Chapter 5
chapter five
Charlotte
Jenny’s heels click, click, click as she ventures out of her nice, spacious office, and walks over to the coffee bar.
I peel off sticky notes from the edge of my computer monitor and try to arrange them. Every new idea I have goes on a sticky note. My coworkers tend to type everything but I’m a paper person. My memory works better and my thoughts feel more organized when I write them all down.
With a fresh coffee cup in hand, Jenny stops in front of my desk. “Girl, what happened here?”
I heave a sigh. “You dumped Felony Melanie’s work on me at the last minute and now I’m planning a huge event with next to no time.”
She rolls her eyes. “Don’t work harder than the job requires, Charlotte.”
I heave another sigh as she walks back to her office.
Maybe she’s a little bit right, here. I’m an event planner, not a miracle worker.
If this were another cat wedding, I wouldn’t feel the need to stress out so much.
But Alden Brothers K9 has an important mission and this is a big night for Caleb.
I don’t want to let him down, even if this is a mess I didn’t start.
It’s been two days and I’ve secured three more donors.
Two local businesses came in at the five thousand dollar level, which I’ve deemed the Silver level, and the third, a mobile pet groomer, donated five hundred dollars.
I’ve reached out to dozens more potential donors, so I’m waiting to let Caleb know until I have even better news.
I work until just before noon, and my brain feels overwhelmed.
My body feels itchy. I think I’m just sick of sitting here at my messy desk while my coworkers have a seemingly much easier time working on their simpler events.
They seem to talk so much louder today than usual, and everyone is in a great, bubbly mood while I’m over here stressing my butt off all by myself.
I pinch the bridge of my nose and try to focus.
While talking to one of our vendors for table rentals, I realize I never measured the interior of the barn so I can’t order anything until I know it’ll fit.
I apologize to the sales lady and tell her I’ll call her back, then I pull up an email to Caleb and type out my request for him to measure the space. I stop short of sending it.
I think I need to get out of the office. Everything is driving me crazy today. I tap Caleb’s phone number into my cell. My heart races as I wait for him to answer. It takes four rings.
“Charlotte?” he answers, sounding slightly out of breath. “What’s up?”
“Hey. I’m sorry to bother you—”
“Never a bother to hear from you,” he interrupts. My chest tightens, not from annoyance but also not from… I don’t know… joy? Why does his voice make my chest feel so weird? I shrug it off and continue.
“I need to take some measurements of the barn and get a better feel of the layout. Would it be okay if I stopped by today?”
“Absolutely. Anytime.”
“Cool,” I say, scooping up my papers and shoving them into my oversized work bag. “I’ll be right over. Can you hide the terrifying fur beast?”
He chuckles. “For you, yes.”
Caleb stands in front of the barn when I drive up, hands in his front pockets and a smile on his face. He wears a snug-fitting dark gray t-shirt with the Alden Brothers K9 logo on it. At least, that’s what I assume the ABK9 means.
“Mornin’,” he calls out, closing my car door for me. Maybe it’s morning to him, but I’ve been working since seven. “It’s a little humid today so I set up the big ass fan in there to cool it off.”
He nods toward the open barn where one of those big metal fans that are taller than I am blows air through the room. “Cool,” I say, because “that’s very considerate of you to think of my comfort in the humidity” would give him way too much satisfaction.
“Is that your logo?” I ask, pointing to his chest.
“Yep. Well, one of them.” He turns around, revealing the bigger logo on the back of the shirt. This one says ALDEN brOTHERS K9 across the top of a circular crest with a dog silhouette on top of the shape of Texas. It’s screen-printed with a rugged, tactical look.
“That’s excellent branding,” I say. “You need to get this—” I tap his back—“professionally printed on a large sign that goes out front by the road.”
“Right.” He turns back around. “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to do that.”
“It needs to happen now, definitely before the gala. It’s hard finding this place and your donors will want to see an actual sign for the organization they’re donating to. It makes you look legit.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says. “I’ll get right on it.”
The way he calls me ma’am is like it’s programmed into him and he couldn’t stop if he wanted to. I don’t feel like he’s calling me old, or like he’s patronizing me for being young. It just feels… respectful. That alone is weird coming from a man who loves to flirt.
“I set up a table and chair in the barn if you need some work space, and there’s also room in the admin building if you want to plug in your laptop or anything. Can I get you anything?”
“A tape measure?” I ask, digging through my bag. I totally forgot mine.
“Sure thing. This way.”
I follow him toward the big house and up the porch steps. This front porch wraps around the whole house. It’s so charming and cute and—ugh. An old pair of men’s underwear is tossed over a pair of boots near the worn out welcome mat.
“Ignore that,” Caleb says. “My baby brother Max says the only way to get a good shine on his car wax is to use cotton underwear.”
“Riiight.”
He opens the door, then quickly closes it. “I forgot—my dog is here. Do you want to wait outside and I’ll grab the tape measure?”
“What kind of dog is it?” I ask, while nodding quickly because yes, absolutely yes, I want to wait out here and not see another dog.
As if hearing my question, a big dog shoves aside the curtain and pops his head up in the window next to us. I stiffen.
“That’s Ranger. He was my K9 at LPD, but we quit together, so now he’s a retired lazy boy who lounges around the house all day.” Caleb waves at him through the window. “He’s very well behaved, but you don’t have to come in if you don’t want to.”
“I don’t,” I say, moving to sit on the porch swing. “I’ll just wait here next to the old men’s underwear.”
Maybe a tiny little lap dog wouldn’t make my heart race, but I’m certainly not about to take any chances with these big ones. One muscle and flesh-ripping bite as a child is all it took for me to know I’m not a dog person.
Caleb gives me the tape measure and I assure him I don’t need any help.
Even if it is a little tricky measuring a huge space all by myself with a tape measure that only goes out to fifty feet.
I don’t like the way he makes me feel when he’s around.
Now that he’s not flirting with me anymore, it’s a little disappointing being around him.
Man, something is wrong with me. Maybe it’s the stress of planning this event.
I take all the measurements, draw out a floorplan on my notebook and get a seating arrangement set up.
We’ll need twenty tables that sit eight people each in order to fit the current RSVP list with a few extra spots for stragglers.
Jon, my AV guy, gives us a good deal on a stage rental, DJ, and podium with speaker and mic setup for the evening.
I hop on my laptop and design posters, fliers, and thank you cards, all using the logo I download from Caleb’s website.
In just four hours of sitting in this old barn with a nice big fan blowing on me, I get more work done than I could have ever done in a full day at the office.
It’s nearly time to leave for the day, but something keeps me here.
I like the fresh air and vibe of this whole place.
It’s so much more peaceful than being in the city.
A dog bark makes me tense, but then I see Caleb walking Rex way out past the barn.
He’s running freely, but Caleb has a ball in one of those handheld ball chucker things, and Rex seems so laser focused on the ball that I’m not too worried.
Caleb flings the ball across the field and Rex takes off after it, running full speed.
I watch them for a long moment, see how happy Rex is to bring the ball back and drop it at his feet.
After a while, Caleb pulls the leash from around his shoulders and clips it to Rex’s collar. He glances up and sees me.
I hold up my hand in a wave. He waves back. My phone rings and I turn back to my makeshift barn desk to answer it. To my delight, the local dry cleaners has just donated a thousand dollars! I write it down, thank them profusely, and stand up to do a little dance.
“That must be good news?” Caleb’s voice startles the absolute crap out of me as he leans against the open barn door.
I yelp and turn around, heat flooding into my cheeks. “Yes,” I say. “Please don’t sneak up on me when I’m doing a private happy dance.”
“Private happy dance, huh?” His grin turns downright sexy. “What exactly does your public happy dance look like? I need to know the difference so I don’t make the same mistake again.”
I roll my eyes. “For your information, we just got another donor.”
“Nice!” Rex appears, having been sitting off to the side just a moment ago. He’s still on leash, but my skin prickles in fear. Caleb pats his head. “Sitz. We don’t want to scare Miss Charlotte.”
Rex does as he’s told, his mouth open and tongue flopping out from the exhaustion of playing fetch.
My wrist burns from the memory of that dog bite so many years ago. I take a deep breath and remind myself to be professional. He’s on a leash. He’s well-trained. Caleb’s got him. It’s okay.
“How many donors have you gotten so far?” he asks.
I shake my head. “I’ll provide you with an updated list by the end of the week.”
“That good, huh?” He wiggles his eyebrows at me.
“You don’t know that. Maybe it’s going terribly.”
He shakes his head. “Your eyes give it away. You’ve got good news and you’re purposely not telling me yet.”
Heat floods into my face AGAIN, and the embarrassment of knowing he’s made me blush only makes me blush worse. He can’t possibly read me that well, can he?
I press my lips together, taking things back to business only. “Do those electrical outlets work? It would make things a lot easier but we can bring extension cords or generators in if needed.”
He frowns, tilting his head in thought. “I never even noticed them. I have no clue. Let’s find out if they work. Hold this—” He shrugs, then hands something to me and walks off.
It takes a whole three seconds for every ounce of fear in my body to realize he just handed me Rex’s leash.