Beauty and Her Boss

Gabrielle’s eyebrows drew together. “But people need something to do.”

“True. But not this many things. This is more like an amusement park than a fund-raiser.” Before she could argue with him, he intended to prove his point. “You have golfing, amusement rides, clowns, artists, dancing and games. That’s a lot. A whole lot.”

“But with each of those things, we can raise money.”

“How much money are we talking? Really?”

She sighed and gazed down over the list of events. “What are you proposing?”

“That you narrow the list down to two or three things.”

She frowned at him. Then she shook her head and looked away.

“What?”

Her gaze met his as she worried her bottom lip.

“Gabrielle, just spit it out.” He wasn’t good at guessing, especially where women were concerned.

“I was just wondering if it is the money. You know, if sponsoring the event is too much for you.”

Oh, that was all. This was something he could deal with.

“It isn’t the money.” Though this fund-raiser would cost a small fortune to pull together, he could handle it. He’d had a number of blockbuster movies and he’d carefully invested the money. When her gaze told him that she still wasn’t reassured, he said, “I promise. I’m good financially.”

His main concern was for Gabrielle. She had invested herself completely in making this fund-raiser a huge success. She had her hopes so high that when it all fell apart, she would have a long way to tumble.

In the short time he’d gotten to know her, he’d learned that she had a big heart—big enough to even care about his welfare, which was more than he’d ever expected. He didn’t want her to get hurt because of him and his now tarnished reputation.

“That’s good to hear.” There was a catch in her voice as though there were something more she wanted to say, but she decided to refrain.

“You know it’s not too late to pull out—”

“No. I really want to do this.”

He knew what she meant. She was anxious to get away from him. And he couldn’t blame her. She blamed him for what had happened to her aunt. And as much as he wanted to deny it, he couldn’t. He didn’t know. And his nightmares only confused him even more.

He thought about just calling off the deal. But he knew Gabrielle would take it personally. She had a lot of pride and would think he didn’t believe in her ability to pull it all together. He didn’t want to do anything else to hurt her. So he would do what he could to help Gabrielle—even at the expense of his privacy.

Deacon cleared his throat. “The events should either be big draws in order to up the ticket price or garner large donations once the guests are in attendance.” And he had another observation. “Perhaps keep this an adults-only event. Without children around, people will relax and perhaps they’ll be willing to spend more freely.”

“That’s the exact opposite of how I ran my fund-raisers for the library. I did a lot of activities to draw in the kids and by extension their parents.” She frowned. “I suppose you’re going to want to remove all of the fun events.”

He really did hate to disappoint her, but he’d been around these affairs many times in the past. And he knew a lot of the big fish she was hoping to hook would appreciate something more low-key.

“Trust me.” He knew that was a poor choice of words where she was concerned, but they were already out there and he couldn’t undo them. So he kept going with the point he wanted to make. “I do know what I’m talking about.”

“But it’ll be boring.”

He had to admit some of the charity events he’d attended were boring, but he didn’t want to tell her that. He knew Gabrielle would use any excuse to keep her current lengthy list of events.

“Ah... I see. I’m right.” Her face lit up.

“What are you talking about?”

“The look you just made when I said that it would be boring. You couldn’t deny it.”

“I was thinking is all.”