Italsoturned out that given the slightest opportunity to do so, his koala could come up with much,muchcruder suggestions than Ollie would ever permit himself to imagine, and would make a series of enthusiastic grunting noises to accompany those suggestions.
Ollie, trying to be a gentleman despite his entire bodyandhis shifter animal being in full rebellion on the topic, said, "Anything the lady wants," in a rather desperate voice.
Tiffany burst out laughing. "You really are sweet, aren't you? Well, look, I'd consider it, but realistically, there aren't any trees, and I've got a gazebo to rebuild by Saturday at noon—I don't even want to think about how long you'd all already spent decorating it, too, so probably earlier than that to be safe—so we may have to put off the shenanigans for a while."
"Can I help?" Ollie made a face. "With the gazebo, not the shenanigans. Not that I don't want shenanigans. I'm all for shenanigans." He'd never said that word before in his life. Now he apparently couldn't stop.
Tiffany's mouth made that wonderful holding-back-laughter shape again. "You can help."
"Really?"
She pointed toward the considerable crowd of people who had gathered around the wreck of the gazebo at just enough distance to be considered safe. "You can tell them what's going on, and if that awful little Mr. West comes back out, you can run interference while we figure out what kind of work needs to be done to repair this thing properly. My God," she added, taking a better look at the crowd. "Is the entiretownhere?"
The gazebo-decorating team had certainly grouped together closest of all. Several were holding lemonades; one of them had an ice cream dripping over her hand, and Sarah, the town librarian and gazebo-decorating ringleader, had an expression close to tears. Behind them an ever-increasing number of people spread across the square, phones lifted to take pictures or to be talked into. Ollie could hear someone saying, "How oldwasit?"
He certainly had no idea, himself. Old enough that the person asking was noticeably older thanhewas, at least, which suggested the gazebo had probably stood for sixty or more years. He turned to ask Tiffany if she knew, and discovered she had set her shoulders and started for the gazebo's front steps, which most of the gathering were facing. Ollie blurted, "Oh no, I said I would—" and chased after her, but Tiffany gave him a weary smile as she climbed the steps.
"Of the two of us, I'm the one with the hardhat. Step back, please." She then waved a hand and lifted her voice. "Folks, I'm sorry about this, obviously. I'm Tiffany Wright of Wright Construction, and my team is here to build the new playground."
A shriek of childish excitement rose from somewhere in the gathering, followed by an audible squeak of dismay as the kid was cut off, presumably by their parent. Tiffany smiled briefly, but continued. "My crewman driving the crane was stung by a bee and had an anaphylactic reaction?—"
Just like that, the murmur that arose from the crowd changed tone entirely, anger and outrage becoming concern and worry. Tiffany smiled again, just as briefly. "He had his EpiPen with him and the medication was administered quickly, so it looks like he'll be all right. He's on the way to the hospital now to be checked over. But obviously we're devastated to have done this damage, and our first order of business is going to be repairing it. We've asked for the blueprints, and if anyone has pictures, especially interior photos, that they'd like to share,you can email them to me at our website. Oliver Campbell will answer any other questions you have."
She stepped down and gave Ollie a smile all for himself, instead of the quick, polished ones she'd offered the townspeople as she spoke. He breathed, "I was going to explain for you," but Tiffany shook her head.
"Better for me to do it, so it doesn't look like I'm avoiding responsibility. Now I've delegated. Departments, remember?" She put her hand on his arm, and Ollie swore he felt heat spill through his whole body. "Thank you for stepping up," she said more seriously. "My guys and I are going to be really busy, and having somebody who's willing to talk to people for me right now is going to make a huge difference. I really appreciate it."
"Anything you need." Ollie reviewed that quickly, making sure it wasn't anything that could be taken in more than one way?—
Like our sheila can!
Ollie closed his eyes.Notto envision multiple ways he might entangle himself with Tiffany, but because he couldn't deal with the koala while actually gazing down at his fated mate. Not right now, at least.First: you're nasty. Second: nobody calls women 'sheilas' anymore, you antiquated drop bear. Third: shutup.
He had noideahow he was going to introduce his shifter self to this amazing, tough, gorgeous, put-together woman without her drop-kicking him into the sun.
But that'd be hot, the koala said brightly, and Ollie was fairly certain it meant in the sexy appealing way, not the 5,600 degree way.
Tiffany had patted his arm and gone back into the gazebo to talk to her team while Ollie had been standing there scolding his koala like an idiot. He was never going to make a good impression if she kept having better things to do than stay with him.
Which clearly meant he needed to have nothing better to do than stay withher. And he didn't. He knew that in his soul.
Except she had asked him to do something. Ollie shook himself and spun to face the gawking onlookers, prepared to take on anybody who wanted to speak with Tiffany.
Yeah! the koala said enthusiastically.We can take 'em!
Not…not that kind of taking on, fella…
For a moment he almost felt sorry for the koala. All it really wanted in life was to get into a really good bar fight, and there was stick-in-the-mud Ollie, making sure that didn't happen. Granted, it was Ollie himself who would actually be doing the fighting, so he didn't feeltoosorry for the ornery little beast, but still.
The koala, mopeishly, said,I also wanna make Tiffany happy,and Ollie chuckled.
Yeah, mate, I know. We'll get there, all right? We only met her an hour ago.
It had been a very busy hour. To Ollie's relief, most of the next several weren't quite as busy. Or at least, not for him. Tiffany, on the other hand…
The town planner arrived with blueprints and ideas that ended up spread all over the lawn. People came and went from the square, finding out what had happened, exchanging gossip, having picnics, bustling around in a cheerful, overheated, late summer afternoon kind of way. Steve returned with his fiancee, Charlee, who stared at the wrecked gazebo for three full minutes without expression. Then her chin quivered and she hurried away with Steve in her wake, promising everything would be fine.
Most of Tiffany's construction team arrived. They all stood around together for a while, hardhats pushed back on their heads, hands on their waists, gazes fixed critically on the crane hook stuck in the gazebo's roof. Apparently they had decided notto disengage it until they got support in place for the roof, so as Ollie watched in surprise and awe, they fetched scaffolding, safety fencing, ladders, and the kind of grimly satisfied determination that people sometimes got when they were faced with an improbable task and an impossible deadline.
