AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I have ADHD and I’m dyslexic, which means I have to be particularly observant or I might miss out on something important.”
“Oh.” He’d taken the wind out of me with his honesty. “Was it hard growing up?”
“That’s a story for another time.” He took another bite. “If this is any indication of what you can do, I would be honored to have you join our team. However, I must tell you the truth. We’re not much to build a résumé on. No one that matters in this industry knows or cares about my establishment. You should keep that in mind while making your decision.”
“I don’t care about any of that,” I said truthfully. “I’m looking for a quiet, peaceful place to live, without the hustle of the city.”
He gave me a long, hard look. The kind of gaze that traveled inside a person and awakened every sense.
“All right then. Would you like to meet my brothers Soren and Thad?”
“Do they help you decide if I get the job?” My heart sank. He didn’t want me. I’d done something wrong that made him change his mind, despite my cake. I should have known better than to get my hopes up.
I looked up to see him studying me.
Fighting tears, which was totally ridiculous, I glanced down at the counter.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Caspian asked, with a velvety softness in his voice.
“I really want this job.”
“Good, because I really want to offer it to you. My brothers have no say, so don’t worry about that. They don’t care what I do as long as customers keep showing up to eat and I give them all the free meals they want. But they’re a big part of what makes the ranch run, so I’d like for you to have a chance to talk with them and ask any questions.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. My mood changed from fighting rejection to soaring into hopefulness. “I’d love to meet them.”
He continued to peer at me, his brow wrinkled, as if I were a recipe he didn’t quite understand. “You’re different from most chefs.”
“I am?” I asked.
“Yeah. Most are arrogant at best. Overconfident at least. If you don’t mind my saying, you need to own your talent and skill. I read your letters of recommendation by the way. Very complimentary. You should walk into any restaurant with the attitude that they’d be lucky to get you. I know I would be.”
“Really?”
“I always say what I mean.”
Our eyes locked for a moment, until he blinked, as if he remembered where we were. And who we were.
“If you’re interested, we can take a quick tour around the property,” he said.
“I’d love it.”
Caspian held open the door, and I preceded him out to the sunny fall day with its leaves of vibrant yellows and reds and crisp air. The scent of woodsmoke and pines filled my nose. Glancing around, I admired the guest cabins, each with a small patio. In a courtyard of sorts, Adirondack chairs framed a large gas firepit. I also spotted a croquet set, horseshoe ring, and boxes for cornhole set to one side. At the moment, the yard was empty of guests.
“Is it quiet this time of year?” I asked as we stopped near the fire.
“Yes, usually it slows way down after Labor Day. But we’ll have a lot of guests come for the holidays in December. We have families that come every year. Soren offers old-timey sleigh rides if there’s snow or hooks up the horses to a wagon. When it snows, we have a hill for sledding. Kids love it.”
“Do you miss when it was a working ranch?” I asked.
“Nah. It was hard, hard work. My mother nearly killed herself trying to keep it going. That was before my dad left us and Mama married Pop.”
The man he referred to as Pop was actually his stepfather. Was his father still alive? Or had he disappeared or never shown up at all like my father? All my mother had ever said about him was that he wasn’t worth mentioning. It was easy for her to say that, I suppose, because she had met him, whereas I hadn’t.
“Do you see your real father?”
He paused for a tick or two of time before he answered. “Nope. He’s dead. Murdered by his girlfriend not long after he left us. I was nine.”
I swallowed this new information, absorbing it slowly. His father had been murdered by his lover. Those poor little boys. And his mother? How had she survived that to love again? People’s bravery amazed me. “I’m sorry.”
