Page 14 of Tumbleweed Temptation
Ginny returned to take their order, and they gave it, without Austin adding anything else about the job. She didn't meet his gaze, either, so he guessed he was just pissing off everyone in town at this point.
“So should we talk about Maria Talamantez? Or do you have your mind somewhere else?”
“No, ah, we should talk about the ones we’ve interviewed, of course. She was fine. She’d be fine.” So would the others. But his heart was set on Ginny.
When he paid the bill, he wrote a note. “I’ll be upstairs interviewing the rest of the day. Stop by if you’re interested.” He tried to catch her gaze when he left, but she studiously avoided him as she bussed another table.
He sighed, and stepped back into the breath-catching heat of a West Texas afternoon.
Melissa Dunfry was the next candidate, and she moved very carefully across his floor to sit on his couch. He cast a questioning look in Marianne’s direction, but she didn't seem to notice.
“Hey, Melissa, how are you doing?” She had moved the opposite direction from Janine, gone from a tiny little thing to weighing probably three times what she weighed in high school.
Melissa swept her hair back from her face and sighed, then smiled brightly. “I’m good. This is a cute place.”
“Thanks. Yeah, I didn't have anything to do with it. Sofia and Poppy were the ones, from what I heard.”
“My place is a disaster. I try to fix it cute, you know, like those places on Pinterest, but no matter how many kids they say they have, I’m convinced they’re lying, because with my set, nothing stays in place long.”
“How many kids do you have?”
“I have four.”
“Four,” Austin repeated, trying to remember Melissa from before. She was married to a Dunfry, but he didn't want to ask which one. Matt had given him a hard time in high school, because Austin had been so small, and well, smarter than all the Dunfrys put together. “Are they all in school?”
“Oh, no, only one is. But my mother-in-law said she’d take care of the other three while I work.”
Austin struggled to remember Mrs. Dunfry, too. He wondered if she’d have energy to watch three kids all day. She hadn’t done the world’s greatest job with her own boys. “So tell me why you want to come work for me.”
“Oh, you know.” She pushed her hair back again, and he wondered if she was used to wearing it down, because she twisted it at the back of her neck and left it there. Or maybe she was just nervous and playing with her hair soothed her. “I could use the money, of course. Matt is working in San Angelo.”
Austin cringed. Of course she’d be married to Matt. Austin was surprised, actually, that Matt allowed her to come interview.
“Four kids eat a lot,” she was saying, unaware that he’d started down memory lane. “Plus, you know, I’ve never worked and I kind of feel like I need to, both to help Matt out and just, you know, to be around grown ups for a while. I mean, I know it doesn’t look good that I’ve never worked, but I’ve volunteered at the school and I’m very dependable. You can ask any of the teachers there.”
“Yeah, I see your references here,” he said, looking at the resume? she’d submitted. “But you don't volunteer every day, right? I mean you stay at home with your other three most of the time. I’m just saying that working in an office is a lot more demanding than volunteering. And your kids are pretty little. It’s going to be hard for you to be away from them.”
“But she can go home at lunch, can’t she, and see them?” Marianne inserted.
“Sure, but most days we’ll have appointments until five, I’m thinking, and she won’t get home until six.”
He watched Melissa’s smile fade. “Maybe I shouldn’t have told you I had kids.”
“No, he can’t decide against you because of the kids,” Marianne said, sending him a sharp look. “That’s illegal.”
“I’m not saying that, I’m just letting you know how demanding this job can be. I think you should know that before you commit to it. I’m definitely not holding the fact that you have kids against you.” The last thing he needed was to be accused of that.
Hell. He was going to have to hire her. Even though Ginny was the one he wanted.
*****
“IS AUSTIN STILL TRYINGto get you to come work for him?” Janine asked when Ginny walked back behind the counter, sending a withering look in Austin’s direction as he sat at a table near the door to wait for his dinner.
“No, he hired Melissa. I thought you were the one who told me that.” She scrawled his order on her pad and slid it across the pass-through bar to Nancy, who was cooking today.
“That doesn’t mean he isn’t still trying to talk you into working for him.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Ginny had made that promise so many times that the words were just a reflex now. Not going anywhere. Staying here. No matter what. She turned to pour him an unsweet tea, because she was pretty sure that was what he had last time he was in, when he’d asked her to work for him.
