Faith gave a laugh-sob, and her father gave her a solid pat on the back.
“Go talk to him,” he said. “We’re here for you, whatever happens.”
“Thanks,” she said, throat tight. Then she added, “I love you both.”
Suddenly she wasn’t the only one with tears in their eyes as her parents wrapped her in a two-sided hug that only ended when Faith reluctantly disentangled herself.
“I should probably call him,” she said. “He’s supposed to meet with his boss soon.”
She scooped her phone off the floor, and her heart gave a little jump at the text box on her lock screen. But it wasn’t from Leo.
“Oh my God.” She jumped off the couch. “I have to go. I love you both! I have to go!”
She bolted from the room without a backward glance, her parents’s shouts of “We love you too” ringing in her ears.
Shoving her feet in the first pair of shoes she could find—her mom’s gardening clogs—she launched herself into her car, dialing a number and fumbling for her headphones as she pulled out of the garage.
She read the text from William one more time as she waited for him to pick up.
“What the hell do you mean, he’squitting?” she barked when he answered.
“Exactly what I texted. When he left this morning, he was prepared to quit to make sure BUILD kept its funding.”
William’s voice had none of its usual warmth, and Faith winced at the damage she’d probably need to undo in that relationship. But not until she’d fixed things with Leo. “And why’d he leave his phone with you?”
“I’m not sure. His sisters were blowing it up this morning, so he shut it down, and then he left it in the kitchen.”
“And he’s already at Digham?”
“He didn’t want to be late, so I made sure he left half an hour ago.”
She cursed and glanced at the clock in her car. She had eighteen minutes before the meeting was supposed to start, which wasn’t enough time for morning traffic and downtown stoplights and finding parking and haggling with security.
“Shit. Shit!”
She hit the gas and passed a car going fifteen below the speed limit on a residential street.
“I’ll be honest,” William said, “I’m not sure who to root for here. Because whatever happens today, somebody’s out of a job.”
She laid on the horn when the idiot in front of her didn’t speed through the yellow light, catching them both at a red on the slowest stoplight in town.
“I’m going to take care of you,” she promised. “I’ll figure something out. Dig Greener’s part of BUILD now, and I take care of my people. You’ll have a job as long as I’m in charge. Go, go, go!”
The last bit was directed at the absolute knob in the left turn lane, who was backing traffic up on both sides of the intersection.
“I’m so relieved,” he said drily. “The broke woman’s making promises. At least Leo and I can both go back to POR if we have to.”
She groaned. “Are you fucking with me right now?”
“Is that directed at me or some driver?”
“You! You’re seriously suggesting that I just wave goodbye as Leo skips off to joingoddamn Reggiein the sexy jungle?”
William’s brief silence came to an end with a snort of laughter. “Well, I guess that answers that.”
“What?” Finally a green light. She pressed the pedal all the way to the floor and shot through the intersection.
“How you feel about him.”
