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They said goodbye and as Rebelle walked back to the shelter, she mulled the situation over. Her talk with Taylor had definitely shifted her perception of things. Despite the ache in her chest, and the apprehension about accepting help, there was a fizzle ofexcitement too at the thought of the changes she could make and actually achieving her dreams.
For once, she had hope.
Only she had stipulations. She needed to be in charge, that was the only way she would do it.
*
“I have conditions.”
Rebelle’s voice distracted Will from cleaning Bruiser and Beast’s pen. He stood upright, dropping the brush he was using to scrub off God knows what from the floor. He turned to face her and met her usual wary expression. He wished like hell she wouldn’t be so on edge around him. It hurt that she wasn’t relaxed in his presence when all he could think about each night as he fell into a deep sleep was the fact that he couldn’t wait to see her again the next day.
Every morning he woke, his blood alive in his veins, his heart a rhythmic thump that screamed at him to get to the shelter, to get to Rebelle. Even if she spent all day looking at him with her signature frown in place. Hell, at least she’s looking.
Except he’d seen her flinch yesterday when he raised his arm during their discussion. Like it was her instinctive reaction and that brought up more questions. She was such an enigma, and although he had uncovered some of her secrets, he wanted to know them all. He wanted her soul bared to him.
He wanted nothing more than to be a good thing in her world and recently he was thinking he had stepped over an invisible line and pushed them too far the other way. But if she had conditions, then maybe things weren’t so bad after all. It meant she was open to the idea, and nothing made him happier.
“Oh yeah?” he said, wiping the back of his hand across his brow.
She spread her arms wide. “I don’t know how any of this works. You have me over a barrel there. But I want what’s best for the animals and that means accepting your kind offer that I wasn’t too gracious about. I’m sorry for that, I…well I wanted to do it on my own.”
He didn’t say anything, just watched her wringing her hands together and looking about. He took a step forward, wanting to ease her discomfort but not knowing how. Realizing instead that him trying to do anything with her made her discomfort worse.
She hit him with her whiskey eyes, so full of emotion it stole the breath from his lungs. “I don’t know how to do this, but Ineedto. I need your help because it turns out, I can’t do it all on my own. However, I will remain completely in charge of the shelter. All decisions need to be run by me and what I say is final. If that’s something you don’t think you can handle, then I guess we’re done with this conversation. But I really hope not.” Her voice lifted at the end in anticipation.
Will didn’t have a problem with her needing control, if anything he liked it more than he should. “I think I can agree to that, but I have conditions of my own.”
She nodded, a sharp jerky movement and began tugging at the bottom of her shirt.
“I know a lot about business so although you might have final say on decisions, you have to hear me out when I propose something. Without interrupting,” he added when he saw her open her mouth. “I will dictate how much money gets spent so if costs need cutting then it’ll happen and if we need to spend more then, you will be on board with that too.”
“You can’t change the dog food.”
“I won’t change the foodifyou take a salary,” he countered.
Her frown dropped into place, her forehead puckering, her dark brows sliding together. Her mouth opened, floundering, ready to rebuff him.
He folded his arms over his chest. “It’s non-negotiable. You’re not the only one who has hard limits.”
She huffed. “Fine,” she muttered through gritted teeth.
His triumphant smile took over his face and he stuck his hand out, his triumph only dipping for a moment when he thought about the flash of fear in her eyes yesterday.
He began to withdraw his hand, knowing that she wouldn’t want to touch him, but Rebelle surprised him. She tentatively slid her soft palm into his, his large hand engulfing hers and he wrapped his fingers around her, eager to feel her skin rub against his. They shook once and she was withdrawing her hand before he had time to register the stark, perfect contrast of her delicate skin surrounded by his tattooed hand.
She shuffled her feet and tucked her hands in her back pockets. “Now what?”
He laughed, the sound echoing off the shelter walls and her eyes shot to his mouth before flicking away again.
“Give me today to make some notes and get ideas down to take you through. I need to duck out for a while later on if that’s cool. Shall we have a work meeting at Ruby’s later, say seven o’clock?”
He figured he was pushing his luck and he could already see thenoforming before she opened her mouth but he wanted her all to himself.
“Being off site will be good for both of us. Consider it a team meeting.”
She nodded slowly, then swiveled and disappeared. His enthusiasm grew as he got to work planning in his mind. So many times he reached for his phone to contact his mom to organize something or get someone’s number but then he remembered, he didn’t want any outside help. He wanted this to be his private project with Rebelle. Didn’t want anyone knowingwhat he was doing and bursting the little bubble of happiness that he’d found for himself.
He left in the afternoon, pausing briefly in front of his car to turn and face the shelter. He stood there with his hands on his hips, taking in his surroundings and he was struck by a phrase he’d heard a thousand times before:today is the first day of the rest of your life.Something about that resonated with him today, like this journey he was about to go on with the shelter and Rebelle was something more. Somethingsignificant. Like he was starting out as an intern at a huge conglomerate, which was a ridiculous notion because Will already had an incredibly successful career…that isn’t satisfying you at all, his brain added.
