of the time you’d be on your own. What would you do?”
He received another dazzling smile that made him ignore the persistent inner voice that told him to end this interview.
“I’ll find some way to occupy my time,” she said. “That’s never been a problem and it will be even less of one now that I’m older.”
He looked at her résumé again and saw when she’d graduated from high school. Calculating quickly, he was surprised. She was twenty-six. From her looks, he would have guessed twenty-two.
“A year can be a long time. Way before the year is over, you may want to date again. You’ll meet only a limited number of men out here.”
“I can live with that,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Frankly, Ms. Up—er, Jessica, I don’t think—”
“Give me a chance and I promise you won’t regret it.”
Her silky voice wrapped around him and he guessed very few men could deny what she asked. He couldn’t imagine what killed her marriage.
He returned to reading the papers she had handed him, swiftly glancing over her transcript and looking more intently at her, trying to hide his surprise.
“You have almost a straight-A average and a degree in accounting. Accounting and cooking?”
“My dad steered all of his kids toward accounting. He said we could use it in whatever we do. I don’t know about that, but it was not difficult for me.”
“I’m impressed,” he said. “Have you cooked for anyone before? I see here you’ve had some courses in cooking and you attended a prestigious culinary school in Paris.”
“Yes. I love to cook and I guess that helps. You let me cook something for you and you’ll hire me,” she said, smiling at him. “What’s your favorite dish?”
He was tempted to say “blue-eyed blondes,” but he knew better.
“My favorite dessert is blackberry cobbler. My favorite dinner is roast beef and mashed potatoes covered with brown gravy—pretty simple stuff. No fancy French dishes.”
“Ah, you’re easy,” she said, smiling slightly.
He had to clamp his mouth closed to keep from answering with the first thing that came to mind. His inner self was now jumping up and down, screaming to send her on her way. “I usually hire only couples,” he said. At last he had turned a corner and was heading toward turning her down.
“You won’t need two cooks,” she said sweetly.
“Usually the wife is the cook and the man has another area where he prefers to work—chauffeur, gardener, handyman. Once I had a husband who was cook and his wife cleaned. It might be a little awkward having a young single female for my cook. Sometimes the two of us are the only ones in the house. I have a large staff who all live on the ranch. Also, the cowboys who work for me, but they’re all off doing their own thing a lot of the time.”
“No problem. You came with all kinds of recommendations and references and an absolute declaration that you would be totally professional.”
He wanted to lean closer, speak softly and tell her he’d been questioning his professionalism since he laid eyes on her. And then he wanted to ask her out tonight. Instead, he stared at her résumé as if he were thinking deeply about it. “You’re staying in Dallas?”
“I did last night. If you aren’t interested in hiring me, I’m packed now and I’ll just keep driving west. I’ll find work somewhere, I’m sure.”
“You should go to one of the modeling agencies. You’d have far better pay and a more interesting job.”
She smiled as if he had made an impossible suggestion. “Thank you. I prefer to stick to cooking. It’s something that I love.”
She leaned forward slightly. “If you’re concerned because I’m single, I can reassure you that it will make no difference. The way I feel right now, I have no desire to get into any kind of relationship again.” She paused to look down at her hands in her lap and he waited because it seemed an emotional moment for her.
“I can understand that now,” he said. “But you’re young, healthy. Six months from now, you may feel differently about going out. I have a bunch of single guys working for me. They’re going to start asking you out.”
“They’ll soon see that I’m not interested and then they’ll lose interest.” She held up her hand. “Besides, I’m wearing a wedding ring.”
“You’re divorced. That word will get around. They’re good guys.”
She smiled, looking in control again. “Are you encouraging me to go out with some of the cowboys who work here?”
“Not at all,” he said, glad she was composed again and her sparkle had returned.
“It’s a needless worry about my dating. I just plain cannot yet. It’s like this. You want a cook. I will be quiet and stay out of the way, and you’ll like my cooking. If you don’t, then that’s that, but,” she paused, giving him a wide-eyed look that held him immobile, “I’ve never had anyone dislike my cooking. I really love to cook,” she said in a breathless tone of voice that made him think of hot kisses and soft curves and forget all about food.
“If you’ll give me a chance, you’ll be pleasantly surprised,” she continued. “That’s really all I want, a chance,” she said, looking at him with even wider blue eyes, leaning a bit closer, close enough he could catch the scent of her perfume again. Close enough that the blue silk blouse with its low V-neckline revealed the beginning of luscious curves. Close enough that her rosebud mouth tempted him. He couldn’t get his breath and he wanted to lean toward her, put his hand at the back of her head and place his mouth on hers.
Realizing how he was staring and where his thoughts were going, he straightened up.
“Ryan,” she said softly, in a coaxing tone. “You did say to call you Ryan, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did,” he replied, and his voice was gravelly.
“Just let me stay and cook for you today,” she urged in that breathless voice that made more sweat break out on his forehead. “I’ll leave shortly after dinner as soon as I’ve cleaned the kitchen. I’ll stay out of your sight ninety percent of the time. How’s that?”
He was being manipulated by a woman he had known only half an hour and who wanted a job working for him. He should end the interview, tell her goodbye and get his life back right now. Instead, he was dazzled more than ever.
“Also, I am quite well-fixed in my own right, so I’m not trying to figure a way to get your money. My father has an accounting firm, a construction company and a trucking company and owns a bank. He has three sons and two daughters, one of them being me. He is very generous with his children. Other than cooking, you’ll never know I’m around.”
“That, Jessica, is absolutely impossible,” Ryan said, unable to hold back the words.
She laughed softly. “I’d still like
