Then a soft hand landed on his back, and a warm body crouched next to him, swooping up the cards. Faith glanced at their contents, and when she looked up at him, the remoteness in her eyes had been replaced with an understanding that almost knocked him on his ass.
“I got this, okay?” Faith met his eyes, her blue gaze steady and calm, and he nodded curtly. Anything he tried to do at this point would undoubtedly make things worse.
After one more soft touch to his back, she rose and stepped to the podium. “Hi, everyone! Faith Fox from Beaucoeur BUILD. Oh, hey, Andy.”
She waved at one of the TV guys, who gave a friendly salute back. Leo, meanwhile, loomed behind her like a big dolt.
“Thank you, Leo, for the introduction. I’m thrilled that BUILD’s partnering with the Digham Foundation on a project that I know is near and dear to his heart.” She gestured over her shoulder at him, and the organ in question thumped hard as she did.
“Beaucoeur’s environmental footprint is sizable, particularly for a town of our size,” she began, speaking as if she’d practiced the speech and wasn’t reading it cold off crumpled cards. “Although we’re the twelfth-largest city in Illinois, our carbon footprint is the third largest in the state, producing almost one hundred tons of carbon dioxide annually.”
The numbers flowed from her lips with a speed and dexterity that Leo could never have managed. As irritating as it was, he was grudgingly grateful that she’d taken this burden from him.
“So now you might be wondering,” she continued with a wry grin, “how BUILD’s getting involved. And that’s pretty simple. At BUILD, we prioritize STEAM education—that’s science, technology, engineering, arts, and math—but we haven’t been as creative as we could’ve been in terms of hands-on application of those concepts, and we haven’t focused nearly enough on protecting the world around us. So imagine how grateful I was to learn about Dig Greener.”
At that point, Leo crossed his arms over his chest and surrendered complete control to Faith, who was funny and relaxed and informative in a way he’d never be able to manage. Resignation burned through him. They were back here again, with Faith swooping in to rescue him, but this time he was choosing to let it happen because it was the only way to keep this whole show on track.
When she finally reached the end of his cards, she thanked the reporters for their time and turned a questioning glance at him, but he just stepped past her to resume his place at the podium. His only focus now was on wrapping this up and getting away from all these watchful eyes.
The reporters had a few questions for him about specific plans for the various grant recipients, which he handled, but they mostly seemed eager to pack up after tossing out a half dozen queries or so. Within minutes of Dale thanking them all for coming and Leo shaking several hands, the room had cleared out except for him and Faith.
The auditorium that had seemed spacious moments ago was now too small for the two of them.
“I think that went well.” She offered him a tentative smile, and he grunted in return. It was the only response he could manage as he struggled to keep his emotions in check.
She kept trying. “Nice job with that question about the Knit Nook—”
“It can’t happen again,” he bit out.
“A press conference?” She looked at him in confusion.
“Sex.” He ground his molars in frustration. With her? Himself? He wasn’t sure, so he punished them both. “I have no interest in a repeat of last week.”
What a fucking lie. But it worked. She inhaled hard and turned abruptly to swoop up her bag. As she settled the strap over her shoulder with jerky motions, a small smile rippled across her face. “Figures my first orgasm from you would also be my last.” Then she walked away, leaving him speechless for the second time that day.
NINE
Faith was in bed with her two favorite companions: a book and a bag of Twizzlers.
She really had intended to read some how-to manuals about camping, just to see what she’d signed on for with Dig Greener, but all the options had looked information-dense and dull, and the little bits she’d flipped through hadn’t made the great outdoors seem all that great to her. Then at the suggestion of her librarian friend Darby, she’d checked out copies ofWildandLast Child in the Woods, but even those hadn’t been able to hold her attention. So now she was reading a romance novel with a hot wilderness guide hero, which was much more her speed. Especially since shewould not be having sex with Leo again, full stop.Might as well seek out fictional thrills.
She was on her stomach with her chin propped on the pillow, gnawing on a Twizzler while the bickering couple inched toward their first kiss, when her phone buzzed. She glanced at it and almost choked on her mouthful of licorice.
After that afternoon, there was no way Leo was calling to say anything good. She’d annoyed him when all she’d been trying to do was help. And yes, like usual, her help had been a little steamroller-ish. But she understood how much he was struggling, and shehadasked before stepping in. She’d been leading media Q&As for years with BUILD and could deal with reporters in her sleep, but just like always, it had jostled the Faith and Leo powder keg.
And now there he was, his number flashing on her screen, ready to screw up her day some more.
She sucked in a calming breath and hit Answer. “Hey.”
“What did you mean your first and last orgasm?”
So much for him being too worked up to remember her parting shot.
“Hello to you,” she shot back.
“What did you mean?” he growled.
Oh hell. That wasn’t something she’d intended to share with him, but that’s what he got for scowling and snapping and generally being a bag of dicks in her direction at every opportunity.
