Page 44 of Choosing You

He nodded. “That’s completely understandable. And there’s no pressure. If you don’t want to do it, that’s totally fine. I think you and MacKenzie would get along great and you’d probably get more help from her than you would from Devin. It was just a thought, that’s all. Again, no pressure.”

For a minute, they ate cookies in companionable silence. He was offering her the perfect opportunity to test the waters of working for herself. But he had hoped she’d be a little more excited about it and silently prayed he hadn’t just screwed things up by being presumptuous.

Sloane moved the box of cookies aside and reached for him—pulling Will to her and then kissing him soundly on the lips. “Thank you,” she said after a long minute.

He was tempted to pull her onto his lap and kiss her until she was as desperate and needy for him as he was for her, but they were in the middle of a potentially important conversation. “For what?”

“For being wonderful. For thinking of me. For putting up with my crazy family tonight with a smile on your face.” Pausing, she smiled as she met his gaze. “And finally, for giving me an opportunity to see if I have what it takes to work for myself.”

Will reached up and caressed her cheek. “Why would you ever think that you don’t?”

She laughed softly. “Will, you’ve only seen a small fraction of my work with no real context. For all you know, I’m terrible at my job and that’s why my boss only gives me the simple stuff to do.”

He shook his head. “Not possible. You’re too passionate about it. I listen to you talk about your ideas and that’s not what someone who is only mediocre at their job does.” Pulling back slightly, he said, “One minute,” before getting up and walking out of the room. He returned a minute later with his laptop.

Sloane watched him warily as he opened it and went online. Then he slid it toward her. “Now? You want to look at some of my work right now?” she laughed. “You didn’t have to go and do this. We could have just used my phone.”

He nodded. “Humor me.”

She gave him a reluctant look but did as he asked and pulled up tab after tab of her work, briefly explaining who each client was, what their campaign was about, and the kind of engagement her posts garnered. Then she sat back and waited for his reaction.

“Holy shit.”

When he looked at her, her expression was completely closed, and he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. So, he asked questions.

Lots and lots of questions because he never knew how much work went into anyone’s social media accounts. He realized almost immediately that Sweetbriar Ridge Auto Care was seriously lacking.

Then he thought about his own little side hustle with the restoration business and wondered if having video content of the entire process—and not just the before and after shots—would help him get more clients.

So he asked her specifically about it.

“Well, there’s no way I could stand in the garage all day shooting, so we would set up a camera and then do a time-lapse video of the whole thing. We’d add music and some basic notes and tips about what you did. If you were into it, we could include you in the video—like a commentator in the corner or just your voice—and take it from there. Since what you do takes a long time, so would one single restoration post.” Pausing, she considered him for a moment. “Or we do it as a series of posts; we could do each section of the job at a time, and then at the end, do the whole time lapse thing.”

“Wow, I’m like…I’m kind of pissed right now,” he said, feeling more than a little annoyed at himself. But when he looked up, he saw the look of confusion on her face and quickly shook his head. “Sorry. That came out wrong. I’m not pissed at you; I’m seriously mad at myself.”

She was about to comment on that when Will shut the laptop and twisted to face her. She winced and seemed to brace herself for something.

Dammit.

She figured he must be second-guessing her skills because it was taking him so long to explain what he was thinking.

“First of all, relax,” he said, taking both her hands in his. “I’m pissed because I didn’t realize how much more I could be doing. If I go onto social media, I’m just seeing what my friends are up to. I don’t look up businesses. Not really, anyway. And if I need to find out something about a car, I go to YouTube.” He chuckled for a moment. “That must sound completely lame to someone like you who knows how much more is out there.”

“It’s not everyone’s thing, Will. I do this for a living, but there are plenty of people who just want to be entertained and watch silly videos, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But a strong social media presence can really help a business grow.”

He loved listening to her talk—it didn’t matter if it was about her job, her life, or random current events. She fascinated him.

“Damn. You are too freaking talented to be working for someone who doesn’t appreciate you!”

Will watched as Sloane seemed to sag with relief. Her whole face lit up with a smile that told him she was pleased with his compliment. He might not know a whole hell of a lot about technology and web design, but the campaigns she’d worked on were eye-catching and pretty much exactly what the shop needed.

She launched herself into his arms, and he held her tight. There were so many things he wanted to ask her, say to her, but for right now he was content to hold her as she thanked him and then seemed to ramble on about each of the sites and why she did what she did with them.

He was more than happy to listen to her talk. Unfortunately, most of what she said—especially the technical stuff—went right over his head. If she were talking about engines and everything that went into them, he’d understand it. But all of this talk about engagement, music trends, and influencers was lost on him.

But it didn’t matter, because talking about it made Sloane happy and if she was happy, so was he.

When she stopped and looked at him expectantly, he almost cursed himself. Had she asked him a question?

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