Maisey Yates – A Tall, Dark Cowboy Christmas (страница 7)
“Yes, please,” she said, trying her best to eat slow, and feeling like she was going to end up failing the moment the salty, savory bacon touched her tongue. She was ravenous. She hadn’t let herself realize just how much.
“What were you doing?” Lindy asked, her voice soft.
“I just needed a place to sleep. I’m new to Gold Valley... I decided to move here,” she said. She wasn’t going to get into the whole thing about looking for her family. Not that she believed they were going to have some tearful reunion. She wasn’t that stupid. Life didn’t work that way.
Her mother, who had given birth to her, had walked away without a backward glance. A father who’d probably never even met her, maybe didn’t even know about her? Why would he want anything to do with her?
The very thought of it, of putting herself in front of him and risking a rejection, made her feel...
It didn’t matter. From what she had found out about the Daltons, they were well-off. Famous rodeo riders and owners of a massive plot of land just on the outskirts of town.
Surely they would be able to spare a little seed money to keep her off the streets. And they’d probably be happy to fling some money at her to get rid of her, anyway.
She didn’t need a family. She’d been just fine without one all this time.
What she needed was something a lot more practical than that. A shovel to dig herself out of the hole she was in.
Money would make for a decent shovel.
She cleared her throat. “I decided to move here, but I had kind of a series of less than fortunate happenings and I ran out of money before I could get a job. So, I didn’t have anywhere to stay.” She wouldn’t have jumped into the Gold Valley situation had she not lost the apartment she’d been in before in Portland. But the landlord had decided she wanted it for her adult son, and McKenna had been unceremoniously booted. Also, she hadn’t gotten her security deposit back. Which wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t like she had created a mildew stain in the bathroom. That was because the roof leaked.
“It was a desperate-times-desperate-measures kind of thing,” she said. “And... Thank you. For not calling the police. And for feeding me bacon. Which seems a little bit above and beyond, all things considered.”
“You don’t have a job yet?” Lindy asked.
“Not yet,” she said.
“What kind of jobs do you normally do?” Lindy asked.
“Aerospace engineering,” McKenna replied, taking another bite of crisp bacon. “But when I can’t find work in that field, waitressing is my fallback.”
“Sadly, we’re fresh out of aerospace engineering jobs,” Lindy said.
“Good,” McKenna said. “Because I was lying about that.”
“I had a feeling,” Lindy responded. “Not because I don’t think you could be an aerospace engineer, just because we’re nowhere near NASA.”
“I’ve done all kinds of things. I’ve been a waitress, hotel maid. You name the manual labor job that doesn’t require much lifting over fifty pounds and I’ve probably done it.”
“Basic cooking?” Lindy asked.
She shrugged. “Diner stuff.”
“Cleaning.”
“Like I said. Housekeeping.”
“I think we could find a job for you right here,” Lindy said.
McKenna frowned. “No offense. But... I’m a stranger who was caught sleeping illegally on your property. Why exactly would you want to give me a job?”
“Because sometimes life is hard and it isn’t fair,” Lindy said, her determined blue eyes meeting McKenna’s. “I’m well aware of that. And sometimes circumstances spin out of your control. It has nothing to do with whether or not you’re a good person. So, you tell me, McKenna. Are you going to steal from us?”
McKenna lifted a shoulder. “Probably not.”
“Probably not,” Wyatt repeated.
“I don’t know. Am I gravely injured? Did a family member of mine come down with a terrible illness and the only way I can get back to them is to steal money from you?” It was moot. She didn’t have any family that knew her. Or that she knew. Just family she was looking for.
“I appreciate the honesty,” Lindy said dryly. “But barring extraordinary circumstances, are you going to steal from me?”
McKenna shook her head. She was a lot of things, and definitely a little bit opportunistic. But she wasn’t an out-and-out thief. “No.”
“Well, then, I don’t see why we can’t give you a job. We can always fire you if you’re terrible at it.” She looked over at her husband when she said that part.
“Fine with me,” Wyatt said. “We were going to have to hire someone else, anyway.”
She blinked. “I...”
“We also have a place for you to stay. One that isn’t that horrible cabin in the middle of the woods that doesn’t have anything but spiderwebs in it for warmth.”
“Oh... You can’t do that.”
“Sure we can,” Lindy said. “We have a bunch of extra room.”
Throughout the entire exchange, her man stood there mute. A solid, silent presence that fairly radiated with disapproval.
“It’s fine with me,” Wyatt said. “But I don’t have time to train anyone right now.”
He shot a meaningful look over at her man. The look that he got back was not friendly at all.
“I’m going to go get dressed,” Wyatt said.
Lindy pushed up from her seat. “Ditto. Enjoy your breakfast.”
The two of them left the room, and they left her standing there with... With him. And he did not look happy.
“I guess I work here now,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant.
“I guess so.”
“Sorry,” she responded.
He shrugged. “Nothing to be sorry about.”
“You don’t look happy.”
The corner of his mouth lifted upward. “I never look happy.”
“Oh. Well. That’s good to know.”
And then he stuck out his hand, his dark, serious eyes meeting hers. “I’m Grant Dodge. And I guess I’m your new boss.”
GRANT FELT LIKE the biggest asshole curmudgeon on the planet. Not that that was a new feeling for him necessarily. But he resented the fact that he had to show this girl around the ranch, and he shouldn’t. Really, he should be proud of the fact that Wyatt and Lindy were using what they had to give her a shot at digging out of the bad pit she seemed to find herself in.
But Grant didn’t have a hell of a lot of altruism left inside of him.
If they had done it without putting her in his jurisdiction, he might have been able to muster a little bit up. As it was, not so much.
“Come on, McKenna Tate,” he said, turning and walking out of the dining area, trusting that she was going to follow him. The sound of her footsteps behind him indicated that she had.
“Where are we going?”
“I expect that you’re going to want to get a look around the place. And that you’d probably like to see where you’re going to be sleeping.”
He would have to pull up the ledger to see which cabins were available, but that would be easy enough. It wasn’t that any of this was difficult. It was all getting rolled into his daily responsibilities, after all. Wasn’t extra. Not really.
But a mother hen he was not. Not even on a good day. And after the awful sleep he’d gotten, today was not a very good day.
“It doesn’t really matter if I like it or not,” she fired back. “I don’t have any other options.”
“I’m not here for this tough-girl thing you’re doing,” he said, stopping and turning to face her. “My brother is doing a damn nice thing for you. If you have to pretend that you don’t care, you can stay quiet. Otherwise, feel free to add commentary.”
Her expression went from defiant to subdued, softening slightly. Well. Apparently, she did have feelings. And wasn’t made entirely of prickles and spite.
He pushed open the front door and the two of them walked out of the house. She stayed silent, her boots loud on the steps as they made their way down to the driveway. Grant paused and looked around, always surprised at how the place looked. New, and somehow the same all at once. The cabins around the main house had been restored, each one with its own flower bed and carefully manicured walk that led up to the front door.