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Her head felt too heavy for her neck to hold up, and then she remembered who she was. Charlotte Wisenhouer. A daughter, aunt, and friend. She had a Father in Heaven who loved her and had led her here.
She’d fought for every single thing she’d achieved in her life, and she’d done it with a weaker heart than others.
She could get this job without telling Beau. And she could keep it once he knew.
So she took a breath, called on the Lord to give her the right words, and looked at Beau before she started to answer.
Chapter Three
“I was looking at those pictures over on the sideboard,” Charlotte said, which didn’t answer anything Beau had asked her. “Is she your sister?”
“Yes,” he said, noting the cautious tone in his own voice. “One of them. Her name is Dolly.”
“I used to show horses,” Charlotte said, her pretty little voice making Beau want to lean closer and have her tell him more about that. But that was the flirty version of himself. This version was conducting an interview, and he wasn’t going to step outside those bounds.
Part of him realized that he couldn’t hire Charlotte. If he did, she’d live and work here, and that always made dating someone more complicated. Beau didn’t want complicated, not in his love life. Not in anything, but especially when it came to women.
Beau had learned he was a simple cowboy, and he just wanted something simple. A beautiful wife to come home to after he’d thrown moldy hay out of a loft for too many hours. An easy conversation about their big dreams, vacations they’d never take, and horses.
“I love horses,” Charlotte said next, as if reading his thoughts. “Some people are afraid of them, but that’s only because they can’t really speak their language. I can.”
“A-ha. So that’ll make you a good stable manager.”
“It will,” she said. “The listing said you had forty-plus horses here. When I was showing horses, I worked at a boarding barn. Hundreds of horses. I can easily care for forty.”
“Plus,” he said. “We share equines with Courage Reins, though they have some facilities of their own, usually for horses they’re putting through training.”
“I simply get along with horses,” Charlotte said. “And I love talking to them. Mucking out their stalls. Feeding them and giving them treats. Watching them run along the fence when they don’t get to go on trail rides.”
A wide smile covered her whole face. “I wasn’t the Stable Manager at the last barn where I worked, but I can do the job no problem.”
“What was your last job?” Beau asked. “I glanced over your résumé this morning, but I don’t recall.”
“I, uh.” Charlotte cleared her throat, which only drew Beau’s attention to her. She put off the scent of fresh cotton, and she held her pizza in the cutest way possible. “I’ve been a nanny for Mason’s kids.” She took a huge bite of her lunch then, and Beau grinned.
Why, he wasn’t sure. Only that she seemed uncomfortable talking about her previous job—which had nothing to do with horses, he noted—and thought a giant bite of pizza would save her from having to speak more about this topic. “Is that right?” he asked. “How many kids they got?”
She chewed quickly now, and Beau thought she’d certainly scrape her throat she swallowed so fast. “Four,” she said. “The youngest is moving into kindergarten this year, so they don’t need a nanny anymore.”
“Thus, you need a job.”
“It would be nice to have a place of my own too,” she said. “I’ve been living with them for…a while.”
Beau wanted to ask how long, because it seemed to be a thing for Charlotte. Instead, he nodded and asked, “Do they have horses?”
“No, sir,” she said. “Two dogs, though. Same as you.”
“So he moves up here to a new ranch, and you came with?”
Watching her squirm shouldn’t bring him so much joy. Or make him want to flirt even more obviously with her. “So you’re in touch with him,” she said.
“When someone buys a ranch worth over a million dollars, word gets around,” Beau said casually.
“They sold a big place outside of Austin.”
“Heard that too,” Beau said.
“I needed a change of scenery,” she said.
