Page 130 of Sunshine

“Where’s your sister?” I asked before they could get too far.

“Her office.” They both said at the same time.

“You need help?” Ember looked worried. “I could spare an hour or two later this afternoon.”

“I have a solution,” I grinned with only partially fake cheer. I waved the piece of paper Logan had color coded for me. “I’ll let you know how it goes.”

Steeling myself, I headed into my cousin’s office. She was frowning at her computer. I paused to really look at her. She looked tired, and there was a massive cup of coffee on her desk.

“What’s wrong?” I sat down in one of her plush chairs in front of her desk. Her sparkly pink planner was open but covered in post it notes and three different pens.

Raina shook her head. “We’re taking in more clients than normal, and several of the matches are borderline.”

I groaned. I hated the borderline matches. The computer software we used based its algorithm on personality traits, job, hobbies, and all sorts of other things I didn’t understand. Could be witchcraft for all I knew about computers. Sometimes Stellaliked to rub rose quartz on the computers before running the software “for good luck.”

Ember and Terran had built the program when we were teens, with West’s help, and told Stella that rose quartz couldn’t hurt anything.

But Raina was a bit of a control freak and made sure she vetted every match before letting anyone meet up. Sometimes it was really obvious who would be a good match. Anything above eighty-five percent was considered extremely compatible.

But sometimes a person had a bunch of decent matches, in the range of the seventies, with no obvious choice of yes, this person seems like a great fit.

It usually ended with the person finding their match, but sometimes they had to date a few people to make it work.

Raina hated that. For some reason she thought people shouldn’t have to date three different people or packs before finding their true love.

I thought that was unreasonable expectation and told her. Often.

I waved my piece of paper. Here went nothing. “I need an assistant.”

Raina preferred the direct approach, and I was still too drained to beat around the bush. I sipped my cup of chai latte Logan had made for me, the taste of cinnamon and spice on my tongue reminding me of Luca.

Raina sat up. “Are you okay?”

It was sweet, her first concern was for me. I tended to dread anything that could be considered a conflict, and I’d probably been unfair in assuming Raina would laugh in my face for asking for help.

I handed her the color-coded list. “I had a mini panic attack last night. I’m behind.”

I walked her through the last two weeks of random things popping up and taking time away from when I was supposed to be scheduling things, but I was also honest about forgetting or putting off stuff that I hated doing.

I told her about getting up last night, and about the pack helping me.

Raina touched her chest. “That’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.”

I grinned. “Right? It’s like there’s nothing I can do to horrify them into leaving me.”

“Almost like they accept you for who you are, warts and all.” Raina arched an eyebrow. “No wonder you’re struggling with them. Derision you can handle, but love and acceptance? The horror.”

I rolled my eyes. “Look who’s talking. Brat. Anyway, Logan said half those things on my list are things an assistant can perform. Having one dedicated person to perform those tasks will free me up to do what I do best.”

“Which is plan events.” Raina tapped her pen on her sparkling pink planner. I gave myself a mental note to order Raina some more colorful pens. She deserved a little pick me up. “I bet if Holly made a similar list she would have the same issue.”

“She’s handling it, but how many more fundraisers or events could she be working?”

“Why not ask one of us?” Raina shrugged. “Ember and Terran are both very good at task-oriented lists.”

I felt only a little guilty for barreling on, remembering how Luca explained it to me. I gestured at the computer. “What if Ember and Terran occasionally pitched in on matching? How helpful is it for you to have to explain each case and person you’re trying to match?”

Raina’s face went sour. “Easier to do it myself.”

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