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They’d gone from friends to more, and he’d sure enjoyed their last couple of years of high school. He’d known about her wings from the age of ten, and he wasn’t sure why he’d thought he’d be able to clip them.
He cleared his throat and headed for his desk. “When did you get back into town?”
“Four or five days ago.”
He sat and shuffled some papers around his desk. He couldn’t switch them around too much, because they had to be signed and given back to Lindsey before the end of the day. He picked up his pen to get his signature on the lines where it belonged. “And? Just visiting?”
If she was here about a job, she wasn’t just visiting, and he knew it.
“No,” she said, coming closer.
Blake steadfastly refused to look at her. He could resist Gina for several seconds, but if she stayed in this office for much longer than that, he’d look at her and fall for her all over again. He practically scribbled his name as she sat down.
“Do you run the ranch now?”
“Not entirely,” he said, sliding the now-signed paper behind another one. “Daddy’s semi-retired.” She didn’t need to know more than that.
“Todd said you need a pastry chef,” Gina said, her voice like warm, pleasant music in his ears.
Blake lifted his head then, his pen point coming to a halt. “Todd did?”
“I ran into him in the grocery store parking lot,” Gina said with a small, single-shoulder shrug. “Blake, I have a bachelor’s degree in pastry arts.”
“I’m aware,” Blake said, his shock still waving through him in pulses. Todd had run into Gina? When? Why hadn’t he said anything to Blake? Out of all the siblings, Todd alone knew how broken Blake had been when Gina had taken her first job in New Orleans instead of coming home.
“When did you talk to Todd?”
“About an hour ago,” she said.
The fire licking through Blake quieted. “What happened to your job in Dallas?”
A flicker of a smile touched her mouth, which she’d painted a light pink. Blake tore his eyes from those lips he’d kissed before and went back to signing papers. He didn’t care about her previous job. He didn’t care about her.
Lies, he thought, but his pen scratched out another signature.
He looked up when she remained quiet. That was new for her, and he caught the hint of apprehension in her gaze.
“The restaurant went out of business,” she said. “Sort of.” She licked her lips, her tell that she was about to say something hard. Blake paused, because he found he wanted to hear it. “The previous owner was doing something illegal. Embezzlement or something? He sold the restaurant, and that’s when it was discovered. Of course, Paulo is gone, off to some South American country or something, and the rest of us—”
She cut off, her eyes widening. She gave herself a little shake and ground her voice through her whole chest. “I got a small severance package. We all did, but the new owners wanted to start fresh.”
“Makes sense,” Blake said. He didn’t believe for one second that Gina would do anything like embezzlement. She didn’t even know what that was. Heck, Blake barely knew. “So…you want to make desserts at a dude ranch?”
A smile brightened her whole face, extending way down into her very soul. He loved that look on her, as he’d seen it several times in years gone by.Not for a while, he told himself, but that didn’t make her any less shiny to him.
“I would literally sacrifice a goat to make desserts on a dude ranch,” she said.
Blake blinked, then burst out laughing, all of the tension gone between them.See?his mind whispered.Friends.
“All right,” he said, reaching for her folder. “Let me see your résumé.”
She dutifully handed it over, then sat back, her hands clasped in her lap. Blake just needed her to think she might not get this job. Gina wasn’t stupid, though, and she’d heard him tell Baby John there wasn’t anyone good.
She’d be perfect here, and his heart started making plans to ask her to dinner too. He shut those down real fast when he saw the four premier restaurants she’d worked at over the years.
“Hmm,” he said, keeping his voice real neutral. “This last place was only for two years.” He flicked a look in her direction and went back to her credentials. “Why’d you leave…The Tall Texas Grande?” He looked up then, surprised he’d been able to keep his tone so even.
The Tall Texas Grande was a five-star resort-hotel in Corpus Christi, and somewhere he’d never evendreamof visiting. Families who never got dirty went there. Billionaires and politicians. Gina had probably met celebrities while they dined spa-side and presented them with upscale caramel cheesecakes, all fancied up with chocolate curls and strawberry sauce she’d labored over for hours.
