But he let it go because she was also right. “So, how do I beat him in a popularity contest?”
She gestured to the piece of paper in his hand. “If you look at those charts, you can see that you’re not really all that far behind on the social media front anymore. Because of my contacts—and your abs, if I’m being honest—you are only trailing him by a few thousand followers across platforms. And you dominate among thirty-five to forty-year-old women. That’s good.”
Was it though? He supposed he’d just have to take her word for it.
“You’re also doing better with men,” she went on. “According to my research, his songs are a little too boy band-y for the average male music fan these days.”
Now that was good news. Finally a group he could impress based solely on music.
She glanced up at him over the top of her glasses, which gave him a few naughty librarian fantasies he wasn’t exactly proud of and said, “Now, where he’s still soundly beating you like you stole something is among eighteen to twenty-four-year-old women. They just don’t have any context of who you are or what you do.”
I’m too old, he thought.
“You’re too old,” she said, completely unnecessarily.
Awesome. What wonderful things this process was doing for his ego. “So, how does an old, Crypt Keeper-like bastard such as myself get the youngsters’ attention?” he asked dryly.
She smirked at him and handed him another piece of paper. This one was about the dog rescue. It was a glossy, professional looking brochure advertising a huge adoption event.
Although, adoption event didn’t seem like a big enough term to describe what he saw on the brochure. It was more like a circus…in the middle of a clusterfuck…at the end of a complete quagmire.
It was a bit much to take in all at once. The rescue’s adoption events were usually pretty low key. What Kendall was proposing involved multiple gourmet food trucks, upscale carnival games and rides, and news coverage. Lots and lots of news coverage.
And live entertainment.
He had a pretty good idea of who she had in mind for live entertainment.
Shit.
She held up her hands in supplication. “I know, I know. You don’t want to use the rescue to get attention. But this is exactly what Ray and I were talking about. This is beneficial for everyone. This event won’t just be for your rescue. I’ve talked to rescues all over the country that’d be willing to send dogs here to get adopted. We’re talking about overcrowded kill shelters, Jackson. Dogs that might otherwise be put down. And there will be a cover charge to get in—nothing too daunting. Something like $40?—so all that money can go back into the shelter, too. Or you can donate it to other shelters or the ASPCA…whatever you want.”
She was rambling. Nervous. She was afraid he was going to shoot down her ideas, or maybe even yell at her.
God help him, he’d been such an ungrateful bitch about this whole thing. He was damn lucky she hadn’t hightailed it out of the state by now, leaving him to wallow in his own ineptitude.
“It’s a great idea, Kendall,” he said quietly.
“I mean, I know it’s probably more than you were…” she trailed off, cocked her head to one side like a confused terrier, then said, “Wait, did you just say it was a good idea?”
He shook his head. “No. I said it was a great idea. If you can pull all this off—”
She waved him off. “Of course, I can. It’s easy. I’ve got contacts everywhere that can help. The hard part was getting you to agree to all of it.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly very, very uncomfortable. He’d been alone for so long with so little meaningful human contact that he’d become, well, a complete dick. The art of apology was a bit lost to him these days. But he had to try.
“Kendall, what you’ve done in such a short amount of time is…miraculous, really. Nothing short of that. And while you’ve been working your ass off, I’ve been an ungrateful dick to you. I can’t believe you’ve been as tolerant of me as you have been. I don’t deserve it. I’m truly—”
She shocked him by reaching across the table and slapping her hand over his mouth. “Stop. Just stop.”
Then she pulled her hand back, laid it over her heart, and in the snarkiest, most over-the-top dramatic way possible, said, “You had me at ungrateful dick.”
He couldn’t help but