Bunking Down with the Boss. Charlene Sands

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      Sam missed his daughter, too. Only she wasn’t ever coming home. His heart ached and old pain surfaced. Pain he’d tried to run from. He’d endured months and months of agonizing grief and then it had turned to numbness. He liked the deadened feeling best. He’d managed to drift for months this way. Forgetting.

      Good God, Caroline’s daughter was the same age his daughter would have been—had she lived.

      And little Tess would have lived if Sam had been there for her.

      “My parents took her so that I could have this month to bring Belle Star Stables up to snuff again.”

      Sam brought himself back to the present. “So, you need to find help really fast.”

      She nodded. “Time’s a wasting.”

      “Any prospects?”

      “None at all.”

      Sam pondered this for a moment. His first instincts were to get out of Dodge the minute Caroline confessed to having a young daughter. Sam didn’t think he could take the day-to-day reminder, but her daughter wasn’t here. And she wouldn’t be for a month.

      And Sam had had enough of drifting from town to town every few days. He wouldn’t mind staying on in Hope Wells for the month. But he’d already made a big mistake with Caroline and he’d hurt her feelings, as well.

      He figured he’d be doing her a favor if he stayed on. He knew his way around a ranch and truth be told he’d spent the better part of his adult life running one of the largest construction companies in the southwest, the Triple B, his father’s namesake, Blake Beaumont Building. He’d been CEO and top of his game, professionally. He’d helped his father bring in more business than they could handle, building up a small enterprise into a multi-million dollar corporation. To say he had some experience in carpentry was an understatement. Sam had made a fortune, but he’d paid a heavy price for his success. The cost of his dedication to work had been the untimely death of his child.

      Yet as he stood there, looking at Caroline, he knew he could help her. If she’d agree, he could have her place up and running in one month’s time, then he’d move on. Actually, he missed the hands-on work of creating and building something from scratch. Refurbishing her stables would be a challenge he’d love to take head-on.

      And he’d already determined he could work side by side with Caroline, pretty as she was, he simply wasn’t interested in getting involved with a woman. Good thing too, because the whole widow-and-child package would do him in otherwise.

      “Listen, I have a proposition for you. If by the end of the day, you like the work I’ve done, and if no one comes knocking on your door for the job, I’m reapplying.”

      Caroline lifted her brows. “You are?”

      “Yep, if you’re agreeing.”

      She folded her arms, contemplating. “I don’t see as I have much choice.”

      “Fair enough. Is it a deal then?”

      Caroline hesitated, but he knew he had her over a barrel. She was desperate for help. One determined lady. She had a plan in mind, and Sam had no doubt she would succeed, with his assistance. “Let’s see what you can do with those burned-up cabinets.”

      “Yes, ma’am.”

      

      Caroline reassessed the damage, not to her kitchen, but to her heart, and decided that it was a good thing Sam Beaumont was only interested in an honest day’s work. He’d been up front about it. He’d been truthful. That’s a heck of a lot more than she’d ever gotten from Gil.

      Caroline had more than her ego on the line. And if Sam Beaumont was the man for the job, then she was one step closer to seeing her dream come true. She hadn’t gone into that honky-tonk last night looking for love. She’d gone looking for an employee.

      Caroline grabbed the bag of food she’d bought from Patsy’s Pantry, burgers fully loaded, fries and two caramel and fudge sundaes, still frozen she hoped, and exited her truck. She’d left the house three hours ago to run errands and then, because her kitchen was in turmoil, she’d picked up dinner.

      It was after seven o’clock when she walked through her front door. Sam had been working all day, and if the cabinets looked half as good as the man fully immersed in the job, wearing a tight white tank and those faded blue jeans, then Caroline had found herself an employee.

      “Dinner,” she announced, setting the bags on the kitchen table.

      When she glanced up, she found Sam standing back from the cabinets, admiring his work. “Almost through,” he said.

      Caroline swallowed, looking at the work he’d done. He’d managed to reface the existing cabinets so that they appeared an identical match. No one would have guessed that there had been burnt and charred wood there just hours ago. “They’re beautiful.”

      “I couldn’t find a match to the old doors, so I put on all new ones.”

      “I see that.” Caroline loved the new look, but she hesitated. “I hadn’t planned on renovating my entire kitchen. Those new doors must have been expensive.”

      “Nah,” Sam said, finally glancing over to her. His dark eyes twinkled and Caroline’s stomach flip-flopped. He was a man who, when he gave a woman his full attention, could turn her inside out. “I made the lumber store manager a deal. Trust me, you got more than a fair shake on the doors.”

      “How?”

      “How’d I make the deal?” He seemed pleased with himself. “You’ll do all your lumber business with him during the renovations and you’ll give his kid free riding lessons.”

      “Free riding lessons?”

      “Yep, you were planning on giving lessons, weren’t you?”

      She chuckled. “I am now.”

      Actually, aside from boarding and grooming the horses, Caroline had toyed with the idea of giving lessons after school and on weekends. Sam had just cemented the notion into reality.

      He set the invoice for the cost of the lumber, doors included, onto the kitchen counter. Caroline leaned over to take a look. She couldn’t fault him for being excessive since he had indeed gotten a fair price for the materials. She glanced up to meet his eyes. “Looks like I can afford you after all.”

      “So I’m hired?”

      Caroline nodded. “For the month. Yes, I’ll hire you. And I don’t plan on starving my one and only employee. I brought dinner home from Patsy’s Pantry. It’s nothing fancy but the food’s the best in five counties. Hungry?”

      “I could eat,” Sam admitted, “but I’d like to clean up first. Mind if I take a shower?”

      A shower? Caroline’s mind spun in a dozen directions, but it came back to earth quickly and focused on one final thought. Sam Beaumont, with his bronzed skin and strong body, naked, in her shower. The instant mind flash caused her a moment of doubt in hiring him.

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