“Is that an app?”
Adam nods affirmatively. “Just a basic layout right now, a little backdoor work. It’s nowhere near finished, but I have a plan in mind. Something to get people really excited about the sanctuary, and make them feel involved. People want to believe they’re a part of a solution, and we can help show them they are.” He pulls up and swipes through some screenshots now, showing mock-ups of different pages, and what looks like a place for something interactive, little stick-figure doodles of animals on the screen.
I am in awe.
“You did all of this?”
His free hand goes to the back of his neck and rubs it. “Yeah. I mean, it wasn’t that big of a deal, really.”
“Don’t let him fool you. He stayed up all night trying to make sure the flow was perfect.”
Adam shoots Jasper a narrowed glare, which makes Jasper laugh.
I rise up on my tiptoes, put my palm to the side of Adam’s face and pull him toward me to kiss the cheek of this man who’s got to be almost a foot taller than me. He fumbles with his tablet when my lips touch his smooth, freshly-shaven skin, like he almost drops the device.
“Thank you, Adam.”
His cheeks are more than pink now, and I stifle my giggle.
Adam eventually puts his devices back into his car and helps us empty out the trailer. As I’d suspected, the items inside were nearly ninety-percent trash, which makes me wonder why in the world Jim kept any of it in the first place. I had to second-guess myself several times on things like empty photo frames and boxes of ballpoint pens that had to be dried out by now, believing there had to be something I was missing. But I opened everything up, took things apart, and it was simply trash.
By the time everything was sorted and cleaned, I realize we’ve worked well past lunch. “What does everyone think of pizza?”
“I love ‘za,” Jasper says at the same time as Adam says, “I could eat a horse.” Then he looks at Pie in the pasture and winces. “Not that one, though.”
As I laugh, I look at Ezra expectantly. His face is a myriad of emotions, like he’s trying hard to come up with a way to turn me down. I don’t know what’s going on with him, but all I feel is relief when he finally says, “I wouldn’t turn down pizza.”
I order from the Foo-D app, and while we wait for delivery, I assess the outside of the trailer. “This thing is rotten through and through. I’m glad no one fell through the floor in there.”
“There are a few holes, so don’t go wandering inside without a torch.” Ezra comes up beside me, close enough I can feel hisbody heat, elevated from working so hard. I look up at him, cowboy hat back firmly in place now that he isn’t ducking in and out of the trailer’s tight spaces.
Tapping on my phone, I pull up the searches I’d saved from last night and show him the first one. It’s my favorite. “What do you think?”
He blinks down at the screen, then shields it against the sun’s glare with his giant hand, and those pale green eyes grow wide. “That’s way too much.”
I’m frowning when I take my phone back and look at it. The trailer is really nice looking. A two-bedroom, one bath, all modern interior. According to the city, this trailer would be a much easier swap for the old one than an even larger one would be. I don’t know much about utility hookups, but I assume they have something to do with it.
Ezra thinks I’m getting this for him. And in a way, I totally am. But the thing is, I’m also being selfish. And a little sneaky.
Having Ezra living here, being close to him, I keep hoping he’ll open up, let his defenses down. And one day, I hope he won’t be living in the trailer anymore. I want him to live with me.Us.
But I’m getting way too ahead of myself.
So, I look up into his eyes and cross my arms over my chest. “Well, this is the one I’m going to get, so if you think it isn’t good enough to suit your needs, speak now or forever hold your peace.”
His brow, quite a bit darker than his pale hair, furrows as his lips flatten. I keep my expression carefully stern as we stare at each other, until eventually he sighs, his entire body shrinking a bit with the action.
“All right.”
It’s like the words pain him a great deal, but to show him this was the right choice, I flash a smile and bounce on the balls of my feet once.
When our lunch arrives—or more accurately, our early dinner at this point—we eat in the backyard, which was definitely a choice I hadn’t thought completely through.
All the dogs make a circle around our table, sitting and staring at us with those adorable, pleading eyes. Then, Dini makes a rare appearance, sitting off to the side, away from the dogs and by herself. I’m guessing pepperoni may have called to her.
And, not to be left out, little Odin came outside, too, following his tiny nose and bumping into Nikki as she stares longingly up at me. Odin sits beside her, his nose wiggling with every sniff.
Remy is cuddling up against Ezra’s shin, and he keeps peering down at her inquisitively when she tosses her head back to look up at him.
