Ultimate Courage (True Heroes #2)(9)
Of course. Boom was fun, but it was obviously a nickname. Warm pleasure spread through Elisa at being included in the circle of people who knew the engaging young girl’s real name. It’d been a while since she’d been included in such a way. A small thing. Probably not significant to Alex or the people at Hope’s Crossing or maybe even Serena herself, but it meant something to Elisa.
“Next question.” He reached over the desk and tapped the top of the laptop. “What’s with the spreadsheet?”
“Oh.” She swallowed. Well, best to give him her logic and see whether he liked what she’d done. So she turned the laptop screen toward him. “I thought it might be helpful to organize your client information, all the stuff you gather on the forms. There’s an identification number for every client so we can scan in the filled-out forms and associate them with each record.”
He grunted. “Nice. We’ve been meaning to do something like this. No one’s had the time yet.”
“Oh.” She was saying that a lot. But she wasn’t sure if he liked what she’d done or not. “I kept it in a spreadsheet so it could be imported into any database you’d want.”
“Makes sense.” He tapped the completed forms. “There’s a scanner in one of the back offices. I’ll show you where that is tomorrow so you can scan and set up the digital files on this laptop.”
“It should be backed up to a network-shared drive.” The recommendation popped out before she could hold back. She winced. She shouldn’t be correcting him.
He huffed out a brief laugh. “We’ll talk to Cruz about it when he gets back. We wanted this laptop separate, but if we do start keeping client information on it, it should be backed up somehow. Could be we’ll get secure cloud space.”
“Cloud.” She repeated the term. Music to her ears. Not every office or even corporate organization was familiar with the concept of storing their data in the cloud yet. “That’d be good, too.”
One corner of his mouth ticked upward in a hint of a smile. “We’ll take a few minutes to show Forte your format and see if he wants to store any additional info. But so far, this looks way better than all that paper.”
She smiled, relieved he approved of what she’d done. “Yes. Definitely.”
He cleared his throat. “Next class should start arriving shortly. After that, lunch.”
“Okay.” Once he left, she sagged into the computer chair and chewed on her lip.
Alone again, she was a weird combination of relieved and disappointed he was gone. He had a knack for sneaking up on her. Not exactly the best thing for her heart rate. But once she’d realized he was there, his presence had filled the whole room with its intensity. Her entire focus had been on him. But not in a fearful way. Not really. She’d freaked out a little but she only had herself to blame. Her brain had been running in circles instead of listening to what he’d actually intended to communicate.
She needed to work through her issues. Preferably sooner rather than later.
But he hadn’t seemed bothered by her odd behavior. Thankfully. He was patient in his own way. And she appreciated it. Definitely a good trait in an employer.
It didn’t hurt that he was incredibly gorgeous, either. But she wasn’t noticing his charms at all. Nope. Job first. Rebuild her life second. Men, later.
Much later.
*
“How many dogs do you have on property?”
Rojas did his best not to grimace. Elisa’s hesitant tone wasn’t necessarily an indicator of how she would be with the dogs. From long years of experience, he’d learned people could be completely different in their interactions with other humans versus with animals. But if Miss Hall was going to work for them, they all needed to know she could face the kind of dogs they worked with on her own without fear.
She didn’t have to be able to control the dogs, though that would’ve been a bonus, but for her safety and the dogs’ well-being, she needed to be able to interact with them without triggering their aggression. Some things could be learned, but it’d be best to see how she did right off the bat with minimal coaching.
“We’ve got one dog here permanently at this time. Another four or five could be with us a few months at a time, some as long as a year, as we work on their training before they’re placed. I had two breeding dogs here, but it was time for them both to retire so we found them permanent homes with families. We’re not sure if we’re going to continue a breeding program on site. Forte’s always experimenting with the business plan.” He led her out the back of the main house and across the covered walkway that connected to the kennels. “We’ve never had more than a dozen staying with us long term at any given time, but we have the kennel space if we need it.”
“That’s a lot of dogs.” Her voice was quiet, but more reserved than anything else.
Surprisingly, she wasn’t fidgeting or shifting her weight back and forth from one foot to another. None of the anxious or nervous body language that came from someone about to meet big dogs for the first time. Even if a person was looking forward to it, they tended to project their nervous excitement. But Elisa Hall had learned somewhere to stuff all of her nervous tells away and project a non-threatening, almost docile presence instead.
The possible reasons for it made his blood boil. The way she dropped her eyes, jumped when someone caught her by surprise, flinched when someone—mostly him—made sudden moves. It all pointed to a very shitty history, and it made him see red just thinking about the possibilities.