Page 14 of Ranch Rules

There was a silence on the other end so stark that she wondered if he’d hung up.

“Mr. Dawson?”

“I have to tell you, Natalie, that the partners have invested a lot of time and money into your training.”

“Yes, sir. I know that, but—”

“And we have offered you not only a second chance, but a place that will be invaluable to your... refocusing. If you were to look that gift horse in the mouth, I have to say, it won’t look good.” He was perhaps the only man who could make the words it won’t look good sound like worse than death. Natalie was sure that he meant that very thing.

She could feel the walls closing in. She couldn’t stay here! She knew Mr. Dawson and the other partners meant well, but surely they couldn’t know the type of atrocity she had just had to endure! Could they? She should tell him, just blurt it out. That was the only thing that would show her where she truly stood with the company, and if Briggs & Spric was one that would condone her being treated in such a manner, then she didn’t want to work for them, anyway.

“Now, as I’ve said, I really do have to be going.”

“Mr. Dawson.”

“Yes?” His impatient sigh hissed in her ear.

Natalie shut her eyes tightly and tried to work the words past her reluctant lips. “I... I just... see you Monday, sir.”

“Very good. See you then.”

Refusing to look at Thomas, she set the phone down in the cradle, fully aware that she had wasted her one and only lifeline.

---