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“Are you kidding?” she asked.
“No, ma’am,” Blake said, clearing his throat and snapping the folder shut. He set it on his desk, making no move to give it back to her. Their eyes met, and Blake determined he’d win this time. She’d speak first, and she’d tell him what he wanted to know.
“They weren’t paying you enough?”
Gina’s eyes narrowed. “The head pastry chef quit. He was my mentor, and I followed him to The Parisian in Dallas.”
“Was he the embezzler?”
“No,” Gina bit out.
“He must’ve lost his job too.”
“Yes.”
“Where did he go?”
“Miami.”
“You didn’t go with him?”
“Obviously.” With every answer, her shoulders had lifted a little higher. Finally, she exhaled out. “I know where you’re going with this.”
“Do you?”
“I dated him once,” she said. “Five years ago. But after it fell apart, we were just colleagues.”
“And he didn’t take you to Miami.” Blake leaned forward, steepling his fingers. “So you left your job at a resort-hotel on the beach for him…but he didn’t have a place for you when you needed it.”
Gina’s eyes blazed with blue fire, and oh, Blake had missed that so very much in his life. He held up one hand. “Never mind.” He took a big breath and looked down at the paperwork on his desk. Daddy would be thrilled with the addition of Gina to their staff. Heck, everyone would. He couldn’t even imagine the culinary delights she could put on the table here at the Texas Longhorn Ranch.
“Do you want the job?”
“Is that a real question?”
Blake bent to get the hiring paperwork out of the bottom desk drawer. “I asked it, didn’t I?” So she’d made a long-lost joke about sacrificing a goat for something she wanted. They’d been doing that since they were twelve.
“Yes,” she ground out through clenched teeth, though he couldn’t see her. “I want the job.”
“Great.” He plunked the paper down on top of her folder and slid everything toward her. “I need this filled out, and I think you should come out in the morning and meet with the head chef. She does her weekly meetings on Tuesdays as we gear up for the weekend, and you’ll get a feel for how the two of you will work together.”
Gina took the folder and simple tax paperwork. “Is she hard to work for?”
“Depends on how you define that,” Blake said, standing with a smile. “I’m used to her, but our last dessert masterdidquit because of Starla…” He clucked his tongue like that was just too darn bad, and he chuckled at the horrified look on Gina’s face.
“Starla Masters is the head chef here?”
Blake could’ve been imagining it, but he thought he saw her swallow. More like a gulp, in all honesty.
“Yes,” Blake said, drawing the word out. “Is that a problem for you?”
Gina looked like she might throw up, but she shook her head. “No,” she said, her voice somewhat tight. “No, sir.”
Blake took a step around the desk and then kept going. “Gina,” he said quietly. “You don’t have to call me sir.” He stood in front of her now, and he might as well have been naked for the way she looked at him with such a sharp edge in her eyes.
“We were friends once. We can be friends again.” He took a breath, because he’d nearly choked on the wordfriends. Twice. He wasn’t thinking of her in a strictly friendly way, that was for certain. The longer he looked at her, the further she pulled him in with those ocean-y eyes and the more he thought about kissing her. “Right?”
She simply gazed up at him, and Blake thought for sure he’d just made the biggest mistake of his life, but whether that was saying he and Gina could be friends or hiring her to be the ranch’s pastry chef, he wasn’t sure.
