“No.” Disappointment rolled over her like a wave of ice water. He had a right to ask; she had confessed it to him. “You probably think the worst of me because I have been acting not in good faith but no, I did not try to steal their clients or seduce them. I’m a good mother. I’m just trying to get a new start. And my mother-in-law is just trying to fill the hole in her heart left by the death of her son and then her husband, who died not too long ago.”
“Okay, so it sounds like you need a break. Sounds like you need an investor. Not just a job.”
She stood. “No. No—you offered me a job, now you’re saying an investor. No, that’s just too much. I can’t do that.”
“Tell you what. If you promise me you’ll stay here and get a good night’s sleep and that you’ll be here in the morning, then I’ll come back and we’ll talk about this over breakfast, a late breakfast. It is late and my brother wore me out before the wedding, getting things ready. So, let’s both start over. We’ll discuss this then, when we’re both rested. I’ll be back in the morning. But you have to promise me that you’ll be here.”
She stared at him. She didn’t make promises idly. But if she told him no, he probably wouldn’t leave. “Okay, I promise. Maybe after you get some sleep you’ll think sensibly.”
He moved to the door and she walked with him. She could smell his cologne. She felt a little dizzy, the man smelled so good.
Levi turned at the door and looked down at her. “I’m not going to change my mind, so don’t worry about that, Rita Snow. Sleep well and I’ll be back around ten o’clock. How does that sound?”
She nodded, weary. “It sounds perfect.”
He smiled at her and her heart turned over. She told it to straighten up and quit doing that. This was not somebody she could get a crush on or any of that business. This was all strictly business. If she did business with him. That was still up in the air.
“Talk to you tomorrow.” Then he opened the door and he was gone.
She stared at the door and walked over and sank back down on the bed. This had been one of the worst days of her life. One of the weirdest days of her life. But she knew that if she gave in to his offer of help, it could very well be one of the best days of her life.
* * *
“You did what?” His brother Jake stared at him with a look of complete confusion on his face.
Levi felt a little confused himself. After having left Rita at the hotel room with the camera disk in his hand, he had wondered whether he had lost his mind. But he hadn’t let himself dwell on it too hard; instead, he had driven home, took a shower, climbed in bed, and tried to relax. It had been a long week, getting ready for Cole and Tulip’s wedding. Plus, his mom and dad had come to town; they hadn’t been in town for six months with all the traveling they had been doing after their move to their new beachside home in Florida.
He and his brothers might struggle adjusting to all this money they had come into but his parents, once they had gotten used to the idea, had thrown themselves into traveling and seeing the world. They were good people, salt of the earth, and they deserved the life of luxury that they had decided to enjoy. His mother had said they were only doing it for now because they didn’t have any grandkids but when they got grandkids, they’d come home. They’d still do some traveling, but they’d be spending more time around the boys, the boys being him and his four brothers.
His mom still called them “the boys” even though they were all in their thirties or near thirties. He smiled, thinking about his mom. She had been so happy last night. So had Tulip’s mom. And all those ladies who had flocked around Tulip’s mama’s table—her friends and clients from her hair salon who had all been invited. They’d been thrilled to see their Tulip, as they called her, get married. It had been a happy time and he had enjoyed it very much. Except for not being able to relax because he was worried about photographers sneaking in. He’d been tense, worrying, and then when he’d spied Rita taking shots she shouldn’t have been taking, he freaked out a little bit. Probably overreacted. But then again, he had gotten the photo disk, and if there were any photos that had gotten out, it wouldn’t be from her disk. He felt good about that. They deserved some private time. But as his eyes closed, the pretty face of Rita Snow with her big, beautiful, sad eyes filled his mind as he drifted off to sleep.
Now, staring at his brother, who had met him at the barn this morning, he gave a tepid smile. “You heard me right. I traced the gal who took the photos to the hotel room after the limo had dropped her off, and I confronted her last night. Couldn’t let her get away with it. She had snuck that disk out of her camera that I had confiscated at the scene of the crime, and I was determined to get it back. And she did give it to me. And she confessed that she was down on her luck and that’s why she had been taking the pictures. She seemed like a really nice person.”
Jake scowled. “Levi, you are about the most leery person in this family. You barely even walk around without your hat pulled down over your face so nobody can recognize you these days. You are so wary of having your picture taken and now that you ran this woman down and she had conned you, you’re saying she’s a nice person? And you think she’s going to still be at that hotel room when you get back this morning?”
“I know it sounds stupid on my part, but she promised me she would stay and that we would discuss this over breakfast.”
“Breakfast? And that you would discuss you giving her a job?”
“Yeah. I mean, I can afford it. We’ve got plenty of things on the ranch to plug people in. Just trying to figure out what kind of job to give her but she doesn’t want to take it. I offered just to set her up in her own photography business, set her up in a little store. We’ve got some property down on the main strip in Fredericksburg. It was a good investment, I think, but we haven’t done anything with it, so why not give her a storefront?”
“Brother, you have lost your mind. Nobody else is going to believe you’re saying this either.”
He looked out over the paddock where the horses were frisky this morning, running around with their tails held high. They had more energy than him this morning. He had slept but not very long because, by the time he’d got to bed, it was almost two a.m. And now it was eight.
“Look, maybe I have, but I just have a feeling that she’s not lying. I can’t help it.”
“And I bet she’s really pretty, too, isn’t she? I didn’t get a good look at her last night—I was busy dancing.”
So, there it was. “Yeah, she’s real pretty. But she’s had a hard time and that doesn’t mean anything. If I give her a job, it’s hands off. She’s been mistreated by bosses, so it’s not that. If I was interested in her, I wouldn’t be giving her a job. I’d be asking her out on a date. So, there solves your problem. Giving her a job—if she’ll take it—will help her out so she can make a good life for her and her little boy. What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing,” his brother drawled, eyeing him with a hitched brow that said he was being sarcastic.
Levi rubbed his jaw. “Yeah, I know you’re right. It is all kind of crazy but I’m a man of my word. I offered her a job, and if she’s there this morning like she promised, then I’m going to give her a job. Then I’m going to offer her a storefront when she finishes the job. If she’ll take it. Now I need to figure out a job to give her.”