“Eager’s a great quality,” Baylor acknowledged to his brothers. “But it’s not enough. The first guy we interviewed was eager, and we know how that ended.”
“It wasn’t hard to figure out he was a crook, but you’re not putting KayLee in the crook category.”
“No, but I’m the one who’s going to be doing most of the work with her.”
“And you’ll be able to keep a close eye on her.” Seth flicked his eyebrows at Baylor and smirked toward Lance.
Lance grinned, but shook his head to silence Seth. They both knew. This wasn’t going to be easy no matter how it went down.
“This is business, guys. No matter what we think of her as an individual, it has to be a business deal. When the project is complete, you all can adopt her if you want.” He wouldn’t care. He’d be gone.
“We’ll have to trust you to give her a fair chance.” Seth must have been finished because he walked away.
Lance stared at Baylor for a response.
“It might not even be fair to give her a chance.” Baylor restacked the papers on the desk blotter.
“She’s good people, Baylor, and you know it.”
“And if we give her a two-week trial and she fails, it might spoil her chance of getting a job before her baby is born.”
“She’ll do a good job and we’ll keep her on.”
“If I didn’t think you had a chance of being right, I wouldn’t have called her back.”
Lance nodded, got up from the chair and followed in the direction Seth had gone. His boot heels clomped down the hall, through the mudroom and outside. His brothers had gone back to the never-ending string of chores necessary to keep a ranch running and the animals healthy.
Baylor spread the papers and sorted them into piles for filing. Now that he had made the decision, he was going to throw himself at the situation as if it were a worthy stallion needing some tender loving care to be a great stallion. Not that “tender loving” was anything he planned on aiming at K. L. Morgan.
Tempting, though.
Tempting. That was crazy thinking. If he let crazy thinking rule him, unintended consequences happened.
He had finished tucking away the last papers when he looked up to see K. L. Morgan standing in the doorway with her flimsy coat draped over one arm and her hands folded together in front of her as if in apology.
He rose quickly from the chair and made a gruff coughing sound to cover his laughter at his sorry old self.
“Come in,” he said when she didn’t enter the office.
She stepped inside. “I ruined whatever chance I had at making a great impression, didn’t I?”
He hadn’t realized how melodious her voice was, but in the small office, it made the air vibrate.
“Is your life ever dull?”
She shrugged and stepped up to the desk. “You’ll undoubtedly find out, so I might as well tell you, I met your Sheriff Potts.”
Baylor studied the molding around the ceiling, trying his best to bury a smile. Unintended consequences, he thought. “He called.”
“I’d hoped he wouldn’t snitch on me. Damn.”
He snapped his gaze to hers. “Don’t let my mother hear you say that word. Darn and heck are all right if you’re highly provoked, but damn, hell and crap are over the top. Have a seat, please.”
Radiating confidence and poise, she draped her coat over the back of the chair and sat down across the desk from him. He couldn’t deny his brother’s assessment that K. L. Morgan inspired admiration for her courage under fire—but that didn’t mean he had to be taken in by it. He scowled and retook his seat.
“Oh, darn.” She raised her brow in question.
He gave a slight head nod of approval and she curled her hands together on her lap. “How much did the sheriff tell you?”
“He said he found you and we should be expecting you soon.” He paused for dramatic effect. “And then he laughed.”
“How did he know I was coming here? I don’t remember telling him.” She thought for a moment. “When he left, I didn’t even know.”
“He knows people. That’s why he’s so good at his job and that’s a reflection on our judgment as well as yours.” He paused. He was about to tell this woman she could hold the family’s future in her hands, and Sheriff Potts’s positive assessment of her had made that decision easier to live with.
“He is so kind to just have laughed at me.” She studied her fingers for a moment. “Is it too late to start over?”
“Do you think it would help?”
Alarm spread across her face, and then when she realized he was chiding her, she smiled a smile as bright as a sunny day in the Bitterroot Mountains, and he felt that smile all the way down to the toes of his Sunday boots.
She relaxed her hands on her knees. “I think at this point, it would only muddy the waters.”
“My family thinks you’re the best choice for this project.”
“Okay.” She waited for him to explain.
“But they’ve left the choice up to me.”
“I realize I’m not what you expected and that it’s a stretch for you to consider me for the job, but if you do give it to me, I will give you more than you asked for.”
More than he asked for…
“I’m willing to go along with my family and give you a chance.” She sat up straighter and he continued. “Two weeks. After two weeks, if things aren’t working out, you would be paid for your time and, of course, we’d pay you for your designs.”
He watched her closely.
“You won’t be sorry.” Her words indicated her delight while her face showed her focus on the future.
“That’s what my family tells me.”
She nodded her head once. “Now tell me why your family puts so much stock in your opinion.”
Her green eyes, the color of leaves in the light of sunset and rimmed with dark lashes, were highlighted by the merest touch of makeup.
“Because I’m the youngest brother?”
She nodded again.
“Fair enough.” The Doyles knew so much more about her than she suspected. It seemed right she should know more about them. “My older brothers wanted no part of college. They were happy working the ranch and their wives were happy with their husbands and their lives. My parents could read the writing on the wall, but my brothers would rather ignore the signs the ranch was faltering.”
She listened as though she were gathering facts without passing judgment. He found himself liking KayLee Morgan more and more, at the same time telling himself it wasn’t his job to like her.
As he told her about his family sending him to Montana State University in Bozeman and why, she barely blinked.
“Wow,” she said when he was finished.
Her lips held the form of the last W as she explored the thoughts in her head, and it made him want to kiss those puckered lips—and to smack himself on the back of the head for thinking such a thought.
“So do you still want to work for us?”
“They have put a lot on you.” Deep concern dimmed the sparkle in her eyes.
“Someone has to take the reins and I can.”
She