She flushed and her jaw hardened. “I remember.”
So did he.
“There’s no need to waste our time on an interview. No way in hell can I work here now. Even if I was the perfect person for the job…” She hesitated, then finished: “I can’t take it now.”
Exactly what he’d been thinking. Except damned if she wasn’t, on paper at least, absolutely perfect for the job. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why can’t you take it?”
“Are you freaking kidding me? We slept together! I’m not sleeping with my boss. I already—” She cut herself off and compressed her lips. “Never mind.”
But Chase couldn’t let that go. “You already slept with your boss? Is that why you left your last job?”
“No. I slept with his son, who had nothing to do with my hiring or working there. And I was supposedly engaged to him at the time.”
“Thecowboy? The one who made you down on all of us?”
She shrugged. “It’s none of your business.”
True. “It would be if I was interviewing you.”
“Well, you’re not. We’re done here.”
“Wait.” He should just let her go. Talk about a complication. Nevertheless, he said, “Maybe we can work around it.”
She stared at him open-mouthed. “What? If you think I’m going to—”
“Give me a break, Ella. Settle down. I’m not saying we should sleep together again.” Although he’d like to. Unfortunately. “I’m saying we should do the interview and see if we even think you’re the one for the job. You have a hell of a résumé.” If he thought that would pacify her he was wrong.
“Thank you,” she said, dropping the temperature down from ice cold to absolutely frigid.
“We can just do the interview as if that night never happened. It was one night, Ella.” And they desperately needed a ranch manager who knew her stuff.
She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her fingers on her arm. He could sense her weakening.
“Do I seem like the type of guy who hits on his employees?”
She studied him a moment before she said reluctantly, “No.”
“Good. Because I don’t. Besides that, when I’m not injured I’m on the road a lot. I’ve got another four to six weeks before I can go back. And I’ve got an endorsement deal with Kelly Boots that is going to take up a lot of time while I’m home.” Some time, anyway. “You’ll be dealing with Damaris and Marshall more than me. So why don’t we go to the office? We’ll talk first and then I’ll show you around.”
He led her down a hallway to the office, a large, comfortable, not terribly neat room. Back when his parents lived there it had been the library, as evidenced by the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Now it also doubled as an office, the manager’s office being in the barn and unoccupied at the moment. “Have a seat,” he told her, motioning to one of the leather chairs, and he leaned back with his butt against the desk.
He hadn’t had a chance to straighten up and Ruthie—their housekeeper, cook, woman of all trades—was off today for a doctor’s appointment. The large mahogany desk was piled with papers in several stacks, along with field rotation, ranch management, and horse farm management books, a curry comb, a water bottle, and a super-sized bag of M&M’s. Absently, he reached for the candy and offered Ella the bag. She shook her head so he poured a few into his hand and popped them in his mouth. “Your references are good. Hell, they’re great. But you don’t look old enough to have had as much experience as you claim.”
“I’m twenty-eight. Which it says on my résumé.”
He flashed a smile. “I read it. That’s still young to have had over ten years of experience with horses and in ranch management.”
“I started young and worked my way up.”
He nodded. “Your former employer thinks very highly of you. And since you were there for so long you must have enjoyed it. Why did you leave?”
“Take a wild guess.”
“It didn’t work out with the cowboy.”
