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wanted to hear it again.

Christina nodded. At least she wasn’t afraid to fess up to her mistakes.

Her cheeks barely even reddened, and her expression stayed neutral. “Yes. I

was wrong. We want to give you the chance if you’d like to take it.”

“What would that look like?” Taylor asked. “I don’t want to give up

control of my business before it even gets off the ground.”

“You wouldn’t be giving up control. We would need to fine tune your

proposal, as I said, but you’d approve it before I put it through. All the

details would be in there. How much funding is needed, approximate size of

building, your business plans for the first year. If you don’t like what we put

together, and it would be based on what you already have, you would be

able to tell us to make any changes you’d like before it’s submitted.”

“And after that? Am I on my own?”

“Not exactly. We do want to make sure that this works, so part of the

deal is that you’d be willing to work with us on getting everything set up.

You’d basically have a team behind you if you need the help. Making sure

that the renovations to whatever building you eventually choose are

completed on time, making sure everything’s up to code, ensuring that a

schedule is adhered to. Helping you make connections with the shelters and

rescues. Helping with hiring. It’s a lot to take on by yourself.”

Taylor’s head spun with all the things she hadn’t really considered

before. “That doesn’t sound— uh— usual. Like— do you— do you do that

with other companies?”

“We recommend help if they need it. We have a number of names that

we can pass along—”

Taylor had the feeling that Christina was lying again. Or that there was

something she wasn’t telling her. Nothing about this proposal or deal or

whatever it was seemed norm

al. Taylor didn’t know what regular was for a

firm like this, but she was almost certain that it wasn’t guiding a project