don’t trust me or Rafe, then at least trust them to do their job.”
She clenched and unclenched her hands in front of her, hating how nauseated she felt at hearing her own concerns voiced aloud. “So you think bringing someone in from CMF to do my job would be better for Hannah’s Hope?”
“Whoa—” He held up his hands in the universal sign of surrender. “That’s not even close to what I said.”
“But you do think someone else could do a better job?” Resentment spiked through her. Who was he to criticize the way they were doing things? He was a musician. It’s not like he had any hands-on experience running a nonprofit … okay, so he did have hands-on experience. “I’m sure that when you started the Cara Miller Foundation, you hired all the best people in the industry and were able to get things up and running in nothing flat.”
She tried to keep the bitterness from her voice. The Cara Miller Foundation was known all over the world for its work in early childhood healthcare. But she had no doubt that part of what had made the Cara Miller Foundation so successful was Ward. He’d brought the full force of his personality—not to mention his considerable wealth—to bear in the charity.
She released a deep breath, determined not to take out her frustration on Ward. Even if he was friends with Rafe, it wasn’t his fault that Hannah’s Hope was little more than an afterthought to Cameron Enterprises’ purchase of Worth Industries.
She paced to the far side of the conference room, but even that far away from him, she felt like his nearness was smothering her.
“You have to see where I’m coming from. The Cara Miller Foundation is a study in efficiency and effectiveness. The work you’ve done is …” She shrugged, looking for the perfect word. “Legendary.”
His lips curved in a faint smile, graciously acknowledging her compliment. “Thanks. CMF has a lot of great people working for it.”
“Exactly,” she agreed grimly. “And Hannah’s Hope has me.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He shook his head ruefully.
“I’m not one to pull my punches. Especially not when I’m dealing with my own failings.” She sighed, scraping her hair off her face, even though only a few locks had escaped. “I desperately wanted this job. And I desperately wanted to be great at it. And I’m just …” She floundered, finding it harder than she imagined it would be to put her own shortcomings into words. “I’m not as good at this as I expected. I thought the volunteer work I’d done in L.A. would be a solid groundwork for this. Plus, I’m smart. I’m hardworking, I’ve never failed at anything in my life. I thought that would be enough. But so far, it’s not. The sheer minutia associated with setting up a nonprofit is completely overwhelming me.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she snapped her mouth closed, wishing she could take them back. Jeez, of all the people to gripe to … Why’d she pick one of the two people who could summarily fire her? The board held her job in their hands. Emma would never vote to fire her, but if Ward persuaded Rafe, they’d have the majority.
But when she met his gaze, there was more understanding there than censure. His lips were twisted in a wry smile. His eyebrows lifted slightly.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not afraid of hard work. I’m not even afraid of failing. I just don’t want to disappoint others. In the four years I worked in Hollywood, I dealt with some of the most difficult personalities in the industry. After that, I was so sure I could handle anything.” Now she did laugh as she admitted, “God, I hate being wrong.”
He walked to where she was, then gently turned her to face him. “You weren’t wrong. You can do this.”
The fervor in his eyes, the sheer conviction nearly took her breath away. She was struck all over again by how handsome he was. By the fact that Ward Miller—Ward Freakin’ Miller—was here, mere inches away from her. Talking to her like a colleague. She shook it off. This was so not the time to wallow in his intense sexual appeal.
Abruptly, he dropped his hands and shoved them into his back pockets. “I remember all too well how hard it was to get CMF started. Sure, I had staff. I had hired the best people in the business, but I wanted to do most of it myself. I needed something to keep me busy.”
She found herself practically holding her breath. It had been three years since his wife had died. Still, she didn’t imagine that was something you ever got over.
She’d looked him up on Google when Emma first called to tell her he was the third board member. After carefully tucking all her girlish fantasies back away, she’d realized that she knew very little about what he’d been doing in life since he’d disappeared from the public eye.
The web had enough details about Cara’s death to satisfy the most morbidly curious, up to and including Ward’s last words to her.
She’d been so disgusted by the invasion of his privacy that she’d immediately closed the window, feeling a bit unsavory for reading even as much as she had. Losing a loved one was hard enough, but to have your grief splattered all over the tabloids for public consumption, that was … well, just unimaginable.
“It must have been extremely hard to lose her,” she said now.
He nodded, his expression patient, somehow accepting of her awkward, fumbling condolences. “If I could start CMF,” he continued, “then so can you. That’s why I’m here to help.”
But she shook her head. “It’s enough that you’re on the board, that you’re being the face of Hannah’s Hope. I’m certainly not going to ask you to do my job on top of that.”
“I’m not doing your job,” he argued. “I’m doing my job.”
“I don’t understand.”
He smiled at her obvious confusion. “You don’t know what CMF does, do you?”
“It provides healthcare for impoverished children.”
“That’s half of what the Cara Miller Foundation does.” His grin lit with mischief. Like he was about to share a secret. She felt herself leaning toward him. “When I started CMF, that was my intent. But along the way I realized how hard it was to start a nonprofit. I quickly realized that without the financial and personal resources I had, I never would have gotten anywhere. That’s why I started the other branch of CMF.”
She frowned. “The other branch?”
“Yes. Helping kids was Cara’s thing. But that’s not what really excites me.”
“What is?” Heat flooded her cheeks as she realized the double meaning behind her question. But she quickly forced her embarrassment aside. Yes, there seemed to be an attraction simmering between them, but he seemed determined to ignore it. And if he could, then she certainly could, too.
She forced her attention to the topic at hand. She’d thought she knew exactly what the Cara Miller Foundation did. She’d thought she knew exactly why he was here. Just to provide a glamorous face to promote Hannah’s Hope. Had she been wrong?
“I’ve lost you, haven’t I?”
“A little bit,” she admitted, chagrined because he seemed to read her as easily as if she had thought bubbles dangling over
