and a great dancer. Her list of attributes was getting unwieldy.
“What are you smiling about?” she asked.
He shook his head. “You’re quick. I can already see you’ll do a great job for the Lucky C.”
She frowned at his compliment. “You’re patronizing me. You don’t even know my qualifications.” From her massive purse, she pulled a page of substantial, pricey stationery from a folder. Her résumé.
“I’m not patronizing you. I put the ad in the classifieds because I need an accountant. You answered the ad and I’m a pretty good judge of character. Something tells me that you’re perfect for the job.”
“I am, but first, tell me why you did what you did, with the anonymous classified ad. Your family’s ranch is huge and prosperous. If you need an accountant, you could have the best in Oklahoma, none of this cloak-and-dagger baloney.”
He could tell she wasn’t going to let him off the hook. “My father’s getting up there in years and his memory isn’t what it used to be. I’ve done what I can to help him—we all have—but it’s time we bring in a qualified professional. I made the ad anonymous because my father’s in denial about what’s happening to him and I didn’t want to alert the Tulsa gossip hounds, not after everything our family went through last month.”
That was only a half-truth, but the real reason he’d wanted to hire an accountant wasn’t going to cut through her pride, so he had no remorse for feeding her a line, not when her and their baby’s well-beings were at stake. The real reason he’d put the anonymous ad in the paper was because he’d been planning to hire an accountant to take a look at the ranch’s books on the sly, without his father and brothers’ knowledge, and to help him crunch the numbers for the horse breeding business plan he was going to lay out for his family to consider investing in. But Hannah needed more than a part-time temporary job on the sly.
She set a hand on his forearm, her face pinched with worry. Her nails were trimmed to a short, practical length but were well-manicured and glossy, as though she’d used clear polish on them. “What happened last month? Is everyone okay?”
That surprised him all over again. The local news had done a thorough job raking his family through the public eye. “You mean you didn’t hear?”
Her concerned look deepened, darkening her eyes. “No. Last month was the worst of my life. I was just trying to survive.”
She was just trying to survive. He gripped his knees hard, holding himself back from scolding her. You should have contacted me. I would have taken care of you. I would have taken care of everything.
Brett wasn’t ready for fatherhood, and truth was, it’d take some time for that change in his life to sink in, but nothing was going to stop him from doing the right thing by Hannah and the baby. That’s what Colton men did and that’s what Brett was going to do—for the rest of their lives.
Marriage? Maybe. If that’s what Hannah wanted, what she needed in the long run, then his code of honor depended on making that offer to her. But not yet. Not when he wasn’t sure she’d even agree to come live at the ranch once she heard what happened there the month before. He’d just have to find a way to convince her despite everything, because there was no getting around the truth about the trouble at the Lucky C. She’d find out soon enough. “Our house was robbed and my mother was attacked.”
Hannah gasped. Her grip on his forearm tightened. “Is she...?”
He set a hand over hers and squeezed. “She’s alive. In a coma. The doctors aren’t sure she’s going to make it, but we have to hold out hope.”
Brett’s relationship with his mother was the most complicated in his life. They’d never seen eye to eye and clashed more often than they were at peace. His deepest regret was that their last words to each other were angry, cruel. She wasn’t an easy person to love, but she was the only mother he had and the thought of losing her hurt him something awful.
Hannah turned her hand over and threaded her fingers with his. “I’m so sorry. Did they catch the man who did that to her?”
“Yes. They have a suspect in custody. If you accept my job offer, and I sincerely hope you will, I want you to know that the ranch is safe. You don’t have to worry about that.” God, he hoped that was true. But there was no need to worry Hannah with his private doubts that the police had captured the man responsible for the assault, not when there was no evidence beyond his gut telling him that there was more to the robbery and attempted murder than everyone else thought.
Mistrust—or was that her pride rearing its head again?—pushed through her worried expression. “I don’t remember you making me an official offer yet.”
Their food arrived in a clatter of plates on Janice’s massive serving tray, the smell so delicious that Hannah’s stomach gurgled like crazy.
“I was just about to. Come work for the Lucky C, Hannah. It’s what the ranch needs, and it’s what you need, too. I’m prepared to compensate you with a competitive salary, health insurance, housing—”
“Housing? Isn’t that a little unusual?”
She was a hard nut to crack, this one. Far harder than her sweet, soft voice and kind smile suggested. He summoned his most charming smile onto his lips, hoping that a little buttering up would help his cause. “Maybe, but then again, I’ve never met an accountant as pretty as you, so I’d say this situation is mighty unusual any way you cut it.”
Sure enough, the mistrust in Hannah’s eyes softened. And was that a hint of a smile on her lips? She poked her spoon through the air in his direction. “You can’t flirt with me if you’re going to be my boss.”
“Then you’re accepting my offer?”
“I said if.”
He slid the plate of bacon toward her. When charming failed, bacon often had a way of coming to the rescue. “Eat.”
Desire shone in her eyes, jogging another memory of the lust he remembered seeing on her face that night at the club, then later, at her apartment. He remembered the way her every emotion played on her face without artifice or pretense. At the time, he’d appreciated that quality of hers only because it had made her easier to seduce, then easier to bring pleasure to in bed. He supposed what he was doing this morning still counted as seduction, but now, he was wholly focused on her needs instead of his.
To his relief, her fingers closed around a crispy slice of bacon. “I wasn’t going to eat your food, given your enormous rancher’s appetite, but that smells too darn good to resist. One little piece...” She crunched into the bacon, her eyes closing with the bliss of it.
He watched her face, riveted anew by the ever-shifting nuances in her expression.
Yet he forced his wayward thoughts aside. There would be time enough to marvel over Hannah, but he was a man on a mission, and he would not be deterred for anything. “Our chef cures and smokes her own bacon, harvested from our ranch’s livestock. I wake to the smell of it frying in the kitchen every single morning. You could, too.”
Her eyes jolted open. “I’m not moving in with you.”
Time for the next step in his seduction. He liberally spread butter on his stack of flapjacks, then drizzled it with warm maple syrup. He
