He laughs with me and we lean against the building, just standing there and cracking up. He reaches out and takes my hand, and we linger in the shade, both of us feeling giddy.
“Can you seriously believe that guy?” I ask. “I mean, what a life.”
“Explains a lot. Lucked into a really good gig and he just can’t settle into adulthood.”
“Almost feel bad for him. Except then I don’t, because he makes so much money.”
Josh laughs. “So do you think part-time will be good enough?”
“I hope so. I can’t imagine Duncan actually thought we’d get that done. I mean, now that I’ve met him, I’m positive he sent us on a wild goose chase.”
“I think you’re right.” Josh frowns and cocks his head. “But Duncan will abide by the terms of the deal, I know that much about him.”
“This is crazy,” I say with a sigh. “How can we convince more board members?”
“I don’t know,” he admits. “But we have two so far. And Elizabeth isn’t actively against us, so we can leave her out of our math. It’s a twelve-member board, eleven without Elizabeth, and we have two. We just need four more.”
I take a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Think any of them will agree to it without getting some favor from you?”
“Nope, not even a little bit.”
“So we’re in for a crazy couple of weeks then.”
“Exactly. Assuming Seb doesn’t wreck us completely. But I have a feeling the board actually dislikes him as much as we do.”
“I hope so.” I stand on my toes and kiss his cheek. “You’re doing great so far.”
“Yeah?” He smiles at me, head tilted. “I don’t think I could’ve done this without you.”
“You’re right about that.”
He laughs and his head comes up into my hair. He pulls me against him and kisses me, nice and slow. I don’t know how we’re doing this, how we’re just kissing like it’s no big deal. I know we’re fake married, but somehow that’s infected our relationship and now I can’t stop it.
Not that I want to, because it feels good, so good. I love his lips against mine, his body against mine. He’s determined and smart and gorgeous, and the more I get to know him, the more I want to learn.
“Come on,” he says, taking my hand. “Let’s get to work. We have a bunch of old rich people to convince.”
I follow him, and I realize that I believe in him more than I ever have in this moment.14Josh“Okay, now I’m starting to question your sanity.” Maggie frowns at me as I pull my car into a gravel parking lot. “What are we doing out here?”
“We’re working,” I say, killing the engine.
“Josh.”
I laugh and gesture around us. A long grassy field flows away from the gravel parking lot and ends at a large, man-made lake. Low trees and scrubby bushes line the lake, and a pier extends across its surface on the other side. There are a few other cars around, and an old man walks a small white dog along the paved path that surrounds the lake.
“Larry Sloan comes here,” I tell her. “It’s sort of an open secret. Every day during lunch, he comes out here and fishes for a few hours. So his lunch is more like a siesta.”
“And he’s on the board?”
“I hope so. Otherwise, we’re about to annoy some old guy during his prized fishing time.”
She sighs and opens the door. “This is hard enough without the sarcasm, you know.”
I laugh and follow her out. I linger on the grass for a second, shading my eyes as I scan the lake. There’s not much action going on, but over on the pier I notice a lone figure with a fishing rod.
“Come on,” I say, and head down to the paved path. We walk side by side, passing the old man and his yappy white dog. It tries to lunge at my ankle as the old guy grunts a hello.
“Nice day,” she comments. “Good day for fishing.”
“Hopefully he’s in a good mood.”
“Think he’s going to help?”
I hesitate. “I don’t know,” I admit. “Larry’s something of an unknown to me. He’s new to the board so it’s totally possible that he doesn’t have any preconceived ideas about what we should do. But then again, Seb might’ve gotten his hooks into him already.”
“Great.” She sighs and looks out over the water. “You ever go kayaking?”
The question surprises me. “No,” I say. “Never my thing.”
“What do you do?” she asks. “Anything… outdoorsy?”
“I run,” I say. “I lift. I surf sometimes, but mostly I sit in the sand and read. That’s outdoors, right?”
She grins. “That’s outdoors. My dad used to take me camping when I was younger, out to a place a lot like this.”
“Yeah?”
“We’d rent a cabin then go fishing during the day. He’d take a little rented boat out, and sometimes we’d go kayaking around the lake. It was really fun. I hated it at first, but then I sort of just… gave in.”