Page 55 of Sanctuary

“You’re sure you wouldn’t like that?” Rosie asked.

Shay’s attention snapped to Rosie, and she gave her a trademark full-on flirtatious look. If she hadn’t seen Rosie’s appreciation earlier, Rosie had certainly made it blatantly obvious now.

“Only in the right circumstances,” Shay said and winked.

Lori cleared her throat. She took her phone off the tripod and thrust it under Gabe’s nose. “These are all the email strings from companies and individuals who have responded to our campaign so far.”

Gabe chuckled at Lori’s clumsy shift back to the original conversation. She looked at the list and nodded. “That’s a lot of interest.”

Lori pulled her phone back and opened an email. “Not just interest, Gabe. These are bona fide pledges from people who want to see the car restored. But that’s not even the best thing. Based on the estimates you sent over with your carefully crafted spreadsheet yesterday, I don’t think we’re going to need them all.”

“No way. You think you’ve secured all the funding already? That’s amazing.”

“And that’s why I wanted to be the one to tell you.”

Lori shot a pointed look toward Rosie, but Gabe noted she was too busy gazing at Shay to acknowledge her friend’s displeasure. “That’s got to be a record for you,” Gabe said, wanting to bring all of Lori’s attention back to her while Rottweiler Rosie was otherwise distracted.

“It is.” Lori refocused on Gabe and sighed deeply. “It’s amazing. We’ve gotten quite a few offers from parts manufacturers, but the Garrison family have offered to underwrite the whole thing…on one condition.”

Gabe’s stomach sank. Conditions equaled strings, which often meant someone else wanted to be in control. She steeled herself for bad news while trying to figure out how to let Lori down easy. Gabe had offered her team’s services, but only if they maintained project management. She really didn’t want to have a conversation with Solo to convince her she had to paint the Brewster in wild pink for some trust fund kid. She cursed herself for not putting that in the contract when Janie had asked if she wanted to add any conditions.

“Who are the Garrisons? And what’s the condition?” She expected the worst from an uber-rich family, who likely had too much money and too little taste.

“They’re regular supporters of my family’s work,” Lori said.

“Yeah?” Damn, this was getting more dire by the second. A long history between the two families was sure to mean no compromise, and Lori was about to get very defensive when Gabe put her foot down. She wasn’t about to risk her team’s reputation when they were only just starting out in the business.

“Yep. They donate a very tidy sum on an annual basis, but this offer is in addition to their usual support.”

Gabe looked over Lori’s head to see Woodchuck and RB glaring at her with their arms crossed. So they were listening in too. She held up a finger to Lori. “’Scuse me one second,” she said then spoke around her. “Why don’t you check out the other side of the hood? I’ll bet those bolts have soaked up the WD-40 and are ready to pop.”

They grumbled and gave her unimpressed looks before getting to it.

“Sorry, Lori. You were saying?”

“Coffee and beer delivery,” Solo shouted as she ducked under the front metal shutter. She held up the tray of drinks and an overstuffed paper bag. “Do I need to go back for wine?”

“That’s okay,” Lori said. “We just had coffee. We’re fine.”

“Great,” Solo said with a little too much enthusiasm before she introduced herself.

She gave Gabe her flat white and distributed the rest of the drinks. Gabe heard the hiss of air being released from beer bottles by the side of the car where RB and Woodchuck were and wondered how much work she’d get out of them now that they’d cracked open their first of the day. “Sorry again,” she said to Lori.

“No problem. You’re busy, and we’re interrupting.” Lori motioned toward the door they’d come in by. “We should probably get going and leave you alone.”

“No, no,” she said far too quick and loud. “I mean, it’s okay. You wanted to get some more video for your TikTok, right?” And Gabe needed to know what this damn condition might be.

Lori nodded. “Absolutely. I mean, we don’t need it to raise funds for this now, thanks to the Garrisons, but I still want to pump up interest for the eventual auction which, thanks to your amazing scheduling,” she said and winked, “we can set a date for now.”

“Can you tell me what the Garrison family condition is?” Gabe asked as vaguely as she could muster, even though the knot in her stomach had tightened with every second since Lori had so casually mentioned it.

Lori narrowed her eyes. “You don’t have to worry, Gabe. It’s nothing you’ll have to deal with.”

Given that Lori had seen through Gabe’s veil of disinterest so easily, she was going to have to get better at keeping her simmering attraction under wraps. “Okay, cool…but what is it?”

Lori raised her eyebrow in possible amusement, and Gabe squirmed a little under her intense gaze. That was new; she was used to maintaining eye contact in difficult situations. What the hell was going on?

“They’ve got a racehorse with some sort of leg defect,” Lori said, “and they want me to take it in rather than having it euthanized. Are we good? Or do you want to run an ethical background check on the Garrisons?”

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