Page 25 of Heart Strings & Hotlines
“I did, she honks and screams.” Thane’s frustration is bleeding into his words.
“Did you put a blanket over the top of the crate?” Mrs. Perez asks.
By Thane’s blank expression, the answer is no.
“Put a blanket over her crate and she’ll think it’s time to sleep.” Mrs. Perez stares at him as though he’s a small child about to climb the big slide. “This type of dog sleeps a lot.”
“Why don’t you just take her?” Thane’s protests make no impact on Mrs. Perez.
“Can’t have animals in my apartment. I got a one-time exception after nearly killing you and all.” She opens the front door, and all the Scuttlebutts exit my office, taking their whirling vortex of chaos with them.
“Well, you definitely dove headfirst here.” Rafe chuckles.
“Headfirst? He just threw himself to the sharks.” I flop into my desk chair. Somehow Mr. Carver still managed to mess with everything on my desk, and I thought I was keeping an eye on him.
“I’m tired,” Thane announces. “Boone, let’s go. And make sure the HVAC people head over here when they’re done at my house.”
“What? No, you can’t…”
I don’t even finish because he’s already striding away. Boone shrugs and walks out behind him.
“We’ll work on boundaries.” Rafe’s gaze follows Thane out the door. “He’s a fixer. He sees a problem, and he solves it. It’s all he’s ever known, so I know it’s not a fair ask, but please, just give him some time.”
I’m nodding as he exits and shuts the door behind himself.
When I’m finally alone in my office, I’m suddenly acutely aware that I’m going to be giving Thane a whole lot of my time. And not the billable kind either.
Turning on my computer, I pull up the file I have on him.
Ninety-nine point seven percent.
He’s a near-perfect match…for me.
CHAPTERSEVEN
THANE
Why haveI never thought of this before? I’m going to create glasses with the new intelligence technology I perfected. Adding facial recognition to them will allow the expressions to flash like a guide on the lenses of whoever’s wearing them.
It’s so much better than Rafe’s flashcards. Even better than my app.
I’ve been up all night planning. Now I’ll make a prototype. This is where I excel—coming up with ideas and then implementing them to perform better than anyone else ever has.
“Thane, are you ready?”
I pause with my fingers on my keyboard.Thane, are you ready?
Sighing, I close my laptop. Do I get bonus points for at least trying to understand if there’s hidden meaning in what Kara said? It was so much easier when I could take her words as: it’s time to go.
Even the glasses won’t help if you can’t see the person speaking.
Unless I integrated a voice and tone recognition element…
“Thane?”
“Where are we going?”
She appears in my doorway. “Tone.” She’s smiling, but Rafe told me this one is snarky. She’s enjoying putting me in my place, but if it helps me help her, I’ll deal with it.
