But when she pushed through the double doors, she wished she’d stayed in her room. Brian sat on a stool at the long counter. He had a sandwich in front of him but it didn’t look as though he’d eaten any of it yet.
Something fluttered inside her chest and she knew it wasn’t hunger pains. The same feeling had happened earlier, when she’d first laid eyes on Brian. Not that anyone would blame her. He was a nice-looking man.
Before she could ease back out of the room, he looked up.
“Don’t go,” he said as though he’d read her thoughts and knew she was going to flee.
“I was hungry.” That sounded so lame.
“Me, too.” He stood and went to the cabinet, took down another plate. “Sit.”
She moved to one of the stools, keeping one between them.
“Do you like sandwiches?”
She nodded when he looked at her.
“Good, because that’s all I could find without having to heat anything up.”
“Right now I think I could eat a horse. I missed lunch and dinner.”
“I know.”
Of course he would. He probably knew everything that went on at the ranch.
He cut his sandwich in half, then slid one portion onto the empty plate and set it in front of her.
She took a bite. A steak couldn’t have tasted any better than the slice of ham. She barely restrained herself from cramming the whole sandwich into her mouth. Brian didn’t say anything until she’d almost finished the sandwich.
“Tell me about yourself,” he said.
“What do you want to know?” she hedged, picking at the crust on her bread. Then she took another bite of the sandwich. She didn’t want to answer questions. She hated questions.
“What was your last job?”
Okay, she could skirt around that one. “My last job was in a hair salon.”
“As a massage therapist?”
“Not exactly.”
He raised his eyebrows.
She shrugged. “There wasn’t an opening, so I worked as a receptionist.”
“I’ll need references.”
She cringed. She’d known it was coming. Just not this soon. “I was fired from my last job.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and saw his back stiffen. That didn’t bode well for her.
Please let me get through this and still have a job.
“Some money came up missing,” she hesitantly continued. “I didn’t take it, but I was the new employee and I made a good scapegoat. The charges were dropped because of lack of evidence. I doubt the owner will give me a reference.” She pushed her plate away, suddenly losing her appetite.
Brian tapped his fingers on the counter as though he was thinking about everything she’d said, then stood and took their plates to the sink.
“I really didn’t take it. The owner’s son did.” Which was the last thing she should’ve told Giselle. No mother wants to know her sixteen-year-old son is a thief. But Celeste had seen him shutting the cash register. He’d only looked at her with a snide grin on his face. Her sinking feeling had been a premonition of what was to happen next.
“You’d better get some sleep,” Brian said. “First day on a new job is usually stressful.”
She jerked her head up. “Then you’ll still give me a chance?”
Brian had to be losing his mind, but she looked pretty broke to have stolen money. And she looked innocent. Probably because she still had that sleepy look about her. Her blond hair hung down her back in a tumble of soft waves.
He still wasn’t sure she hadn’t lied about her age, though. Right now, he’d guess her to be closer to twenty than thirty. The way she was all tucked inside her heavy terry cloth robe reminded him of a little pixie. Sweet, adorable.
He cleared his throat and his mind. He wouldn’t get caught up in feeling sorry for her. “A trial basis is what I told you and I meant it.”
“Thank you.” She hurried from the room. Had her eyes sparkled because of unshed tears? Or the way the light had hit them?
He had to be crazy to keep her after her confession. He was usually a good judge of character, though, and she just didn’t look like a thief. He only hoped that he wasn’t making a huge mistake.
He turned off the light a few minutes later and walked out of the kitchen. He was tired all the way to his bones, but there had been things that still needed doing before he could go to bed. It seemed his days were getting longer and longer.
Cal was right: he needed a break, but he didn’t think he’d take his brother up on his offer to run the place so he could take a vacation.
He glanced down the hall and caught a glimpse of Celeste right before she turned the corner.
No, Brian had a feeling Cal had made more trouble when he’d hired the girl. There was something about her. Not that he thought she was a criminal, but then people became desperate when they needed money. No, there was something else about her. A feeling that she might be lost.
A completely ridiculous notion, of course. She’d found her way here, hadn’t she?
But as he made his way to his room and his bed, he had a gut feeling that he’d done the right thing by hiring her. He only hoped his gut was right.
Chapter 13
“Cock-a-do, cock-a-do!”
Nikki came straight up in the bed, groaning in pain when every muscle screamed out. Who would’ve thought she could ever be this sore. She was swearing off milk and butter for life. She flexed her back as she tried to get the kinks out.
What woke her, anyway?
“Cock-a-do, cock-a-do!”
“Good Lord!” She jumped.
What damned time was it? She blinked several times, then rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She stared at the illuminated dial on the wind-up clock. Five o’clock.
“Not again,” she moaned.
“Cock-a-do, cock-a-do!”
She eased back down and pulled the pillow over her head.
“Cock-a-do, cock-a-do!”
It didn’t help, and the bad thing was, the rooster now sounded like a man who’d gotten his balls caught in a vice that was rapidly getting tighter and tighter.
She flung the covers to the side and stomped out of the bedroom and out the front door and stood on the porch. It was damned chilly. The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon-again!-and casting a deep orange over the land.
Awestruck, she just stared at the beauty of it all for a moment.
About fifteen seconds was all it took to realize she needed another three to four hours of deep, uninterrupted sleep.
“Cock-a-do, cock-a-”
“Shut the fuck up!”
Squakkkkk!
The rooster jumped a good two feet off the top rail of the fence flapping its wings, then landed on the ground, fell over on its side, then got up, wobbling back and forth.
She noticed only two hens were admiring Romeo this morning. Okay, she felt a little guilty that since he’d become disabled he’d lost some of his audience. It wasn’t exactly fair kicking a…a rooster when he was down.
Romeo continued to flap his wings as he drunkenly headed for the barn, the two hens close on his tail feathers like groupies chasing after an aged rock star.
Nikki shoved her hair out of her face and stomped back inside.
“Damned rooster.”
He shouldn’t be waking people up this early in the morning. She crawled back into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin, wondering if there was a chance raccoons ate roosters.
Probably not.
Besides, she didn’t really want anything to happen to the damned bird. Hell, she’d already done enough damage. She just wanted Romeo to crow at a decent hour-like in the afternoon. Late afternoon.
She closed her eyes and let sleep overtake her.
When she next opened her eyes, she groggily looked at the clock: seven. Still too damned early, but something had woke her. She lay in bed listening.
Was that a whistle? Not like when a person whistled, but more like a deep sigh or wind blowing through the house. Of course. That had to be it. The cabin was drafty. It could only be the wind.