AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shepherding her with a wave of my arm, I walk us away from the farmhouse and over toward the parking lot. She walks beside me, never questioning where I’m taking her.
I stop and put a hand on her shoulder to halt her motion. She turns, face turned up, expectantly. “Ruby, no. This is how it’s gonna go down. You and I are going down the road to get some food, and once the glare is out of the sky, you can drive home. Then, you’ll get some sleep and come in at eleven tomorrow.”
She huffs a disbelieving laugh. “I can’t come at eleven. I need to set up the tasting room with Jemma.”
“Trix can pull someone from the restaurant to do that for two hours. We do it all the time. If you’re going to work for me, I can’t have you burning out. Two jobs and a commute isn’t easy.”
“I’m still new here. I don’t feel like I should be getting special treatment from you. Not a good look.”
“It’s no one’s business why you’re coming at eleven. Like I said, we move people around all the time. It’ll barely be a blip on anyone’s radar.”
She closes her eyes on a long blink. When she opens them, she nods, but I can see the conflict on her face. “I don’t like letting people down.”
“I get it. I’m the same way.”
She nods. “Okay. Thanks for having my back.”
“Yeah.”
Except I’m not sure having her back is the reason for my generosity. I want her. I barely know her, but I know that. I can’t have her, so there’s no point in entertaining the thought, but I’ll be entertaining it plenty when I’m alone in the shower later tonight.
I’m completely, irreversibly fucked, even as I resolve to act like a grownup and stop thinking about her. If I didn’t admit it to myself before, I’m forced to acknowledge it now—having Ruby work for me is going to test every last bit of my resolve.
ChapterEleven
Ruby
I feel like I’m living in a Taylor Swift song.
Hot guy driving fast down a dark road. Can’t have him, shouldn’t want him, but oh…I do.
I allow myself to entertain the idle fantasy of how the rest of the song would go because he’s my boss, and fantasizing is as far as this can go.
It was awkward enough when Beatrix came to the house to watch her niece and realized Jackson was leaving with me. “Oh, I’ve been wanting to meet the woman who’s made my brother less grouchy for the first time in a hundred years,” she’d said. But I felt like what she really meant was, “Jackson, why are you taking the nanny out for a drive?” I know Jackson doesn’t go out with women, so I didn’t want his sister to think anything was going on between us.
I found myself over-explaining. “I haven’t eaten, and he’s just being nice.” Or maybe I was convincing myself.
“Back soon, Trix. Thanks again.” Jackson ushered us out without further explanation and grumbled something about his sister being nosy.
Now that we’ve hit the open road, which is quiet, save for a few sets of headlights that approach every couple minutes, he seems like he’s coming back to life. The winery is closed. Fiona is supervised. He’s left his office. These all seem like good things.
I notice his hands relax on the steering wheel, and he drapes one arm out the window.
“Thanks for doing this with me.” His voice is a sexy rumble. In the few minutes since Jackson’s Jeep tore out of the parking lot and down to the main road, he’s relaxed visibly. His shoulders sit about two inches lower, and he’s rolled his neck a few times.
The night air is still warm. It’s nice to have the windows open, though it means my hair has blown around quite a bit. I finally tied it up in a topknot, but loose strands fly everywhere. Jackson cast me a disapproving glance when I did it, but I had no idea if he disapproved of the knot or the cascade of ridiculous hair that blew into his face more than once.
“No problem. I’m always up for hopping into a truck with a guy I barely know and driving down a dimly lit highway where no one will hear my scream. Too bad my phone died. I had a lot of promise, you know. Shame it had to end this way.”
He shakes his head, but I see the hint of a smile pull at his lips. It’s the first sign of levity I’ve seen from him all day, and I like how it looks. I also like that I can bring it out in him with my gallows humor.
“You seem like you needed to hit the road. Do you always feel like this after a work day?”
He nods. “Pretty much.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Have you ever considered doing something else?”
His gaze turns pointedly toward me, then back to the road. “No. Not exactly an option.”
