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“Come in,” I said, wishing, hoping, and praying it was Hunter.
“Hey.” Sara Raven poked her head in the doorway.
My heart dropped, but I tried to hide my disappointment behind a smile. “Hi. Come in.”
“I’m sorry to drop in on you like this.”
“No problem.” I stood and went to shake her hand and offered her a seat on the loveseat. “I have no clients today.”
Sara sat. “I heard about the licensing thing. I’m very sorry.”
I lifted my chin, determined to be strong. “I broke the rules. I have to suffer the consequences.” I sat in a chair across from her. “How can I help you?”
“Do you have any experience with foundations?”
I shook my head. “No. Why?”
She blew out a disappointed breath.
“I did just apply to one. Something about helping them assess the social programs to determine grants.”
Sara’s eyes lit up. “I want to do that.”
“Assess social programs?”
She shook her head. “I want to start a foundation. Or, actually, I want Raven Industries to start one. To help with social programs. I need someone to help me plan and run it. Once the baby comes, I won’t have time, but it’s a project that is important to me.”
“I’m sure your husband can help you find people for that.”
“He could, but this is mine, you know?”
I nodded, commending her for her desire to be her own woman. “I’d be happy to help. I have time now, but I’d need to do it around job hunting and moving.”
“So you have to stop your work all together and leave?”
“I have to stop my practice for six months. It’s a long time to go without income, especially in Manhattan.”
“I once lived in an apartment the size of a coat closet.”
“Where and was it affordable?” I was joking. Sort of.
“Raven Industries has residential properties, I bet Hunter could—”
“No.” I held up my hand to stop her. “I don’t need or want his help.”
Sara’s eyes narrowed, and I thought I saw a bit of a mama bear attitude. “Hunter is a good man.”
I nodded.
“A good man who’s been through hell and back. Who never cared about anyone…until you.”
I closed my eyes, hating that she was adding to my guilt.
“It’s not his fault, what happened to you,” Sara said, her voice chastising me.
“He thinks so,” I said.
She nodded. “But do you?”
“No. That’s why I asked him to stay out of it, but he couldn’t.”
Sara’s eyes softened. “Hunter carries too much of the weight of the world on his shoulders. He’s also honorable and will fight to fix anything he feels responsible for.”
Yep, that sounded like him.
“And you’re using that beautiful trait against him.”
Again with the stabbing me with guilt. “Like you, Sara, I want to be able to do things on my own. I’m a capable woman. I’m where I am because I broke the rules, not Hunter.”
“You can do things for yourself, but you don’t have to be by yourself. I’m doing this foundation on my own, but I have Chase’s support. I’ve asked Hunter for help. I’m here asking you for help. You can be both independent and supported.”
I sat back, knowing she was right.
“I’ve never seen Hunter so calm and happy, Grace. He can be over the top in wanting to make things right for everyone, but is that really such a bad thing?”
“No,” I said. “But like you and your foundation, it’s important to me that I take care of my career.”
She studied me for a minute. “Can I hire you?”
“For what? I can’t do therapy now.”
“Not therapy. To run my foundation.”
I swallowed. “I don’t have experience in that, and you don’t have a foundation yet.”
“Yet,” she said with a glimmer in her youthful eyes. “But I will.”
“I don’t need your charity—”
“Grace! Seriously, you need to stop. This isn’t charity. It isn’t charity when Hunter tries to help you. It’s people helping people they care about.” She frowned. “As a therapist, how do you not see this? How do you not know that people get ahead through a community, not through solo acts.”
Once again, Sara was right on in her statement. There was an expectation that certain people in certain professions, like counselors, had their lives together. But like everyone else, for therapists, it was easier to see issues in others more than oneself. I was no different. I had baggage and insecurities that had messed up my life. It was time I dealt with them.
“I need help, and you need a job.” She shrugged like it was clear as day.
I was initially excited until I remembered she’d said she’d asked Hunter for help. “Did Hunter send you down here?”
She let out an exasperated breath and stood. “You’re hopeless. Whether he did or didn’t is irrelevant. Are you really going to let opportunities pass you buy because Hunter may have been behind it…which he isn’t. Talking to you was my idea.”
