Page 28 of Not Your Ex's Hexes
Rose ignored his heightened level of grump. “This isn’t a desk. It’s a hazard zone with mounds of unorganized papers, and I’m trying hard not to dwell on how long that half-eaten sandwich has been sitting beneath that stack of manila envelopes. I’m not even certain there’s an actual desk beneath this mess.”
Damian stepped into the office and pushed said sandwich into a nearby trash can. “There. See. Desk.Mydesk… which is organized exactly how I need it to be to help me find things. Now, explain why you’re sitting there with a computer.”
“Because it’s time for you to fulfill your end of our bet.”
Terrance’s head poked out behind Miguel. “Oooh, a bet! I can’t wait to hear this!”
“But you will…” Damian drilled the teenager with a hard glare. “Don’t you have work to do? Animals to feed and stalls to muck? The shit won’t shovel itself, kid.”
Leaving, Terrance muttered something about missing the fun. Miguel, on the other hand, stayed, watching them curiously.
“Why don’t you pull up a hay bale and let me show you how we can not only pull Mari’s Sanctuary out of the red and help the animals already boarding, but possibly take on more.” Rose smiled sweetly, her grin widening as Damian’s frown deepened.
“I don’t have time to listen to fantasy ideas. I have a million things to do this morning.” He helped himself to the pot of cold, old coffee from the corner table.
Miguel interrupted, “I already did the well-being checks on all the animals and Terrance put the mares into the pasture for their morning field time.”
“Then the clinic’s—”
“First appointment isn’t until Mrs. Ali brings her Yorkie in for her weekly weight check and that’s”—Miguel glanced at his watch—“not for a half hour.”
“You lost a bet,doc.” Rose used her best Prima Apparent voice. “And I know we haven’t known each other long, but I never once thought of you as the type to backpedal on a deal made. I’d be very disappointed to find out I was wrong.”
She wasn’t beyond baiting, and thanks to working alongside her grandmother for years she was practically a professional fisherwoman… and Damian Adams was a huge freakin’ bass.
A sexy, denim-clad, and T-shirt-wearing bass…
And she couldn’t lie. It was a good thing she was sitting because the sight of a stethoscope shoved into his jeans’ back pocket did funny things to her equilibrium.
She held Damian’s probing gaze, unwilling to back down, and she didn’t. With a heavy sigh moving his broad shoulders, he dragged astack of boxes next to her and motioned for Miguel to sit, and then he hovered over her left shoulder, his chest so close it brushed her back when he breathed.
“You’ve got twenty minutes, little witch,” Damian’s voice grumbled. “And as a recap, I agreed to listen to your idea, not to implement it.”
Wearing a smirk, Rose turned until their mouths were one pucker away from touching. Her gaze bounced from his lips to his gray eyes, catching him doing the same. “I’m not concerned. Once you hear my plan, you’ll be kicking yourself for not listening to me sooner… and I’m gracious enough tomaybenot tell you I told you so.”
“Clock’s ticking, little witch…”
With a slight roll of her eyes, she shifted her attention back to the computer and brought up her presentation. “If my understanding was right, your objection to fundraising was—”
“Begging rich people to save us,” Damian finished.
“Right… and while direct fundraising would be the quickest way to raise funds, it’s not the only way. Not by a long shot. I researched for hours, and I admit, I almost threw in the towel, but then I came acrossthis.”
She clicked on the Bronx Zoo’s website, and more specifically, the live camera feed for the very pregnant Jasmine the Giraffe.
Damian looked as confused as Miguel.
“You came across a laboring giraffe?” Damian’s brow furrowed.
“Yes! Well, no. Kinda.Live-feed cameras.”
Miguel rubbed his beard, speaking first. “Maybe it’s because I haven’t had my coffee yet, but I’m not following your direction here.”
She tapped on the growing number in the bottom left corner of the zoo’s camera images. “You see this? There’s currently five hundred and twenty-three people watching Jasmine pace in her stall.”
“Five hundred people are watching the giraffe right now?” Miguel asked.
Rose glanced at the number. “No. It’s now over seven hundred.”
