He shakes my hand once more and keeps moving. I swivel around to Rhett. “You’re meddling!”
“Haven’t you learned by now you don’t need to take on the world alone? Let me help.”
Glancing down at the ground, I consider what my counselor and I have been working on for the last several weeks. To be honest, I don’t want to figure all of this out alone. If Rhett wants to help me, is it so bad to accept that help?
“Thank you. I appreciate you.”
“You’re welcome. I just want you to be happy. It’s a total coincidence that it would also makemehappy if you stayed here.”
“And me!” My mom calls from several feet away, apparently listening in on the whole conversation. She waltzes over to me and leans into my ear. “I don’t think we are going to be watching movies this week. You have a lot to catch me up on.”
“Mom,” I grit out, hip-checking her. She bursts into laughter.
“I need to count up the money in everyone’s jars, so I can announce the updated total. Can you both please behave for fifteen minutes while I’m gone? No more scheming, and no more embarrassing me.”
They laugh in unison. “You two are the worst!” I huff, quickly rushing off to the next booth, but I can’t help the smile playing on my lips and the fluttering in my heart. This could be my life now. Roots could be myhome.I keep my eyes on the ground while I gather my composure again, trying to will away the tears of joy that are pooling in the corners of my eyes as I picture it. But there’s still a lot of work to be done.
ChapterForty-Three
Rhett
“Seriously,Ol, I’m so proud of you. You surpassed your goal. That’s huge! And five dogs are already pending adoption. I guarantee you there’s more to come.” Mandi gives her daughter one last squeeze before she steps out the door to join Lauren, Callie, and me on the Parkers’ front porch.
“Thanks for dinner, Mom.”
“Any time. We should do this more often. It sounds like we might be able to with yourtwojob offers on the table.”
“They’re not offers. They’re just invites to talk and see if it would even be worthwhile to offer me a job.”
“There’s no way they could talk with you and not want you to work for them, honey.”
“Your mom has a point,” I say as Olivia blushes, looking flustered.
“We will just have to see. I don’t want to count on anything. Please don’t tell Dad. I still need to talk to him about our conversation the other day.”
“My lips are sealed, but please hurry and tell him. I hate keeping secrets.”
Sensing the emotions building up inside Olivia, I wrap an arm around her waist and spin her toward my truck. “Should we head home?”
She gives a nod, her eyes glazed over as the wheels in her head start turning round and round. I can practically see the steam streaming out of her ears.
Callie pulls her in for a hug. “We’re getting lunch together soon, right?”
“Yeah, I don’t think I can wait anymore to hear about your antics with Lauren.”
Callie rolls her eyes, and Lauren goes pale. “They were hardly antics, but fine.”
As she and Lauren each slip into their cars, I go around to the passenger side to open Olivia’s door for her. I close it gently behind her and once I’m in the truck with my door closed and my seatbelt buckled, I turn to her. “How are you doing?”
“I’m a bit overwhelmed.”
“You’ve had a big day. I hope you’re proud of yourself though. The event is over. You can breathe easy knowing it was a success.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” After a beat, she quickly turns to me. “I just can’t stop thinking about the next event. This one was great, don’t get me wrong, but I think I could do something that would bring in even more money, get the dogs more involved, and spur on some adoptions.”
She’s positively glowing as she speaks. Each word rolls off her tongue as she radiates more light. This is what she is meant to do. I don’t even need to know Olivia to see it. It’s just evident in the way she’s talking right now.
“Do you think Morgan or Chance would support you if you wanted to plan another event for Resilient Paws?”
