Page 29 of Lovesick
“Sure you’re all right?” JJ asked quietly. Concern filled his gaze.
I nodded. “Thank you again.”
He smiled in a gentle way that made my heart catch, like someone had just pulled a string through it.
He shook his head. “Rough week, right?”
“Yeah.” I managed a wobbly smile. “Very.”
The loss hit me again. Not only my car, which was mostly inconvenient, but everything else. My job. My ability to pay my student loans. The people who came in for coffee every day and had become my friends.
Mybooks.
Tears clogged my throat every time I thought about it.
Maverick motioned us onto the couch once their chatter died, and I realized I’d frowned at the floor for an awkward amount of time. JJ and Mark sat together, across from us.
Mark leaned forward and looked right at me. “Lizbeth, I’m glad you’re all right. But that’s not the only reason we came.”
“Oh?”
Mark’s gaze flickered to Maverick before returning to me. “I know everything is crazy right now, but once it settles down, I want to offer you a job.”
“A job?”
“I need help in the worst way.”
After a moment of astonished silence, I asked, “What kind of help?”
“Today I pitched my spa idea to some local investors, and they’re excited about it. But I need a little more backing. The bank may be willing to make up the leftovers if I can’t pull enough support, but I want to try a different route first. I need to be able to focus on that while ... other things are taken care of.”
It didn’t take a degree in computer programming to know what he needed. “You need websites.”
And a live-in maid. A hairdresser would be welcome, and so would an interior designer, but I’d tack that on later.
“Among other things,” he said.
“What other things?”
“I need everything I have now organized online. Up until today, I’ve lived and breathed paper because I like to feel and see it. My mind remembers contracts and information better when it’s tactile.” He put a hand to his head. “If I can see something and touch it, I never forget it. But ... well, let’s say the fire at the Frolicking Moose made me realize that our own building isn’t so young and I have nothing backed up.”
He shrugged as if to say,What do you do?
The disaster that was his desk flitted to mind. If all his business records were there, only on paper, he absolutely could lose everything.
“Okay.”
“For all the paperwork you saw while you were at our place, there’s more. A few boxes in the spare bedroom. Then, of course, we need help moving to a digital presence as much as possible. Website redesign for Adventura. A new website for the spa, if it happens. Some online processes, that kind of thing. While you’re waiting to hear back from your other job, this could be something you put on your résumé. Right?”
JJ shifted uneasily. He must have told Mark about Pinnable and felt awkward about it now, but I didn’t mind. Mark’s offer wasn’t half-bad.
“How much?” Maverick asked.
I fought not to roll my eyes.
Guess what?I wanted to say.I got this. I even went to college on my own.Maverick stepping into a fatherly role had probably saved Ellie and me from becoming our mama. But at moments like this, I just wanted him to back off. The prospect of living here again seemed suddenly suffocating.
“Forty dollars an hour,” Mark said.
