Andrew thoroughly enjoyed dinner with Becca. So much that the thought of her sitting across from him and the floral scent of her perfume stuck in his nose kept him awake.

He couldn’t believe she’d taken the job. Gratitude filled his heart, which also kept him from falling asleep. And hey, if she worked for the company, he suspected there’d be a lot less protesting going on too.

He did wake in the morning, which meant he had fallen asleep at some point. Bree was already in the kitchen, the coffee already made, and Celia was there too, stirring something on the stove.

“Morning, ladies,” he said as he reached for a mug in the cupboard.

“You’re up late today,” Bree said.

“I guess.” Andrew poured his coffee and added a lot of sugar to it. “Had a late business dinner last night.” He hadn’t really gotten home late, and he didn’t really like the classification he’d just given to the dinner. But he supposed it was all true.

“Oh?” Celia asked, glancing up from her pot. “What are you working on now?”

“I hired a press secretary.” He grinned, because he really did need help with the public relations at Springside.

“Who is it?” Celia asked. “I thought you said this town didn’t have qualified people for that.”

“I was wrong.”

Bree sucked in a breath and then laughed. “I’ve never heard a Whittaker man say they were wrong.”

“Whatever,” Andrew said, rolling his eyes. “I don’t go around acting like I know everything.”

“No,” Celia said with as mile. “You simply do know everything.”

“Oh, that’s just not true.” He didn’t like this conversation and he had thirteen horses to feed that morning. “I’ll be in the stables.”

“Wait,” Celia said. “Who did you hire?”

“A woman named Rebecca Collings?” He glanced from Celia to Bree, noting the shock on both of their faces.

“Becca Collings?” Bree repeated. “The woman who hates anyone who even so much as goes off the trail on a hike?”

Surely she wasn’t that bad. “Yes,” he said simply. “She’s coming to sign the paperwork this afternoon.” He needed to call Carla before he went out to the stables, so she could get the employment packet ready for Becca.

“Wow,” Bree said, and Celia added, “I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

Andrew paused in his escape toward the mudroom. “Why wouldn’t she be fine?”

“No reason.” But Celia definitely had reasons. Andrew didn’t care. He liked Becca, and the woman was qualified in more ways than one to be his press secretary. He reminded himself that he needed someone with her perspective and point of view to win over communities and point out things he simply didn’t see because of his position in the company.

So he put on his cowboy boots and left the lodge, the door slamming closed behind him. This time, he didn’t even care.

He stomped about halfway to the stables before he calmed down, and by the time he pushed into the barn to feed the horses, he’d settled back into his public relations director skin, any personal frustration and problems concealed where no one could see.

Not that it mattered out here, and he exhaled roughly. “Hey, guys,” he said to the horses. “So I couldn’t come last night. You got fed, right?”

Laney had a hired hand who worked for her, and Andrew had been using him more and more, and already signed him to do all the feeding during the month of the tour. Andrew didn’t want to give up his morning ritual quite yet, so he opened outside doors and let the horses into the corral so he could clean out stalls.

He’d pasture the horses today, and call Jake and ask him to get them back inside that night. Because Andrew was hoping for another date with Becca, even if he had to make it a business meeting.

He wondered if he could be brave enough to ask her to dinner outright. Call it a date.

“A date,” he said under his breath, the words a little tricky coming out of his mouth while he was alone in the barn. Wolfgang huffed, and Andrew looked up from the corner where he’d been pitching new straw.

“A date,” he said to the horse. “Can you believe it? I went on a sort of date last night.” I mean, he didn’t hold her hand. Or ask her out again. But they’d had a good conversation about the job, and he’d learned a few things about what she liked to do in her spare time.

“Reading,” he listed off to the horse. “And she has a dog. She likes to ski in the winter. And Wolfy, she likes bacon and cheese on her potatoes.” It didn’t matter that nearly the entire population liked bacon and cheese on potatoes. It was something they had in common and Andrew was seizing onto anything he could. Because he knew she didn’t like Springside Energy, and had spent years disliking him too.

She hadn’t said that directly, but it was a vibe Andrew had picked up on. He’d learned to trust those feelings over the years, and he was determined to win over Becca Collings. He didn’t believe that the attraction he felt to her was one-sided, especially the way she’d lingered near her car after their meal.

“Oh my heck,” he said, the words exploding from his mouth. “I should’ve asked her out again last night.” He looked at the horse, but Wolfgang didn’t confirm or deny. “I’ve already messed up.”

He finished the stall and pulled out his phone, dialing Graham. His brother often drove his step-daughter to school and then went to the office, if he was coming in that day.

“Hey,” Graham asked. “Give me two seconds.” He obviously moved the phone away from his mouth, but Andrew still heard, “All right, Bay. Have a good day. Wait, wait, wait. Don’t forget this.”

Scuffling and static, and then the slamming of a car door, and Graham returned. “All right. What’s up?”

“I would like to talk all the way to the end.”

“Oh, boy,” Graham said. “Lay out the rules.”

“No laughing. I am way out of my element here, and I already feel stupid.” He wandered out of the stable and around the side of it toward the corral and pastures. The horses seemed perfectly happy out here, and Andrew turned the handle on the spigot so he could fill the outdoor troughs.

“I agree to the stipulations of this conversation,” Graham said dryly.

“Great,” Andrew said, thinking of how hot it would get that day. Maybe he should have Bree come check on the horses that afternoon. “So I hired a press secretary yesterday.”

“Becca said yes?”

“I said I would like to talk to the end.”

Graham grunted, so Andrew continued with, “It took some convincing, but seeing as how she doesn’t have a job, I was right in thinking she’d be pretty desperate.” He had told Graham that yesterday, when Graham had argued against the idea of offering the job to one of their loudest protestors.

“So we went to dinner last night,” Andrew said, setting the hose in the long trough along the back of the stable. “And it was great.” Andrew sighed as he looked into the blue, blue sky. “And I…she stood by her car when it was over, like she didn’t want to get in, and then she finally did and drove away. I should’ve asked her out then, right?”

“Let me rephrase,” Graham said. “You went to dinner with our new press secretary, like a date? And then didn’t ask her out again when she clearly lingered before leaving. And you’re wondering if you’ve messed something up with her on a personal level.”

“About that, yeah,” Andrew said, not really liking the gruffness in his older brother’s tone.

“I think you messed up about the time you went to dinner with an employee.”

“She wasn’t an employee at the time, and we don’t have an official policy on co-workers dating.” Andrew would know, as it was his job to make sure anything that was media-worthy about the company was controlled, contained, and kept quiet.

“You’re the boss,” Graham said.

“I like her,” Andrew said simply. “She’s the first person to even stir anything in me in years.”

“She hates our company.”

“She said yes to the job.” Andrew felt like he was arguing with a brick wall. And he really didn’t like that Graham wasn’t happy for him that he’d found someone whose company he enjoyed enough to spend more than ten minutes with.

“I think if you start something with her, it should stay on the down-low until the tour is over, at least,” Graham said.

“Should I call her now and ask her out?”

“Are you going to see her today?”

“Yes. She’s coming to sign paperwork this afternoon.”

“Ask her before she signs,” Graham said. “Then you can claim the relationship started before she began at Springside.”

It wouldn’t be a lie. Andrew had felt fireworks the moment he’d sat across from her in that tiny room on the first floor.

“And Andrew?” Graham asked.

“Yeah?”

“I hope it works out with her.”

“Thanks.” Andrew hung up, a smile drifting across his face despite the amount of work he still had to do in the stables—and at Springside.

He had time for one more text, at least. How about lunch at Springside today? he sent to Becca. I can show you our top-notch cafeteria. You get a free meal for every shift you work. I think lunch today is French dip.

She didn’t answer until he’d finished with the horses, showered, and knotted his blue and black checkered tie with extreme precision.

Trying to seduce me with roast beef?

Andrew couldn’t help the laugh that spilled from his mouth. Is it working?

“What’s so funny?”

He glanced up at Celia, who set a stack of toast in front of him and asked, “Scrambled eggs?”

“Yes, please.” Graham’s words about keeping things secret between him and Becca ran through his mind on a constant loop. “Just a funny text,” he said, hoping Celia would buy the little fib. She didn’t seem to care who he texted and turned to crack eggs into a bowl.

Yes, I think it is. Noon okay? Becca’s text made his palm buzz the same way his pulse currently was.

Andrew thought of how busy the cafeteria would be at noon. Plenty of people to see them, see her. But of course they’d see her. She was the new press secretary, and soon enough, she’d know everything he did about Springside, its policies and its people.

Besides, if the cafeteria was too busy, he could take her on a tour of the building before they ate.

Noon’s great, he sent and tucked into his breakfast, more happiness coursing through him than he knew existed.

Hopefully, with a bit of prayer and luck, Becca would be able to see him as a separate entity from the energy company. After all, she didn’t know him, so how could she hate him?