The look on Oscar’s face said everything Ryan needed to know about how much he liked that idea. Ryan got the impression he’d put his head in a lion’s mouth first.
Although, Oscar seemed like the kind of person who’ddo that forfun.
“I’d rather clean out the enclosures with my tongue,” Oscar said, making Ryan wince at the thought.
“I know,” May said. “Which is why I’m sending Ryan with you to close deals. He knows his way around business.”
Ryan’s mouth fell open, his mind reeling with the shock and betrayal.
He’dalmost have preferred to clean out the enclosures with his tongue.
He didn’t have the first idea of how to behave at a fundraiser. Any he’d been to, it’d been as a guest. A guest who was uncomfortable the entire time.
“You’ll look good in a suit, and I remember the head you have for names and numbers. I bet you know what every donor on our list has given us, lifetime and in the past twelve months.”
Ryan took a breath to protest, but May wasn’t exactlywrong, either. Information like that just… stuck.
And he could see why it’d be useful if they were there, more or less, to extract donations. Of course, it would have beenmoreuseful if he was actually good at smooth talking.
Ryan’s skills ran more toward manipulating numbers until they did what he wanted them to do. Not so much manipulatingpeople.
“Really?” Oscar asked, looking at him with one dark eyebrow raised. “How much have the McMillan’s given this year?”
“Five thousand in December, and a monthly hundred dollars since April.”
Oscar’s eyes lit up. “What about Mrs. Williams?”
“She signed a cheque for twelve thousand two years ago, but we haven’t had anything since,” Ryan responded, half flattered by the attention, half mortified that his memory had suddenly become a party trick.
“Mr. Novak?”
“Left us ten thousand in his will two months ago,” Ryan said without even needing to think. That one had struck him as particularly kind, since he wasn’t going to get any thanks for it. His kids, if he had any, probably hated him.
Oscar nodded slowly, his eyes wide. “You really do remember everything. Do you do baseball stats too? Who won the world series in nineteen ninety-four?”
“There was no world series in ninety-ninety four. Player strike,” Ryan said. “But no, I don’t… care about baseball. I just remember reading that on a cereal box or something.”
“Well, I’m impressed,” Oscar said, apparently having forgotten entirely that they were being volunteered into attending an event together.
“If you’re done treating my nephew like a new toy…” May interrupted, but she was smiling.
After all this time, Ryan still got the impression she wasproudof him. He wished now that he’d made more of an effort to spend time with her after he moved away from home and family Thanksgivings and Christmases became less of a thing.
Still, he could make up for that going forward. He’d probably end up settling somewhere in Florida now that he’d driven all the way down here. Like hell was he making the drive back to New York anytime soon.
“I’ll go to the dinner if I cankeeptreating him like a new toy,” Oscar said.
The tips of Ryan’s ears burned in response.
Well, he’d wanted Oscar to like him. Obviously, he’d accidentally stumbled on how to make that happen.
At this point in his life, he didn’t have so many friends that he could knock back any offers.
May shrugged. “You heard him, kiddo,” she said, smiling wryly at Ryan. “Just… keep him out of trouble.”
Ryan looked over at Oscar, whose eyes were still gleaming with the thrill of discovery, and swallowed.
Oscar didn’t seem like the kind of guy you kept out of trouble. He seemed like the kind of guy who dragged you into it.
Ryan had always been the one standing back and begging his friends not to do anythingtoostupid or illegal. Oscar, he was willing to bet, was the guy riding down a steep hill in a shopping cart while his friends told him not to.
At least he was used totryingto keep people like him out of trouble.
This charity dinner had better have been worth it for the sanctuary.
“Okay,” he said, knowing he owed his aunt this much. “I’ll go.”
The impression that he was making a mistake would probably go away by the time he got out the other side of it alive.
