She continued, “Look, things happened today that ended up with me reporting a story. The video and the reporting, they’re good. I’m not saying that because I was involved. I’m saying it because the end result is amazing. I’m sorry I broke your rule. I didn’t do it intentionally. I didn’t mean for my face to be all over the internet. I didn’t mean to upset you. I didn’t mean to have my picture turned into a meme.”
“What’s a meme?” Will broke his stare from the monitor back to her.
“It’s one of those things that people post with different words.”
His expression remained blank.
“Like, so you can say something you want to say, but you don’t want to just say it, so you use a picture and text?”
Nothing.
Ugh. How could she explain this?
She grabbed her phone and brought up a browser. A few keywords entered into the search engine and yup—reporter Lucy, standing in front of the smiling Arnold Schwarzenegger alligator. This one said, “They told me I could be anything, so I became an… Investigator.” She handed the phone to him.
He studied the screen, tapping through the variations of what the internet was currently finding hilarious. “You’re kidding me.”
“I wish.”
He puffed his cheeks and let out a long breath. “What’s a ‘Shenanigator’?”
“No idea. The ‘Later Gator’ one is kind of funny, though. That’s a pun on what I said in my stand-up.”
No response.
She took her phone back and slipped it into her pocket.
Parker’s voice cut through the air. “William, we’ve got a situation.”
Will closed his eyes and counted to three under his breath. “This day is just full of those. What now?”
Parker walked toward them with intent. “News was short on content today, so Lucy’s story ran at the top. National picked it up as the kicker to the evening news.”
Oh.
She stilled.
William squeezed her shoulder. “You don’t do things halfway, do you?”
She couldn’t move with the rushing in her ears overwhelming all thought.
Oh. My. God.
Her story had hit the national evening news.
Chapter Twenty-Five
William had managed to condense days of lengthy executive meetings in Colorado Springs down to hours. He still hadn’t quite solved the puzzle of how to keep the merger without putting a bunch of people out of work.
For now, things were stable with the acquisition, and he’d figure it out. But he needed to get home. Sort out the mess with Lucy. He’d been pissed. Hadn’t handled things well. He’d been pissed she went against his directive… again. They could sort it out. He knew they could.
Fine, so he messed up when he found the photo. There was time to fix everything. Admitting anything else wasn’t an option—even if she wouldn’t answer her phone.
Being away, even for only a day, had shown him he had fallen hard for her.
Now he just had to tell her.
Leather briefcase slung over his shoulder, he hurried to his truck parked across the lot at what would soon be the flagship station for Crestone.
