“Good morning, Miss Lyle. I’m Edward, Mr. Blackstone’s driver.” He opened the back door to a black town car. She tried to return his friendly smile, but between the cold and the dark, she wasn’t sure she managed. Did people really get up at this godforsaken hour? Her eyes burned from lack of sleep, and her head was in a fog. She was going to have to start going to bed a whole lot earlier.

Brecken’s driver reminded her more of someone who should be standing behind a bank teller window than someone who would work for a wealthy CEO. Her father’s drivers were all ex-military and sported the matching crew cut hairstyle. Nothing like Edward.

“Good morning, Edward. Thank you for driving me. Coffee?” She held out a second cup of coffee that she’d snagged from the cafe across the street.

Hesitating, seemingly surprised by the gesture and struggling to decide whether he should accept it, he finally reached to take the offered cup. “That is very nice of you, Miss Lyle. Thank you.”

Edward pulled away from the building, humming quietly. Would it be rude if she avoided pleasantries and slept on the ride?

“How long have you worked for Brecken?” she asked, her manners winning out.

“Three years, but I’ve known him for much longer. I was his professor once upon a time. When I retired, he offered me the job to keep me busy. My wife died around the same time, and I think he was worried about me.”

“I’m so sorry.”

A ring sounded from the dash and Edward punched a button on the steering wheel. “Good morning, Brecken,” he said into an earpiece she hadn’t noticed before. “I’ve picked up Miss Lyle, and we are pulling into the circle now.”

January looked out the window in time to watch as they pulled into a circle drive of a fancy downtown building. Brecken exited the building with such an easy confidence she envied him. He was a fashion icon walking across the parking lot, and he didn’t seem to be aware of it. He might as well have been wearing jeans and a t-shirt—he looked that comfortable.

Edward stopped at the curb, and the valet opened the door for Brecken, who flashed her a smile as he stretched out in the seat next to her.

“Good morning, January.”

“Hi. I thought—”

He waved her off before she could finish the sentence. “Yeah, I wasn’t expecting to be here, either, but I have business at the ranch this morning before I go into the office.”

She let her eyes drop to the impeccably tailored, dark purple suit he was wearing. “Nice suit.”

“The way you said that makes me think you don’t appreciate my style.”

“Actually, quite the contrary. I admire the suits very much. Who’s the designer?”

“Thank you.” He grinned proudly. “Victor Peach. He’s a local designer.” He pulled at the lapels and smiled. “One-of-a-kind suits with style.”

A giggle escaped her lips, and Brecken leaned in. “Like me.”

“Truer words have never been spoken,” she whispered as his eyes locked with hers, and the energy in the car shifted.

“Have dinner with me?”

“What? No. I can’t—”

“Why not?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Hmmm.”

He was crazy. They couldn’t have dinner. Right? She may not be working directly with him, but he was still her boss and she needed this job.

When Edward pulled up to Blackstone Ranch, she practically jumped out of the car, eager to get to the sanctuary of the office and throw herself into the job. Focus on the work instead of the man who had her all twisted inside. She glanced at the clock on the wall, which told her she had ten minutes before she had to meet Timothy for the tour, and then dropped her purse onto the floor next to the desk.

She scanned through the project plan Tina had created. Yesterday, January had been too worried about the job to appreciate the amount of detail that Tina had managed to include in the plan. It was actually quite impressive. She’d just flipped to the third page when the sound of footsteps approached the room. Please be Timothy.

Not Timothy. Brecken lingered in the doorway, and her pulse quickened. “You ran off before we could confirm dinner.”

“I can’t have dinner with you. You’re my boss.”

“Fine. You’re fired.” He put his hands in his pants pockets and laughed. “I’m kidding, of course.” He walked into the room before pulling an envelope from one pocket. “Here. Maybe this will help ease your mind.”

“What is this?” she asked, taking the envelope and turning it over in her hand.

“It’s payment for the entire project. I assume you’re worried about me firing you or some other worst-case scenario, so I hope this will ease your mind.”

“So, you think paying me up front will get me to have dinner with you?” The shock and offense were clear in her tone.

“No.” His smile faltered and he took a step back. “I knew you were stressed yesterday and I wanted to let you know that I wasn’t going to fire you.” He cleared his throat. “This doesn’t have anything to do with dinner. It’s just, there’s still so much I don’t know about you, and you’re going to be spending some time here over the next couple of months and I thought we could get to know each other.”

“So, a date?” January completely understood what he was saying, but the opportunity to put him on the spot was too good to pass up.

“Let’s call it a business dinner.” He nodded toward the envelope in her hand. “One hundred grand, as discussed.”

Her eyes snapped to his. “We never discussed payment. And that is far too much money.”

She was holding one hundred thousand dollars? Her body temperature rose, and she wanted to shove the envelope back to him. This was way too much money for the job he’d hired her for.

“My mistake. Well, that is what the job pays.”

She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “It’s too much. I can’t accept this. One thousand dollars is far more than is appropriate.”

“Says who? You said so yourself that you’d never done an entire estate.”

“It’s too much,” she repeated.

“It’s non-negotiable.”

When she didn’t respond, he nodded and stepped back toward the door. “Edward and I will pick you up out front at five and we can go to dinner from here.”

“Wait,” she called, finally finding her voice. “I need to go home first before dinner.”

“Sure.” His smile was slow as he turned back to her. “How about I pick you up for dinner at seven. I prefer to drive my own dates anyway.”

“It’s a business dinner,” she corrected him.

His lips pulled higher into a wicked grin. “Right. Seven o’clock for our business dinner.”

* * *

“The ranch is only about half the size it used to be. We’ve got a little under fifty head of cattle and six horses.”

Timothy led her through the barn where the smell of hay and the scent of manure filled her nostrils.

“Only? That sounds like a lot of animals. What’s a, er, head?”

“A head of cattle—we have one hundred head or one hundred cows.”

“Why not say one hundred cows then?”

He smiled and shook his head but continued with his spiel as they walked through the barn. “A ranch with this much acreage can handle a lot more. Most of the livestock was sold off before Sam, Mr. Blackstone, passed away.”

He shifted uncomfortably from one denim-clad leg to the other, his unease apparent. What had Sam Blackstone been like? And why was everyone so reluctant to speak about him?

A clanging sound rang out through the air—metal on metal—and Timothy’s face lit up. “Breakfast is ready. Come on.”

He pulled her arm playfully, leading her out of the barn. An older woman with blonde hair that bounced in a mess of curls around her face and an apron tied around her waist, waved a metal stick around a silver triangle hanging from the porch beam.

“Is that what I think it is?” She laughed through the question and tried not to trip.

Timothy nodded. “It’s partly tradition, but it isn’t like we’re checking the time very often when we’re out here. Louisa has us all trained to listen for that sound.”

“I guess I didn’t think of that.”

“Louisa, this is January,” Timothy introduced her, and Louisa dropped the metal stick and held out a hand. “Louisa is our chef, she’s been here longer than any of us.”

“Pleasure to meet you, January.”

Timothy held open the door for them, and the smell of fresh biscuits was so strong that January’s mouth watered.

The food was laid out buffet style along the dining room wall and men and women moved through it, piling their plates high and shoving bites in as they walked to the table. The atmosphere was friendly, if not chaotic, but Timothy made no comment so she fell in line, assuming this was how it always was.

He introduced her to everyone as they moved through the line and to the table. Every etiquette rule she’d ever been taught was being broken and so casually discarded that January moved in a haze. Her manners usually served to camouflage her, but in this group, she stood out. No one stared as she carefully cut her food and laid her napkin in her lap, but only because they were solely focused on eating. Conversation was replaced with the sound of forks scraping across plates and water being gulped noisily.

There was no sign of Tina, which didn’t surprise her. Tina would fit in around this table about as much as Brecken would in his purple suit.

The man sitting across from her shoved the last bite of a piece of bacon into his mouth and pushed his chair back. “Any word on when Brecken’s planning on listing the place?” he asked, looking over to Timothy. A second later, everyone else turned to him as well.

Timothy ran the back of his hand over his mouth and swallowed before speaking. “No word yet.”

It was obvious from the way they waited for him to continue that they wanted more information, but Timothy didn’t speak. Casting his eyes back down on his plate, he shoveled in another bite. When it was clear he wasn’t going to say more, the man frowned and muttered under his breath before standing and heading back outside. Slowly, the rest of the crew finished and went back to work, which left her and Timothy in the dining room alone.

“He hasn’t told them when he’s selling?” she asked, setting her fork down.

Timothy shook his head but didn’t meet her eyes.

“Why not?”

He looked up, anger reading on his friendly features. “You’d have to ask him. He’s made it clear he’s selling, but no one knows when. We’re all a little on edge because of it. Your being here seems like a pretty good indication that it won’t be long.”

The day was spent lugging empty cardboard boxes in from the trunk of Tina’s car and locating all the other supplies that might be needed: trash bags, markers, and a few cleaning supplies for any items that needed to be wiped down before being packed away.

“How long have you worked for Brecken?”

Tina paused, tape in hand. “Almost five years. I started as an engineer and worked my way up.”

“And you’ve only been to the ranch once before?”

She’d already answered this question, but January risked sounding like an idiot in hopes of Tina divulging more information.

“Yes.”

Ok, she isn’t going to make this easy.

“I thought from the exchange between you and Timothy yesterday, you’d been here a lot.”

Pursing her lips, Tina looked as if she might shut down and refuse to answer, not that January could blame her. She was getting annoyed at herself for asking so many leading questions.

“I met Mr. Drado when I led the project I told you about—setting up the ranch with Blackstone Software. Before yesterday, that was the only other time I’d been here.”

“Must have made quite an impression.”

“Excuse me?”

“Timothy seems quite taken with you.”

Tina looked as if she were considering that possibility for a moment before she laughed. “I think that’s his response to all females.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. He’s been nothing but friendly toward me. No playful jabs or flirting like he does with you.”

“I think he views you as off limits. Count yourself lucky.”

Her words had bite, which gave January pause. Off limits? If Timothy viewed her as off limits because they worked together, then it didn’t make sense. Tina worked for Brecken, which made her a coworker as well. Sure, it was a roundabout way since the ranch had nothing to do with the software company, but Brecken still signed all their checks.

Her stomach dropped as heat crept up her neck and cheeks and she realized that she was off limits because of a whole different reason. Did Tina know that Brecken had asked her out? January cleared her throat and asked, “Why hasn’t Brecken told everyone he’s selling the ranch?”

A soft hmm was the only response as Tina flipped through a file folder of papers.

“And why would he sell the ranch anyway? Especially after going to all that trouble of adding his software. Why hire me to pack it up when he has a full staff here?” She stopped, fully aware that she’d asked, out loud, every burning question that had been floating through her mind since he’d offered her the job.

Raising her head and shutting the file folder, Tina clasped her hands on top. She narrowed her eyes ever so slightly, and January braced for the ear full about minding her own business she was sure was coming. She’d overstepped, which was unlike her.

“Brecken has no ties to this place anymore. The ranch will be better off with an owner who is committed to making this place everything that it can be. Everything it once was.” Tina stood, keeping her eyes drilled into hers. “As for bringing you on and this whole charade of a project, I thought it was obvious. He likes you.”