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She thought so too.
“Do you have any ideas where you’ll look for a job?” Zack asked. “Anything in particular in mind?”
“No. I just need a second job. I have a list of what I’d like and then there’s the list of what’s available. They don’t exactly coincide. So I can’t afford to be too picky. But I’ll make it work, whatever it is.”
“Come work for us.”
Laurel stared at Zack, momentarily speechless. “Work for us?”
“Yes. Me, Travis and Levi. We need an accountant for the airport.”
“Since when? Don’t you have someone doing that?”
“Not anymore. We had an accountant but he recently moved away and we’ve been scrambling. Levi’s accountant has helped us out but he’s just doing it as a favor to Levi until we find someone.”
“I’m not taking charity from Travis.”
“How is a job charity? Besides, Travis isn’t the one offering you the job. I am.”
“I don’t want a job because you feel sorry for me.”
“Damn, Laurel, I’m offering you the job because you’re an accountant. We wouldn’t need you full-time. Not yet, anyway. You’d only need to be on site periodically. You could work from home. I’m not sure how many hours we’d need but we can figure that out.”
Oh, my God, it sounded like a dream second job. She could work from home. She wouldn’t need more childcare. But if she took the job—a job basically working for her brother—wouldn’t that be a mistake? Wouldn’t it be admitting that she couldn’t make it on her own?
Yeah, you’re doing great with that, aren’t you? Drowning in debt, hardly seeing your kids. And when you are with them, you’re too tired to do anything. Why are you going to turn down what could be the perfect second job? Out of pride? That’s just stupid.
But it wasn’t pride that made her so determined to be independent. It was necessity. So she would never ever be dependent on anyone else to support herself and her kids.
“Give me your phone,” Zack said, holding out a hand.
“Why?”
“So I can put my number in it. Whenever you decide, call me.”
She handed him her phone, saying, “Don’t you want an answer right now?”
He added numbers into the phone, then handed it back. “No, take some time to think it over. But we need someone as soon as possible, so don’t take too long.”
*
After he tookLaurel home, it occurred to Zack that he should tell Travis and Levi about the job offer. Zack took care of the hiring for the airfield, except for the flight school and charter service, which was Travis’s bailiwick. But their accountant would handle payroll for all the airfield employees, as well as any other accounting needs they would have, so he needed to let his partners know. Not that he expected any objection from either of them.
He called Levi first and got right to the point. “I offered Laurel a job as our accountant.”
“Does she have time? Isn’t she already working two jobs?”
“Not anymore. She’s still got the job at Kelly Boots but she needs another one.”
“Fine with me. Let me know when it’s finalized and I’ll let my accountant know.”
“She hasn’t accepted yet,” Zack cautioned. “But I’ll be surprised if she turns it down.” Since it was, at least in Zack’s opinion, the perfect second job for her.
After hanging up with Levi, he called Travis. “Just a heads-up,” he said when Travis answered. “I offered Laurel a job as our accountant.”
“Since you called me I’m assuming she didn’t turn you down flat.”
“No. She’s thinking about it.”
