn’t let him get euthanized and you’re keeping that promise.”
“Thanks, Charlotte. That means a lot.”
“We should get back to the gala,” she says, waving goodbye to Rex. He finished drinking water and now he’s just chilling on his dog bed. She tucks her hair behind her ears and stands a little straighter. “They’ll be adding up the total donations from the silent auction soon.”
We make the short walk from the kennels back to the barn. The music gets louder as we approach and so does the sounds of people having a good time. It feels really good to know everyone is having a good time.
“Caleb?” she asks softly just before we enter the barn.
There’s a vulnerability in her eyes that I’ve only seen once before, when she showed up at my house the other night. This woman walks and talks like she’s got it all together, and her work proves that. But occasionally, she’ll share that underneath the perfect exterior, there are parts of her that still need tending to. I give her my full attention.
“Yes, Charlotte?”
“I appreciate you rescuing me from that conversation with Bobby, but just so you know, I’m not the type of woman who needs rescuing.”
“Trust me, I know. I wasn’t even worried about you.”
“Really?” She smirks, folding her arms over her chest. “You certainly acted allknight in shining armorwhen you walked out here.”
“Girl, I knew you could handle yourself. I was more worried about Rex taking a bite out of someone.”
She laughs. “I worried about that too. It was nice of you to come to my rescue, even if I didn’t need it. I’m not used to men doing that.”
“You should be around better men.”
She’s looking at me but her gaze feels far away. “There was a long time in my life where I feared Bobby. I thought I couldn’t do anything on my own, and certainly nothing important without a man there to help me.” She sticks out her tongue in disgust. “But I made this whole gala happen. I rescued an aggressive dog in the middle of a massive thunderstorm. I’m feeling pretty badass at the moment.”
“That’s because you are a badass.”
She grins and holds out her elbow in the same silly way I did recently. “Shall we?”
I loop my arm through hers. “We shall.”
The evening goes better than expected. I’m not one for fancy parties or dressing nice, and I don’t know or really care which fork I’m supposed to use at a proper table setting. But I’m more than happy to put on a nice outfit and enjoy the evening cosplaying as if I am a fancy person. Whatever it takes to help secure funding to save more retired working dogs. Our donors sure seem to love everything about tonight.
A few months ago, I had the idea to do this gala all by myself, but my cousin Poppy talked me out of it, urging me to hire an event planner. She was one hundred percent right. But I can never let her know what happened between the event planner and me. She wouldn’t shut up about it. In fact, it’s one of life’s greatest blessings that she wasn’t able to make it tonight because she would have taken one look at Charlotte and known that deep down this woman has stolen my heart.
As the night comes to a close, I make sure to give a genuine, heartfelt thank you to every single person as they leave. Charlotte floats around the barn, talking with vendors and walking people to their cars. It’s just before midnight when everyone has left, and the barn which was a gorgeous lit up gala venue just an hour ago is now just the old barn from mychildhood. My younger brothers head out for a night at the bar with their friends, and Ethan and Leo head back to the house.
It’s just Charlotte and me.
“We raised thirty percent more than our goal,” she says, tapping the iPad screen in her arms.
“That’s incredible.”
“The caterers packed up the leftover food and Ethan said he’d put it in the freezer. Everything has been cleaned up. Looks like we’re all done here.”
“Awesome,” I say, pulling my face into a smile. Deep down, I’m wondering how the time flew by so fast. Three weeks of spending nearly every day with this woman and now she’s about to walk out of my life.
“There is one problem though,” she says as her bottom lip rolls under her teeth.
Problems are good. Problems mean I’ll need to spend more time with her. Hell, one of the vendors could sue me and I’d be thrilled for the opportunity to spend months next to Charlotte in litigation. “What’s wrong?”
“You remember that kiss?” She peers up at me under the moonlight.
“Of course I remember that kiss,” I say. It has played on a loop in my mind ever since it happened. “What’s the problem?”
