And what if she gave in and then everything went to hell? What would that mean to her job? They were adults. Surely they could agree not to let their eventual breakup—which was almost certainly inevitable—mean she couldn’t work for them anymore.
She’d hurt Chase at the reception. But she’d never expected him to be the one to want more than a physical relationship with her. He wanted a real relationship with her. A real, messy, painful, but possibly wonderful relationship. With her.
They’d avoided each other for the next few days until he left for the Fort Worth rodeo the day before. And here she was, missing him more than she’d thought possible. Wondering if he was right and they could have a real relationship.
One thing was certain. She had to talk to Damaris, tell her the truth before she did anything. It wasn’t as if she was contemplating doing something illegal. Possibly ill-advised, yes. But not illegal.
Here goes nothing, she thought heading to the barn where Damaris most likely was at this time of day. There she was, brushing Thunder, their newest stallion.
Damaris looked up and smiled at her. “Need something?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Okay, shoot,” she said, continuing to brush Thunder.
She thought about waiting but decided it might be better if Damaris was a little preoccupied. “Can I have this weekend off? I need to leave today. Soon, actually.” It would take several hours to drive to Fort Worth.
“Sure. It’s not as if you’ve taken a lot of days off.” She glanced at her. “Any particular reason?”
Ella sucked in a breath. “Yes. I want to go to the Fort Worth rodeo to watch Chase ride.”
Damaris stopped brushing and raised an eyebrow. “You want to watch Chase ride?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Why?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Let me put Thunder in his stall and we’ll go up to the house and have a glass of wine. Or you can have tea since you’re driving. I have a feeling I know what this is about.”
Damaris wasn’t stupid. She probably did. “Wine sounds good, but yes, I’ll have tea.” Too bad. She could use a bit of liquid courage.
Damaris started to lead the horse to his stall. Halting, she turned around. “Does this have anything to do with what happened between you and Chase at the reception?”
“You noticed that, huh?”
“Hard not to. You two have been setting off fires whenever you’re together. Marshall and I already had a bet going on how long it was going to take you two to succumb. I won, by the way. So when you and Chase left the reception together after dancing with each other for hours, neither of us was surprised. But then you came back separately and Chase was pissed. Very pissed.” She turned to lead Thunder away. “Be prepared to tell all.”
Ella couldn’t decide if it was a good or a bad thing that Damaris—and Marshall—apparently weren’t surprised.
A short while later they were in the main house’s living room, Damaris with wine and Ella with tea. Damaris lounged in a big, comfortable easy chair covered with a colorful cotton fabric and Ella sat on the butter-soft brown leather sofa. She drew in a breath and began. “My initial interview wasn’t the first time Chase and I met.”
“You knew each other before?”
“Not exactly.” She sucked in another breath and blurted it out. “We had a one-night stand three days before the interview. We didn’t know each other’s last names and figured it was just one of those kind of wild and crazy nights.”
“Was it? Wild and crazy?”
“I feel weird talking about this with you. You’re his sister, after all.”
Damaris laughed. “We’ve all been grown up for a long time now. I doubt you’ll shock me.”
Ella shrugged and took another sip of her tea. “It was amazing. I’ve never experienced anything like it. For one thing, it’s the only one-night stand I’ve ever had. I don’t hook up with men I don’t know.”
“Yet you did.”
Damaris sounded matter-of-fact rather than judgmental.
