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I couldn’t admit I’d failed. Not yet.
Besides, I didn’t knowhowto respond. Because I was a woman who’d refused to learn technology.
What was I going to do now?
This was the part of life I hated. Where I felt like I carried the entire weight of the world on my shoulders. There was a problem and I couldn’t solve it.
Sunshine erases all the bad.
Grandma Josephine’s catchphrase. It was well loved, but I was struggling to heed it. However, I clung to that idea even though the sun was nowhere to be found today. I’d been knocked off my feet, but I could get back up. Every problem had a solution. I just had to find it. We’d looked at the cost of building an Earth Warrior property in the alternative site I’d just suggested to Foster. But it just wasn’t where those people needed to be. Or the right way to allocate those funds.
A little help please, Grandma Josephine.
She’d always made things look simple. Effortless. While I knew they hadn’t been, I wished I felt more put together.
Stop wallowing, JoJo. So the man said no. Make him say it again and again and again.
I found the contact for my daughter’s name like she’d taught me to do and pressed it.
“I’ve been dying over here. Did he take the offer? Is he going to sell it to us?”
I took comfort in the familiar. And I adored Penelope’s enthusiasm.
“No. He wouldn’t even look at it.”
“Jerk,” she muttered.
“We’ve got to look for another way. We’ll find it.”
“We will.” She sighed. “Hey, I have to work late tonight. I know we have that meeting—”
“Penelope, this is important.” We’d already wasted so much time. She didn’t seem to realize the gravity of the situation. The seriousness of it. Though my daughter had seen much of the ugliness of the world, she still saw it through a positive lens. One where she believed that the truth always prevailed over lies.
“I’ll try to get away as quickly as I can.”
“Let me know when you’re on your way home.” I sounded like an overbearing mom, but I’d never stop worrying about my baby.
“I will.”
And I wasn’t telling Kane that Penelope might be late. It was hard enough as it was to get his time.
Part of me was relieved she might not make it. I still wasn’t sure I wanted my daughter near him.
The phone rang in my palm. This was why I didn’t want one. It was terribly convenient and annoying at once.
“Are you going to call me all day long?”
“If I feel like it.”
The familiar rumble of Kane’s voice settled something in me.
“I have things to do.”
“Eat is one of them. Where are you?” No nonsense. Always saying what he meant and meaning what he said.
“I’m sure you can track me on this contraption.”
“It’s called a cellphone. Welcome to this century.”
