Jake took his hat off and slapped it on his thigh as he studied the horses.
Levi wasn’t sure whether he was thinking about a job or trying to figure out how to dissuade him from making the offer. He waited and let his mind roll over different places he could hire Rita for on the ranch.
Jake looked at him. “How about this—we got that big sale coming up and we need to hire a photographer to take pictures of all our bulls and heifers that we’re going to put in it. She’s a photographer—why not offer her that job? It will take a couple weeks at least to get all those photos taken. Of course, we’ve got a month, so she can go slow and you can pay her well. You know it’s never cheap to hire a photographer so you could just pad the payment a little and then maybe she’d have some money to rent one of those buildings in Fredericksburg. And, we’re buying that place in Montana—we need photos of that place, too. Why don’t you take her down in the jet, drive her around and have her take some shots for us? We’re going to need it documented.”
That was a good idea. Well, actually both of them were a good ideas. He grinned at his brother. “Wow, why didn’t I think of any of that? Those are excellent ideas. I can present both of them when I see her this morning.”
Jake grinned at him. “Yeah, and then when she’s not working for you in a month, then you can ask her out because you know you want to. You wouldn’t be doing this if you weren’t interested.”
That kind of made him feel bad. “You’re saying I wouldn’t do a good deed if it didn’t involve her being attractive? That’s not true.”
Jake put his hat back on. “I’m not saying that completely. But in this situation, since it involves photographers and I know just how bad you dislike paparazzi, I think it’s got your mind just a little bit twisted up and not thinking straight.”
Feeling irritated, Levi glared at his brother. “I’m not mixed up. Yeah, I hate them. I’ll never get over the way they hounded us and lied about us when we first struck oil. They scrutinized our every move. I made mistakes and they dragged me through horse crap because of it. We were as famous as a stinkin’ boy band. I was so tired of them.”
Jake looked disgusted. “I know. It was ridiculous. And I’m no fonder of them than you are. I just wanted to keep being ranchers and working the ranch, like we’d always done. But nope, the paparats trailed us like dogs, snapping photos everywhere we went.”
“And looking for anything to post about us to sell to a tabloid.” Levi’s blood pressure rose just talking about it. And it hadn’t just been in the Hill Country; some of them had been nationwide. Yeah, it had been a hard time in their lives, adjusting to the money and the publicity.
He had grown up under the limelight in the last few years. For the last two years, he’d tried his hardest to blend in with the shadows when he was out. He had elaborate ways to get off his ranch when the paparats were in town, and he drove an old beat-up truck no one would ever believe belonged to a billionaire. For the most part, he’d stayed off their radar for the last couple of years.
And now Rita had shown up. He’d been angry and maybe he should still be angry, but something about her just wouldn’t let him be. Maybe it was that he was attracted to her like nothing he’d ever known before. Whatever it was, he just had to give her a shot. She’d given the files back to him and he would not let that go. He would help her. And that was that.
Rita’s sad eyes filled his thoughts and how his blood just kind of heated up when she looked at him. He had seen that flame flicker in her eyes, too, and he could not help but wonder what would happen when they were past all this. What if they had met under normal circumstances?
The truth was, he was getting tired of eating alone and living out on the ranch by himself. And watching Cole and Tulip these last few months be so happy had gotten him to thinking long and hard about finding someone special.
The thing about finding someone special was you couldn’t do it if you didn’t date. You couldn’t do it if you didn’t pursue when you felt an interest in someone. And there was no denying how much interest he had in Rita Snow.
Chapter Four
Rita hadn’t slept much and woke early, as the sun filtered between the cheap curtains that didn’t fit well at the top. She lay there feeling as if she’d been run over by an eighteen-wheeler. Depression flattened her on the bed and held her down like a heavy weight sat on her chest and she just couldn’t make herself get up.
What had she been thinking last night?
She groaned and closed her eyes as shame rolled over her at all the bad choices she’d made. She couldn’t make any more bad choices. As desperate as she’d been when she’d made the choice to crash the Tanner wedding, take photos, and sell them for a profit to the tabloids, it was a bad idea and inexcusable. Yes, she had been desperate to find a way to support her son so that her mother-in-law wouldn’t find a way to take him from her. But using someone wasn’t the way to do it.
Levi Tanner filled her mind—and his remarkable offer.
As mad as he’d been, his generous and unlikely offer to give her a job had touched her deeply. And made her feel all the worse for what she’d tried to do. She felt small and teary-eyed, thinking about his amazing offer. But would accepting it be another bad choice? He seemed so sincere—could she take a chance on him?
She forced herself out of bed and after a shower, she dressed, zipped up her small duffel bag full of her things, and headed outside to wait on him. Standing in the parking lot with the duffel at her feet and her purse hanging from her shoulder, she realized she had no car. How could she have forgotten she didn’t have a car? She had been so upset last night that she’d completely forgotten that the last time she’d seen her car, it was half submerged in the pond at the wedding venue. She couldn’t have left this morning if she’d wanted to.
She still might have time to call a taxi—if this tiny town had a taxi. She’d bet they didn’t. Too late, anyway, she thought as Levi, driving an old beat-up pickup, pulled into the parking lot. She stared at his truck in disbelief. It was a rusty mess.
The truck lurched to a halt. He jumped from the driver’s seat and jogged around the front of his truck and over to her. He looked happy, energetic, and so very handsome as he beamed a grin at her that took her breath away. Her heart seized up and her stomach did too. She thought maybe her ulcer had been acting up. She’d been taking medicine for it, so hopefully this wasn’t it ramping back up. She was a basket case, for a twenty-five-year-old.
“Hey, up there. You ready for some breakfast?” He sounded as if she were some old friend he was taking to breakfast. Not the woman who had tried to sell his brother’s wedding photos to a sleazy magazine.
“Sure, coffee sounds fabulous. And some eggs.”
He grinned at her. “Well, I’m having pancakes. You did good picking this motel to stay in. Dixie’s here in Stonewall has the best pancakes in the world.”
She’d picked this small town and its rundown motel because it had the cheapest room price and looked cleaner than the other old motels she’d stopped and asked about. “I can do a pancake. That sounds great.”