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Gina couldn’t either, and she watched as Todd swung himself into a huge pickup truck the way men did to get in saddles. Without thinking too hard, she started jogging toward him. With any luck at all, she might be able to flag him down.
Turned out, luck and the Lord were on her side, because he backed out and pointed his truck right at her. Needlessly, she waved both hands above her head, hating herself and what her life had come to in that moment strongly.
He took care of that truck, because she could clearly see his eyebrows lift through the impeccably clean windshield.
Can’t back out now, she thought, and she continued over to his window. “Hey,” she said breathlessly. She hadn’t been in a kitchen in a month now, and she didn’t subscribe to exercising all that much. “What job out at the ranch?”
This time, Todd’s eyebrows shot toward the sky. “You want a job at the ranch?”
“I need a job,” she said, not appreciating his attitude. “Cal said it was for a cook.”
“Pastry chef,” Todd said, reaching to rub the bridge of his nose. “Does Blake know you’re back?”
“No,” Gina said. “Listen, Todd, you knowI’ma pastry chef, right?”
“I’ve heard,” he said wearily.
“Would your daddy interview me?”
Todd appraised her, and wow, the Stewarts had always had eyes that could dive right into a person’s inner-most secrets. Blake had done that to her countless times, but his whole family could achieve the same thing. “I’m not going to keep this a secret from my brother.”
“But you don’t need to tell him right this second either,” Gina said. Desperation clogged her throat. “Listen, what about this?” She put one foot on the runner of his truck and boosted herself up so she was more eye-level with him.
“I come interview. If your daddy likes me and my résumé and I get the job, then you can tell Blake. Or I’ll tell him.” She swallowed, her fear and all of the past she shared with Blake and his family lodging in the back of her throat. “But if I don’t, then…no big deal. He’ll find out I’m back in Chestnut Springs when he comes to church or…something.”
Both Todd and Gina knew Blake didn’t make the trip to town for church. Or much of anything. He had brothers and sisters who brought him his groceries and took care of his errands. He ran the family dude ranch, at least if his daddy had started thinking about retiring.
Maybe she was wrong, because Max Stewart was obviously conducting the interviews.
Todd cocked his left eyebrow, but he was considering her proposal.
“Please, Todd,” she said, stopping herself from adding a plea that she needed a job. She’d take one almost anywhere, but if she could get something that actually utilized her education skills? That was the job she wanted.
“Fine,” he said with a sigh. He scanned her down to her toes, though he couldn’t possibly see below her chest. “Can you come out this afternoon? I know Daddy wants to get this done today.”
“What time?”
“Come on out any time,” Todd said, and discontent wove through Gina. She didn’t want “any time.” She didn’t want to show up and wait for an hour while others got interviews.
“I have my mama’s groceries,” Gina said, stepping down off the runner. “I’ll come after that?”
“Should be fine,” Todd said, looking out the windshield. Another car came their way, and Gina fell back to the parked cars so it could pass.
“Thanks, Todd,” Gina said, and Todd nodded his hat at her and eased down the row.
Gina took a deep breath and looked around. The wind blew across her face, and Gina shivered in the late winter weather here in the Hill Country. She didn’t even know what she was doing, standing here in this parking lot.
“Car,” she muttered, finally spotting her father’s semi-old truck and striding toward it. “Groceries. Job interview.”
* * *
An hour later,Gina turned and went under the massive arch that announced her arrival at the Texas Longhorn Ranch. “That’s new,” she said to herself and all the perfume that had come with her in the car.
There’d always been a sign here at the Longhorn Ranch, but not one that nice, and never with hand-carving. She wondered if one of the Stewarts had done it, or if they’d hired it out.
The roads, which had always been dirt, seemed nicer. They were still dirt, but it was packed and dark, and almost as smooth as the asphalt she’d driven on from town. Twenty minutes it had taken her to get from the house where she’d grown up to this ranch, and that hadn’t changed.
The lampposts along the quarter-mile stretch between the entrance and the lodge had, as had the hanging flower pots which actually boasted colorful blooms. The parking lot was still dirt, but at least three more buildings had been added to the epicenter of the ranch, which was the lodge itself.
