“Not at all. The bottom line is, he’s lost his sporting goods store and is about to be very miserable for the next year and nine months managing a halfway house. Please be aware an NDA applies and you can’t tell anyone this.”

“There’s an NDA?” Cooper frowned. “Why tell me at all, then?”

“Because as Living Ruff’s new director, where and why Harvey disappeared is information pertinent to your job.” Felicity waited, trying to suppress the smile she couldn’t wait to let out.

“I— What?” Cooper stared at Felicity for a moment. “Director?” Then her gaze roamed until it finally landed on the bottle on ice. “You bought champagne?”

“To toast your promotion. I was asked to choose the new director for Living Ruff. The new board will sign off on whomever I choose.” She looked pointedly at Cooper.

“Me?” she squeaked.

“Of course you! I wanted someone I know and trust and who has the best interests of Living Ruff at heart. It’s now yours. And by the way, Elena is happy to reinvest $1.4 million with you. She thinks your vet tech scheme sounds excellent. You can finally do it. Your program can go ahead!”

Cooper’s expression fell. Her hand slid off Felicity’s thigh.

“Why aren’t you happy?” Felicity asked in dismay.

“I thought you knew me better than this. Haven’t we talked about this? What on earth gave you the idea I’d be a good director? I can’t even organize my own home office! And you know that from personal experience.”

“Yes, I’m fully aware, but you have Mrs. Brooks. Didn’t you say she did all that for Harvey? That the office only ran thanks to her doing the books and organizing everything for him? So let her keep doing that. You can do everything else, right?”

“The job should go to someone who doesn’t have to outsource it to someone more capable. It should go to someone already good at it! Like Mrs. Brooks! Did it never even enter your head how brilliant she’d be as a director? She already knows the charity, has the practical knowledge as a trained vet tech, does the books, takes no crap from people, and is loved by everyone locally. Why wasn’t she the logical choice? Did you overlook her because you see her as just some middle-aged Black lady working the phones? Invisible and forgettable, right?”

Felicity’s eyes widened. “Don’t you dare!”

“Well, then, why?”

“Because she’s not who I’ve been working with!” Felicity said in exasperation. “It’s you I’ve been watching up close, and I’ve seen all the ways you fight for your clients. I’ve heard from Deedra how you tried often to take on the mayor and fought injustice. You’d make such a good spokeswoman. You’re also decent and smart, and I admire your passion and work ethic, so of course I thought of you first. Why are you trying so hard to get me to give away your promotion? It isn’t a dirty word!”

“I thought you understood,” Cooper said in frustration. “Now I wonder if you’ve listened to anything I’ve said about my job. I love what I do! I love our clients and their animals.”

“I know that,” Felicity said in confusion.

“And I don’t want to be promoted and forced to do anything other than what I’m doing. I’d go stark raving mad doing some boring desk job, even if I shoved the paperwork onto Mrs. Brooks. That’s not me.”

“You’re forgetting that as the boss you get to decide what you do,” Felicity said. “That’s the reason I suggested you. I knew you could work into your schedule doing rounds or clinic days. You could choose your mix of vet work and director work exactly the way you like it best.”

“I don’t want to work in anything or mix anything. I love my job exactly as it is.”

“But with the promotion you’d have the power to bring in any programs you want.” Felicity’s voice was rising in panic. This was going so horribly wrong. “How is that a bad thing?”

“Power? Me? I don’t need power. I don’t need a fancy title. I’m not you, Felicity. I don’t need to rule the world. Don’t you get that about me yet? Being a vet and only that makes me happy. If you don’t understand that not everyone wants what you want in life, then you’re not the woman for me.”

“Cooper,” Felicity ground out. Why am I shaking? “I did this for you. I thought this would give you the best of both worlds. It wasn’t about me or what I aspire to; it’s about giving you all these options.”

“And I keep telling you that I’m happy with the options I have. I’m proud of what I do and who I am exactly as I am. And I’m sorry you can’t see that. The fact that I have to keep saying this means you don’t know me at all.”

“No!” Felicity couldn’t bear this. There was a roaring in her ears, her blood rushing through her body, frustration and pain dueling for attention. “I’m proud of what you do, too. I just wanted you to have more. That’s all.”

“I don’t want more.” Cooper blew out a frustrated breath. “You’re so proud of me, you’re trying to change me. Why? Is it really because you thought I’d want to be able to bring in new programs? Or was it because you’d relate to me more if I was a manager, too? I’d be more acceptable in your circles if we were dating?”

Felicity felt as if she’d been struck. “Of course not,” she protested. “I chose you for director before you even brought up the idea of us having a relationship.”

“So it’s because you’d understand and relate to me more as a manager than a vet.”

Gah. Felicity was so bad at this. It wasn’t just lack of practice. She never could argue well with someone she was intimate with. It was as though she knew deep down she couldn’t withstand the power they had to really hurt her. So she retreated.

Felicity felt so tired when she said, “It’s not that, either. It’s not about me. I keep saying, I got you the promotion for you. It was all about you.”

“Maybe you believe that.” Cooper’s expression was closed. “But I remember what you said about your mother and sister. I thought you were just trying to be funny and dramatic at the time. You said, ‘My stupefyingly unambitious mother and sister lower their sights at every opportunity.’ Felicity, you’re someone who needs people to be ambitious or you don’t respect them. And I hate to say this, I’m not that and never will be.”

“You don’t understand. With my family, I want them to be their best selves. They could do so much more. They’ve thrown away their intelligence and skills to chase these random side ventures. But even so, I do respect them as people.”

“Do you?”

“Yes!”

“As people. But not for choosing happiness over career. You don’t respect that,” Cooper concluded quietly. “You judge the hell out of them for that.”

Well. She couldn’t lie and say she thought their choices were in any way smart, so she stared mulishly instead.

“Felicity?” Cooper’s voice became kind. “I think you truly don’t understand what it’s like to be someone without ambition. It’s so alien to you that you need people that you like to be ambitious or you can’t relate to them, and it hurts your brain. Ambition is what drives you, what feeds you. It’s the air you breathe.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Felicity said defensively. “I’m not hurting anyone being like this.”

“No?” Cooper’s gaze was so sad as it scraped all over her. “What about yourself?”

For God’s sake, I’m not hurting myself. And she didn’t like that look one bit. Felicity sank lower in her couch. She could feel the corners of herself pulling in, wrapping her up, trying to protect her. Cooper was going to leave her now. Felicity braced herself but didn’t feel ready. Ironic. You’d think she’d be better at this with all the practice she’d had in being left. And it wasn’t as if she and Cooper were ever really together. They barely knew each other. A week was nothing.

It’s just… It felt like they were so much more. Down deep where Felicity sometimes let herself explore, even though that seemed dangerous and risky, she could feel the connection she had with Cooper tugging at her.

Anyway, it was over now. She waited. Idly, from somewhere far away, she wondered if Cooper understood what she’d done. How she’d achieved the rather astonishing feat of making Felicity care. She forced her expression to bland and still as Cooper fixed a gaze upon her.

“I think you try to emulate your boss,” Cooper said. “You think Elena is ice-cold and focused and into her career only, so you try to be exactly the same.”

The last thing Felicity had expected was Cooper bringing her boss into this.

Cooper continued, “Yet Elena’s given up the biggest title in the business world to accept a smaller one in a city that’s not her own. Ask yourself why.”

“Don’t mention Maddie again,” Felicity grumbled. “That’s just not a thing.”

“Maddie or not, she’s clearly chasing her happiness. She’s thrown everything away for her fashion magazines. Isn’t that what you told me? She’ll just be editing five Style International magazines out of her whole media empire. Why? Because she’s decided those five magazines give her everything she’s seeking, and the trade-off, the loss of power and position, are worth it for her.”

Felicity stilled.

“You don’t understand her decision, do you? It’s another random side venture to you, like your mother’s and sister’s choices: baffling.”

Accurate.