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“Sorry I startled you in there,” he said.
She glanced up at him, but her eyes didn’t stay long enough to truly meet his. “It’s fine. I mean, it’s not your fault. I was looking at my phone.” She glanced over to it again. “You’re early, so it’s fine.”
She’d started and ended her statement with the word “fine,” and that meant she wasn’t. Silas remained silent, coaching himself not to flirt with her. His natural instinct was to do exactly that, and he suppressed it over and over until she finally got all the papers lined up the way she wanted and looked at him.
“All right.” She sighed again and flipped open the top folder. “This says you just moved to Texas.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He wasn’t going to volunteer any more information than what he’d already given her. He shouldn’t be recognized here. Bruce had said to pick a small town in a big state, and Silas had immediately known he wanted to return to Texas. His momma and step-daddy didn’t live here anymore. His two half-sisters didn’t either. Only Ethan, his full-blooded brother, still resided in Texas, and he was over in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
She looked at the paper again. “You have experience with horses, fields, and sprinkling systems.” She glanced up at him again, obviously trying to get a read on him. Silas did have experience with those things, even if they’d been on a set. He’d ridden horses in every movie he’d ever been in. He’d never been a lead actor, except for that one time in college. The truth was, he was lucky to work as much as he had, but unlucky in that he’d not paid attention to the people closest to him enough to know when they were stealing from him.
He didn’t have much to his name, but his last couple of paychecks had been enough to get him out of California and back to Texas. He’d found a decent house to rent in town, and he’d had his car driven from LA to Chestnut Springs.
He honestly felt foolish driving it, because he stood over six feet tall and drove a two-seater sedan. Not a cool hatchback or sporty coupe. A two-seater sedan that a twenty-something mom without kids would drive. If that.
Every man in Texas drove a truck, and once Silas had enough money, he’d upgrade.
“Do you have experience with horses, fields, and sprinkling systems?” Holly asked.
Silas cleared his throat. “Yes, ma’am. Sorry, I was thinking about something else.”
“Tell me about that.” She closed the folder and maintained eye contact with him.
“What I was thinking about?”
“Yes.” She didn’t seem tense or frustrated now, and all of that had infected him.
“I, uh.” He cleared his throat. “I was just thinking about how much I need this job. Moving here cost me almost everything I have, that’s all.” He waved to the parking lot behind him, where several trucks had been parked. “And that if I get this job, I might be able to save up for a truck. It’s obviously a requirement to be a Texan.” He grinned, thrilled when Holly did the same.
“That it is,” she said. “Have you never lived here before?”
“I have,” he said. “I graduated from A&M.”
“So did I,” she said, brightening. “What year?”
He shifted on the bench, trying very hard to make it look like he hadn’t. Just his luck that she’d have gone to Texas A&M. A lot of people did, and there was no way he could’ve possibly known everyone on campus. Would she have known him?
Only if she was there when you were a senior, he told himself. He had no idea how old Holly was. She could be twenty-five or thirty-five. Or older. Once a person reached a certain age, Silas couldn’t tell how old they were.
“Uh, Twenty-Eleven,” he said. “You?”
“Twenty-Eleven,” she said.
His heart fell to the soles of his cowboy boots. At least he’d had enough sense to buy a pair in California and start wearing them before he moved. Then they looked well-used, as if he’d come from the ranch down the road to this one, looking for a better job. In truth, Silas hadn’t worked on a real, operational ranch, ever.
He had a feeling Holly knew it. She didn’t say so, though, and her long, dark eyelashes fluttered as she blinked. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to say something or not, and Silas kept his mouth shut.
“I need people who are good with people,” she said. “Do you think that describes you?”
“Like, do I like talking to people?”
“Yes,” she said. “Sort of. You don’t have to like it. You have to be good at it.” She gave him a smile, and she was very good at her job. Even if she didn’t trust him or like him, he’d never know by that grin on her gorgeous face.
“We run a shuttle to and from activities. You’d be talking to guests. You’d have to know a lot about the commercial side of the ranch, which I’d provide training for, as often our guests will ask their drivers for recommendations, what time activities or meals are, that kind of thing.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I can talk to people.”
“I have openings on the evening maintenance crew,” she said. “That’s less working with people and more just getting your job done. You have to be pretty self-motivated, because I’m the only manager at night, and I’m beyond busy with dinner and guests and then our highlighted activity each evening.”
