it out, the effect was pugnacious.
“Would you take the position if I offer it?” he asked abruptly.
Even that didn’t shake her composure. “Assuming compensation is adequate, I believe I would.”
“When would you be able to start?”
A ghost of some emotion showed in her eyes. He wished he had some idea what she was thinking. Not knowing worried him.
“Immediately,” she said after a moment. “I plan to stay with Colin for a few days, at least. I can continue work on my dissertation without being in Seattle. I’ll need to make a few trips back, of course, but...I find myself at loose ends right now. This job would suit me very well.”
Right now? “I’m looking for someone who will be making a long-term commitment, not taking the job as a brief fill-in.”
“I didn’t mean to suggest I was thinking short-term.”
Noah nodded. “I’ll need to follow up on your references. I can promise to get back to you within a matter of days.”
She rose gracefully to her feet. “Thank you for your time. You have my phone number.”
He stood, too, aware that he physically intimidated many people but also sure that, for some reason, she wasn’t among them. “I do,” he agreed.
They shook hands again. Hers was a little warmer this time. He squeezed gently and let her go sooner than he would have liked. He walked her to the outer office and watched as she strode away toward the elevator or stairs, the swing of her hips subtle but sexy as hell.
Not until he turned did he realize that his PA had been watching him. He saw curiosity in her eyes.
“How did the interview go?” she asked, just as she had after all the previous ones.
He grunted. “Good. If her references pan out, I think she’s the one.”
She cleared her throat. “You do know—”
“That her brother is Captain McAllister? I know.” He frowned. “How do you know?”
Ruth smiled. “We chatted.”
“Did you chat about anything else I ought to know?”
She tilted her head while she thought. “No, I don’t think so,” she said after a moment. “She seems like a lovely young woman.”
Lovely was definitely one word for Cait McAllister, Noah reflected as he returned to his office. Sexy was another. The fact that he was thinking that way about her had the potential to be a huge problem. Did he really want to hire a woman likely to distract him the way she had today?
Muttering under his breath, he went to the window and stared out. Not, he told himself, because he might be able to see her walk out to her car—although there she was, and he couldn’t have taken his eyes off her if the most aggravating of city councilmen was tapping on his shoulder. Looking toward the cinder cone usually clarified his thinking.
Somehow that didn’t happen with him focused on Cait McAllister’s long-legged stride, the sway of her hips, the gleam of spring sunlight on her hair.
Not until she got into a little blue car that, a moment later, joined the traffic on the road and passed out of his limited line of sight could he look away.
“Damn,” he said aloud, but quietly.
There were other words he could use as descriptors for the woman who had just left his office. Brilliant, he suspected, was one. Definitely highly qualified.
Which made him blessed that, for whatever reason, she wanted a job in Angel Butte, Oregon.
What he’d really like to know was why she was willing to take it. His gut said she was desperate for a change. He wondered if her brother would know what she was trying to leave behind.
Maybe the bigger question was whether he could quit noticing how lovely and, yes, goddamn it, sexy she was and see her as a professional.
If not...
Noah sank heavily into his desk chair and gazed, unseeing, at one of the paintings that hung on his office wall.
Who was he kidding? Of course he was going to hire her. And, no, he wasn’t going to be able to turn off his libido. He’d have to aim for reining in his response. If he was really lucky, her personality would begin to grate on him and he’d quit caring what she looked like.
* * *
“I KNOW COLIN is estranged from your mother.” Nell poured balsamic dressing from the little plastic cup over her salad. “He seems to think you’re still close to her?”
Cait and her new sister-in-law had spent the morning browsing shops and were now eating at a café owned by a friend of Nell’s, who had come out when they arrived to say hi and inspect Cait with obvious curiosity.
So far, Cait really liked Colin’s wife. If Nell was being nosy...well, who could blame her? She was, after all, married to a man with major family issues. Who knew better than Cait, who had issues, too, if different ones from her brother’s.
What’s more, Nell wasn’t a casual acquaintance. Strange as the realization was, they were family.
“Not so much,” Cait admitted, answering the question about her relationship with her mother. “Once I hit my teenage years and rebelled, things went downhill. We’ve never quite recovered.”
Nell nodded. “Does she know you’re here in Angel Butte?”
Cait winced. “No. If I get the job, I’ll have to tell her eventually.”
Nell didn’t say anything. Tiny lines on her forehead suggested she hadn’t raised the subject only in a casual, get-acquainted way. Good lord, Cait thought; Mom is her mother-in-law. Cait knew Colin hadn’t invited their mother to his wedding.
“I suppose Colin’s told you that...our father was abusive,” she said carefully.
“Yes.”
“He and Colin fought a lot.”
“He told me that, too.” Nell still hadn’t reached for her fork. “He thought he’d probably scared you and your mom both toward the end. He was trying to draw your father’s anger away from the two of you, but he admits he was filled with a lot of rage, too.”
“That last couple of years were really horrible. I remember getting off the school bus and dragging my feet because I dreaded going home.” Cait tried to smile. “Anyway, if Mom was ever happy here in Angel Butte, she’s long since forgotten. I think she feels guilty about Colin, too.”
“She should,” Nell said sharply, after which she made an apologetic moue. “That was tactless, wasn’t it? I won’t take it back, though. I don’t mean to offend you, but the truth is, she abandoned him. Having his own mother leave him behind with the father he hated... He has scars.”
“He seems so...together,” Cait said hesitantly. “Except...I
