Chapter Five
Chase hoped hedidn’t regret hiring Ella. Business wise he was sure she’d be good. He wouldn’t have hired her if he hadn’t been. Everything about her, on paper as well as seeing her with the horses, said she’d be good. Damaris giving her the go-ahead simply topped it off. His sister was a good judge of character. After all, if they’d listened to Damaris they’d never have hired the thief.
He’d been up-front with Ella about the mess the books were in. He’d told her about the previous manager and how much damage he’d done. As well as the fact that it had been a struggle for Damaris and Marshall to keep up with all the increased workload being without a manager entailed. Even once Chase had come home after his injury and taken on as much of the managerial duties as he could, they’d struggled. Ella had assured him she could put everything to rights and he sure as hell hoped she was right.
No, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was, the more he told himself she was off-limits and to think of her platonically, the more he remembered their night together. Flashes of that night bombarded his mind. Ella’s thick, blonde hair flowing free over her naked breasts and back. Her silky skin. Her taste, somewhere between spicy and sweet. And totally addicting. When he’d—
“So, what do you think?” Marshall asked him, walking into the library and pulling him out of his memories. And a good thing too. “Will she do? Damaris seems to think so.”
“She’s perfect. Except I wish she was ugly.”
Marshall threw back his head and laughed. “That tells me all I need to know. So you’re regretting we offered her the job?”
“No. We’d be fools not to at least give her a try. She’s got an awesome résumé, she’s obviously smart, she gets along with dogs and horses—Hell, she had Maple eating out of her hand.”
“Maple? She hand-fed Maple and the horse didn’t bite her?”
“Nope. You’d have thought the damn horse never bit a soul in her life.”
“We both know that’s not true,” Marshall said ruefully, rubbing a spot on his arm. “When does she start?”
“In a couple of days. She just left for Amarillo, to pack up and bring her horse and dog back with her.”
“Works for me. But you’d better watch it. I don’t have to tell you what a bad idea it would be to hook up with her and have it all go to shit.”
Chase shrugged with his good shoulder, but it still hurt the other one. “I’m aware.” Now, if he could just quit thinking about that night. Surely those memories would fade in time. It wasn’t the first time he’d hooked up with a woman for a night, after all.
But none of those had compared to this one.
Marshall lifted an eyebrow and flashed him a smile. “She’s a looker.”
“Yeah,” Chase said with a sigh. “Unfortunately.”
He went back to work on the financial records, for which he had a deep and abiding hatred. Even though Ella knew what a mess they were, he felt like he should at least attempt to fix some of them. He was finally getting somewhere when his sister came in.
“Did Ella say when she could start?”
Chase told her what he’d told Marshall.
“Well, it can’t be too soon. I’ve got some ideas about pasture rotation I’d like to discuss with her.”
“You need to get one of the hands to clean out the office in the barn. Or you and Marshall do it.”
Damaris frowned. “Can’t she work up here?”
“She’s going to have to for a while. But I told her we’d have the office cleaned up for her. She’ll be more comfortable down there.” And so would he. It was slowly dawning on him that he was the likeliest person to explain things to Ella. Not the breeding program, which was Damaris and Marshall’s baby and theirs to explain, but lots of other details. He should have thought of that before now, but what difference would it have made? Ella was still the best person for the position.
Damaris stared at him. “Are you kidding? Besides being a big hairy mess, the air-conditioning is out. And since it’s still September she’ll need it to work in there.”
“You know, there’s a thing called an air-conditioning repairman, right?”
“Person. Not repairman. Repair person.”
Chase didn’t bite. They had this argument on a regular basis. “Whatever. Call someone and set it up.”
“Fine. Although there’s no reason you can’t do it.” Chase rolled his eyes. “Ella’s awfully pretty,” Damaris said, changing the subject. “Is that going to be a problem?”
“Why would it be a problem? I don’t sexually harass women. I’m not a perv.”
