One Night Charmer

CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_1a39b753-2463-577d-bfcc-36c6535ddcb3)

“JACK TALKED TO ACE about getting you a job.”

Sierra stared at the phone like it was a poisonous snake. Usually, she welcomed phone calls from friends. Particularly Kate. Right now, going through everything, Kate was her best bet for finding an emotional outlet for her pain.

The problem with her typical group of friends—beyond the fact that they had abandoned her at the bar last night—was that she felt obligated to protect her family secrets around them.

The other day, when she had overheard her father nearly bursting a blood vein screaming about Jack Monaghan going back on the deal they had struck years ago, she’d discovered that her entire existence was a carefully constructed facade.

Apparently Jack had confronted their father a few months ago, and now the secret was starting to leak out. In town, and now in their house.

The only reason she had spent many years thinking that her father was a decent person, a faithful husband, a loyal, giving human being, was that Jack had signed a gag order some seventeen years earlier.

In exchange, Jack had accepted a large sum of money. Jack had come and paid her father back, and had dissolved that bargain with that one simple action. There was no protection anymore. Jack could get a billboard and put it up in the center of town, proclaiming Nathan West to be the faithless scumbag he was. And then, it wouldn’t only be her mother, her sister and her brother dealing with the fallout in a contained environment.

If that came out, who knew what else would come out? That was what terrified her the most. If people in town saw one person speaking out against Nathan West, how many others would come forward and reveal wrongs he’d committed against them? How bad was he?

It wasn’t something she was ready to face. Whether or not that was fair, it was the truth.

But Kate knew. Because of her relationship with Jack she already knew the whole story, so while that made it difficult for her to deal with her friend in some ways, it also made it easier. She didn’t have to explain her behavior last night. Didn’t have to go through any awkward or dramatic confessions.

Of course, now she knew Kate’s fiancé was Sierra’s half-brother and it didn’t make her feel too eager to go have dinner at their place.

But phone calls were fine.

This one, though, was a little bit confusing.

“Jack did what?”

“He talked to Ace this morning. He met with him about an investment opportunity, and they ended up discussing you. And the fact that you need a job.”

Heat stung Sierra’s cheeks. She did need a job, and until this past week she had not appreciated how difficult one might be to come by. There weren’t a surplus of positions available for someone without a specific skill set. It was a small town, and most of the shops ran on a very small staff. People coming home from college for the summer had already secured positions at any place looking to hire extra employees to deal with the seasonal influx of tourists.

Sierra had always had a job. When she wanted one. All through school she’d known she would have a job waiting for her when she graduated. She’d been made office manager of the family ranch the moment she’d stepped off campus, because that was what her father had been grooming her for.

Colton had taken over West Construction, Maddy handled dressage lessons and horse training. Sierra had been slated for the business side of things.

Scheduling lessons, managing the horses that were boarded on the property, and the payments. Making sure feed was ordered, the farrier was scheduled to handle the horses’ shoe needs.

Sure, nepotism had gotten her there, but she was good at her job.

But apparently if you took nepotism out of the equation she was like any other sad college graduate who was realizing her degree was barely worth the paper it was printed on.

Hey, at least she didn’t have student loan debt.

“I can’t imagine that Ace wants to give me a job.”

“Why not?”

“Because. He gave me a ride home last night when I was drunk.”

There was a brief moment of silence on the other end of the phone. “That shouldn’t matter. He owns a bar. He understands how easy it is to overimbibe.”

“How charming was I last night, Kate? You talked to me.”

“Okay, you were kind of an ass.”

Sierra frowned. “What did I say to you?”

“You said, ‘Really, Kate? That hat with those boots?’”

“Did I?”

“Yes. It’s okay, though. I knew you were drunk. If you were sober you wouldn’t have said that to me in public.”

Sierra grimaced. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. And you were right.” There was another slight pause. “My boots did not match my hat.”

“You know that doesn’t matter.” Kate was one of the nicest people Sierra knew, and the idea of saying anything that might have hurt her made her heart crumble a little bit.

Okay, maybe she didn’t have illegitimate children littering the countryside, but she had to wonder if in some way she was more like her father than she would care to be.

“Please don’t feel guilty. Are you going to go talk to Ace about the job?”

She groaned. “He’s mad at me.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t exactly tell him his hat didn’t match his boots, but I wasn’t all that nice to him, either.” Not that he’d been Prince Charming himself.

“Well, that explains why he told Jack you had to come talk to him in person.”

“Ugh.”

“And why he said you had to apologize.”

Sierra covered her eyes. “Serious ugh.”

“I’m sorry, but you don’t have better options, do you?”

“No.”

“Then, much like my hat and boots, your resistance does not go with your situation.”

Her friend was right. Sierra hated it, but her friend was right. “Okay. When am I supposed to go talk to him and...apologize?”

“Anytime before things get busy.”