Page 71 of The Cowgirl's Forever Love
She slid her fingers slightly north and west. “Unless the house is in really good shape, you’d be better off building here.”
“What if this was a place for people to visit, not live all the time?”
“That could work, but it’s still going to be windy.” She glanced at him, curiosity rising. “Karen’s in town,” she told him.
“That’s nice. Arenas on this side of the barn?”
He was going to play it like that, was he? Lisa pointed again. “Here. I bet you twenty bucks you end up running into her sometime in the next week.”
“With or without you interfering?”
“I don’t cheat,” Lisa declared indignantly.
Finn grinned and held out a hand. “It’s a bet.”
Well, that was easy. “Want to lose some more money?”
“How about making me spend money, period?” Finn offered. “Josiah says the new animal rescue could use some cash. Whatever you help raise, I’ll match.”
Lisa stopped dead in her tracks. The suggestion had come out of the blue and it took her a moment to realign her brain.
“Really.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you get out of it?”
“Personal satisfaction at having contributed to a worthy cause.”
In the background, Zachary made a gagging noise.
Lisa snickered. Yeah, it had sounded like bullshit to her as well. “Really?”
Finn met her gaze straight on. “I’ve got a project I’d like to start in town that will take off better if the animal rescue is already in place. I don’t want to say more because until it’s a done deal, I can’t. But mostly, the personal satisfaction, on more than one front, isn’t a lie.”
Lisa thought about it. She was still in that nebulous “not sure what to do with herself” place, no matter that her family was facing interesting chaos. Tamara would be settled into a routine with Tyler soon enough, and that was her main deadline for doing the next thing.
For all Lisa knew, this was going to be her last free night in a long time. “I like the idea, but I can’t do it by myself.”
In the background, Josiah dropped something. A lid, rattling on the counter as he swore softly.
Oh.
Oh.
Therewas an idea. Lisa glanced over to examine him for a moment. It might be another strange kind of date, but maybe this was what she needed. One final project to help other people, andthenshe could move on and do something for herself.
She made her way over to him at the counter, Ollie contentedly leaning against them both. “What do you think?”
“About what?” Josiah pushed aside the pans and turned the heat down to give her his full attention.
As he watched her, the strangest sensation struck. Lisa stood there, completely unable to say anything for a moment.
She’d just realized she very rarely asked other people for help.
Oh, she ordered people around. She cajoled, she wheedled, and when it came to working behind the scenes to get done what she thought needed to happen, she was invincible.
In her world, though, standing in front of someone and straight up asking for a favour never happened. She knew shecouldhave with her sisters, but she hadn’t. And this wasn’t them.
It seemed both she and Josiah were having to stretch some new muscles today. “Would you help me? The two of us could set up some kind of fundraiser for the rescue center.”
He examined her carefully. “That kind of project would take a while to organize, you know. It’s not something we can have happen in a week’s time. Not if we want it to be successful.”
