They sat silently for a few moments. She was right-he did owe her. Still…
“I can’t believe I just did that,” Jane said finally. “Trying to force your hand. It was something Scott would do. Please, forget I even brought this up.” She stood and gathered her things. “I don’t want to be hired if I’m not the best qualified.”
“Wait a minute, Jane-”
“No, really, it’s okay. This never would have worked out, not with this history between us. I shouldn’t have even sent my résumé in. I’ll see myself out.”
She fled his office, and he let her go before he said or did anything he’d regret. He watched the way her hips moved when she walked, the little hitch that said she was only the hottest woman he’d ever met in his life. But he couldn’t think about that, he had to think about the big picture.
He felt sorry for her, he really did. She was obviously in dire straits if she would resort to using guilt to get him to hire her.
She had talent-lots of talent. She needed the job, which meant she would work hard to please Max and his clients. Her salary demands as outlined in her résumé were modest, unlike those of the candidate he’d been leaning toward.
Max took a sip from his coffee cup and grimaced when he realized it was left over from this morning and stone cold.
Had he really been a factor in Jane’s divorce? Allie was tight-lipped where Jane was concerned. But she’d given him the impression that Jane’s marriage had been on the rocks long before Max’s ill-fated flirtation that had resulted in a black eye and a fat lip.
Max sauntered into the reception area, where Carol presided over their only coffeepot. He’d ordered another one for the office break room, but it hadn’t yet arrived.
“What in the world did you do to that girl?” Carol asked. “She flew out of here like her hair was on fire.”
“We have a history,” Max said, hoping that would end the matter, but of course it didn’t. Carol always wanted to know everything that was going on and she had an unhealthy interest in Max’s love life. But she was very good at her job, juggling phone calls and packages, soothing ruffled feathers and keeping all those plants alive. She was a keeper, even if she was a tad nosy.
Carol removed her reading glasses and arched one well-plucked eyebrow at him. “I gathered that. I guess you aren’t going to hire her.”
“Actually…I’m thinking about it.”
“Mm-mm, Mr. Remington, are you letting your hormones make decisions for you? I’ll admit Jane Selwyn is a beautiful woman, but-”
“She’s very talented. And she needs the job.” That was something Carol should understand. She was recently divorced, too, and she hadn’t been the most qualified candidate, either. But he’d followed his instincts and hired her. His instincts seldom led him astray.
So what were his instincts telling him about Jane?
The jury was still out.
“THANK YOU SO MUCH for looking after Kaylee,” Jane told her friend Sara, who happened to be married to Reece Remington, another of Max’s cousins. Port Clara had experienced something of a Remington invasion back in the spring, when the three cousins had inherited the fishing business from their uncle.
Jane thought it rather peculiar that two of her best friends were now married to Remingtons, but they all seemed so happy. Around them, she always tried to reflect back that happily-ever-after feeling they both radiated.
“I’ll watch her any time.” Sara still held on to Jane’s three-year-old and seemed reluctant to turn her loose. “She’s so good. Plus, when I have my own kid I’m hoping you’ll return the favor.” Sara patted her tummy, though her pregnancy didn’t show at all yet.
Jane sighed and sank into one of the overstuffed chairs at the Sunsetter Bed-and-Breakfast, which Sara and Reece had recently bought. “How much could I make as a babysitter in Port Clara? That may be all that’s left for me.”
“So the interview didn’t go well?”
“It went about as badly as an interview can go. To start with, Max has already made a hiring decision. He saw me out of courtesy, probably because of my association with Allie and Cooper. But I lost it. I acted like a harpy. I told him he owed me because it was his fault…” She stopped abruptly, not wishing to talk about Scott or the divorce in front of Kaylee. Her daughter, almost four, was growing bigger and smarter every day. She was a sponge, soaking up everything she heard and often repeating it.
Sara understood anyway, and her eyes widened. “Jane, you didn’t.”
“It just came out of my mouth.”
“It wasn’t really Max’s fault…was it?”
“No. Scott and I were attempting a reconciliation that weekend, but it never would have worked. If it hadn’t been that incident, it would have been another.
“I know it’s all for the best. But that doesn’t change the fact that I need work and I just blew my last chance.”
“You know,” Sara said cautiously as she disentangled Kaylee’s grasping hands from her long, curly brown hair, “I could ask Reece to put in a good word-”
“No, please. This whole thing has been humiliating enough. I’m an intelligent, responsible adult with a college education. I should be able to get a job based on that. I refuse to use connections to get what I want. That’s too much like…well, you know.”
Sara sank into her own chair, shifting Kaylee onto her lap. “I was so sure that job would work out for you. You’re exactly what Max needs. Are you positive there’s no chance?”
“Max wouldn’t hire me if hell froze over.” She paused, then said something she’d only toyed with before today. “I’ll have to sell the boat.”
“Oh, no. You love the Princess II.”
“It’s an extravagance, and I can’t even sail it without help. If I sold it, I would have enough money to tide me over until I get on my feet.”
Jane’s cell phone rang and she immediately perked up, hoping it might be another job lead. She’d dropped résumés all over town, and even a few in Corpus Christi, though the larger city was almost an hour’s drive from Port Clara.
“Jane Selwyn.”
“Jane, it’s Max Remington. The job is yours if you want it.”
Chapter Two
By eleven o’clock on Jane’s first day of work at the Remington Agency, she was terrified Max would fire her before lunch.
She hadn’t been all that strong in computer skills at school, and what little she’d learned was woefully out-of-date. Her first assignment was to lay out a simple ad for a new restaurant. Max had given her everything she needed-copy, photo and graphics. She could see the ad in her mind. But getting the computer program to do her bidding was an effort in frustration. So far she’d spent more time reading the manual than actually getting anything done.
She had finally figured out how to size her photo and adjust the color balance when Max tapped on her partially open office door and stuck his head in.
“Is the ad done yet?”
“Um, no, not quite yet. When do you need it?”
“Five o’clock today.”
“Okay.”
“Want me to pick up lunch for you?”
“Sure, that would be wonderful.” It was a cinch she wouldn’t have time to go out to eat. She would be lucky to get this sucker done before she had to leave at 2:45 to pick up Kaylee from preschool.
She had arranged for an after-school babysitter, but Mrs. Billingsly couldn’t start until next week. Jane had explained about her shortened workdays to Max, who hadn’t taken the news with a smile. He probably already regretted hiring her.
Jane reached for her purse in her desk drawer, intending to give Max some money, but he waved it away. “I’ll take care of it. But you will get the ad done, won’t you?”