Working with Justin on the grants might have been a mistake. Being around him was a stupid idea.

She had seen the temptation coming. She wasn’t an idiot.

What she didn’t see coming was that he would try to help her with her love life. They’d spent the morning looking through the grants he’d pulled from a database and talking about which application they’d file.

Then he’d raised the issue of dating. All she could think was how ironic it was that he was finally talking to her about a date, and it was to set her up with someone else. That wasn’t what she’d envisioned all these years of pining for him.

She flinched. She hated thinking that she’d spent years waiting for him to ask her out. Why hadn’t she seen reality sooner?

“You want to set me up with your friend?” She really though he would drop this.

“I think you’ll really like him. He’s a great guy. He runs one of the organizations we fund over in Bandera.”

“Isn’t that over an hour away?” It was all Cora could think to say.

How could she tell him that it hurt like hell to have him trying to set her up with someone else? It didn’t matter that she was already dating other people. What mattered was that she wasn’t ready to talk to Justin about other guys. They were friends, but she wasn’t ready for that kind of friendship. Apparently, it didn’t bother him at all.

Justin shrugged. “Your sister and Garrett made the long-distance thing work.”

Cora nodded. “Yeah, well, thanks, but I’m gonna pass.”

“Are you still seeing Ethan?”

“I like him. He said he’d call again.”

“And you’ll say yes when he does?”

A knock on the door interrupted them before she could answer.

“Yes,” Justin called out.

His assistant, Amanda, entered. “Justin, I have the report from the Boston charity. You asked me to get it to you when the numbers came in.”

Justin reached for the file Amanda handed him. “Did they hit their goals?”

“No. They’re short by eight percent on mission spending.”

Cora waited as Justin read the report. She wasn’t sure if she should stay or go wait in the lobby until he was finished.

Justin answered her question when he looked up at her. “Since Raise the Veil’s two main goals are to spread the word that being the victim of domestic violence is nothing to be ashamed about and to help fund organizations that are serving victims of violence and abuse on the ground, we have strict requirements each funded organization has to meet.”

“What kind of requirements?” Cora asked. She knew a lot about what the organization did through her friendship with Laura, but she didn’t know the details of their programming and funding.

“We look for organizations in regions where we feel the need is greatest. That’s determined based on reported domestic violence, estimated underreported domestic violence, funding going to the area, and a few other factors. Once we do that, we identify a charity to serve that region. The charity needs to hit certain percentages of funding going directly to mission spending, administration, and other funding. Since we provide a large portion of the chosen charity’s funding goals, we have stricter requirements than some charitable accreditation organizations require.”

Cora nodded. It all made sense and would help Raise the Veil be sure their funding was getting through to the people they were trying to serve.

Justin continued. “We require a minimum of seventy percent of the funding the organization takes in from us and from other sources go to mission goals. We allow twenty-two percent to go to administrative costs, and the rest can go to soliciting funding from other sources.”

“And they’ve missed that?” She looked from Justin to Amanda and back.

“Twice,” Amanda said. “We had a volunteer go and help them look at ways to revamp their spending to meet the goals. They were able to make the targets for six months, then they slipped again last month.”

“And now this month,” Justin said, frowning at the papers in his hand again. He looked back to Amanda. “We have an alternate organization in the area, correct?”

Cora looked at him. He was in his business mode now. No nonsense, ready to make whatever decisions had to be made. He could have been running a Fortune 500 company. As it was, she knew he did a lot to manage his family’s wealth. His mother was still alive and active in that as well, but she knew Justin met with his mom regularly to help make decisions about investments and things.

She wondered if it bothered him that he didn’t have children. His brother was Laura’s child’s biological father, so his blood was continuing down the line in that way, but the Kensington family had once been a large family with branches growing thick and strong on the family tree. Now, it was down to his mom, him, and Laura’s daughter, Jamie.

Amanda’s answer pulled Cora’s attention back to the conversation. “Yes. There’s a group that applied for funding from us two years ago, but we were already committed in the region. I’ve kept tabs on their numbers and it looks like they can meet our requirements.”

Justin nodded. “Pull it.”

Cora’s brows went up but she didn’t say anything.

Amanda slipped out of the room and Justin turned to Cora.

“You don’t agree?” he asked.

“With your decision?” She looked toward the door, as though she might see the reasoning of his decision laid out for her in the space his assistant had recently occupied. “No, I don’t necessarily disagree. It must just be hard to know you’re likely about to shut that group down. Whoever was getting services from them will be left without the resources they were expecting. The employees may very well be cut, if the place doesn’t close altogether with the loss of such a huge portion of their funding in one blow.”

He nodded, but she could see he wouldn’t change his mind. “The people they were serving will head over to the alternative group and with our funding, they’ll be able to take them on. They’ll do a better job of meeting the community’s needs because they’re putting more money into mission goals than the first group. The transition won’t be great, but the long-term outlook is better.”

“You’re really in the right place, you know that?”

Justin leaned back in his chair, watching her like he didn’t trust what she was about to say. “What do you mean?”

“You’re really doing what you should be doing. I don’t think a lot of people would be able to make the kind of tough decisions this role demands, and be able to still be compassionate and not jaded. You’ve really made this organization into something important and meaningful.”

Justin just looked back at her, eyes guarded like he wasn’t fully able to believe what she was saying. Cora didn’t drop her gaze. If they were going to do this friendship thing, she would do it wholeheartedly. That meant helping him to see what he meant to the people he was trying to serve. Because she had a feeling Justin didn’t see himself at all the same way others saw him. She had a feeling the abuse and violence that had taken place in his home had shaped him and affected him in ways he couldn’t bring himself to see; in ways he couldn’t even understand yet, much less address.