My Fair Fortune

“No, Clark, it’s not all right. I said you could leave if you had your supervisor’s permission.”

Clark gave an oh-well shrug. “I have to pick up my brother over in Lubbock in twenty minutes. I’ll be lucky to get there in half an hour. I still have to clock out and get to my car.”

“You haven’t clocked out and you’re on a personal call?” she asked.

“Yeah, so I’ll come in five minutes early tomorrow.” The guy rolled his eyes as he bent to place something in his toolbox.

“Clark, when you asked for the time off, you said you needed to take your wife to an appointment. Now you’re taking your brother somewhere.”

This time he ignored her as he turned to walk away.

“You don’t have my permission to leave,” Caitlyn called out after him.

“Sorry,” he called back, not even turning around. “I’ll make up the time. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

Brodie had let her have a go at it; clearly it was time to step in and help her.

“Mr. Ball,” he said. “I think what Ms. Moore is trying to say is if you leave, don’t come back. Because you will no longer have a job here.”

Chapter Three (#ulink_fd064509-5883-5778-a53a-8085e6985d7f)

“How dare you put words in my mouth?” Caitlyn said through gritted teeth once they were out of earshot of Clark and others who might overhear.

“I’m sorry you took it that way,” Brodie said. But he didn’t look one bit sorry. “Obviously, your softer approach wasn’t getting through to him.”

“Excuse me? What exactly do you mean by softer approach?” The sun was high in the sky, and she felt heat prickle the back of her neck. “Just because I didn’t steamroll right over him doesn’t mean I wasn’t effectively handling the situation. You butted in.”

“The guy was walking out the door, and you were letting him.”

“I was handling it.” She purposely lowered her voice. “Look, we are not going to talk about this here. Meet me in my office.”

She turned and walked away without him, but he managed to catch up with her. They walked in stony silence as they made their way down Cowboy Country’s Main Street, past the Foaming Barrel Root Beer Stand and Gus’s General Store, to the rough-hewn wooden gate that separated the nineteenth-century cowboy town from the stark, modern Moore Entertainment executive offices.

Of course, after Brodie’s sudden-death ultimatum, Clark had sullenly taken himself back to the job site. Brodie should’ve stayed out of it and let her do her job, rather than jumping in with both feet and a sledgehammer. She hadn’t even had a chance to brief him on...anything. He didn’t know what was going on or that she was completely capable of turning that situation around. She would’ve helped Clark see the light. He would’ve done the right thing in the end. She had faith in him

Apparently, Hayes Consulting was good enough to inspire her father to contract them for a month...an entire month. However, the Brodie Hayes of Hayes Consulting was not Brodie the Brit.

Was this man really the same guy who’d swept her off her feet? Because aside from his good looks and that maddeningly delicious British accent, the guy who’d presented himself today didn’t resemble Brodie the Brit at all.

This guy...

Ugggh...

This guy was cocky and smug, not at all like anyone she’d allow to seduce her. She would never hire this guy, much less spend the better part of the night in a field, watching meteor showers and letting him put his hands all over her body...and putting her hands all over his.

The memory made her shudder...and, much to her dismay, not in a bad way. She needed to stop that right now.

She didn’t slant him a glance.

From a purely objective, woman’s point of view, Brodie Hayes was a handsome man, there was no debating that. But why did he have to be so disagreeable? He certainly seemed to take pleasure in pushing her buttons. Caitlyn knew his type: all flash and no substance.

A womanizer, no doubt.

But she couldn’t blame him for the Valentine’s Day love and dash. That was on her as much as it was on him.

* * *

Quickening her step as she approached the office, she reached out and opened the door herself, holding it for Brodie and gesturing for him to step inside first. She was no expert at office posturing and body language, but holding the door for him felt like she was putting herself back in the position of power.

Exactly where she needed to be now that everything had changed so drastically.

“Hello, Janie, we’re back,” she said. “Please hold calls. Oh, unless it’s about my father. We’re awaiting word on the latest round of tests.”

Of course, her mother would probably call Caitlyn’s cell with any updates, but she just wanted to be clear...just in case.

When Caitlyn turned around to head back into her office, Brodie was staring at her with that same impassive mask he’d donned the moment they’d figured out who was who and the mess they’d created thanks to that night.

Who was this icy stoic sitting across from her? If Brodie Hayes had acted like this, she would’ve left that wedding when she should’ve.

“Heavy-handed threats are no way to inspire people and build a team,” Caitlyn said. “Even if the team needs some refining, they are all Cowboy Country has right now. Electricians aren’t exactly standing around in herds. Bottom line is, that’s not how we operate here. Do you understand?”

He sat back in his chair, staring down at his hands, which were steepled at chest level. For a moment she thought he might apologize.

“It wasn’t an easy decision for your father to hire Hayes Consulting. Alden Moore is extremely good at what he does. He’s the amusement-park king. Hiring me for Cowboy Country was him admitting he may have been in a little over his head. Your dad is damn good at what he does, but this park is a departure from his wheelhouse. When your father hired me, one of the first things he asked me was, ‘Hayes, are you afraid to fire people?’ I assured him I wasn’t.”

“So what? You decided to walk in here and prove yourself first thing, even before I could bring you up to speed on how things work around here?”

“I didn’t need to be briefed to see what that guy was about,” Brodie said. “Your father has already given me my marching orders. Did he not brief you? I thought you were his second-in-command.”

No, she was not his second-in-command. That would’ve been Bob Page. Bob had left unexpectedly after suffering critical injuries in a horseback riding accident. This happened about a week before her father’s heart attack. Based on the catastrophes of Cowboy Country’s number one and number two honchos, if Caitlyn didn’t know better, she might’ve worried that this project was cursed.

She was too much of a realist for that, and she was dead set on proving to her dad that she could deliver.

“I actually work out of the research offices in Chicago.”

She paused to see if he’d make any Cait from Chicago cracks.

He didn’t.

She may or may not have been a little disappointed. Her rational side was relieved, but her traitorous heart, the place where she stored the snow globe memory of that night, still held out hope for some wayward spark to leap out, revealing the dashing romantic she’d met that night in February.

It didn’t.

“I transferred to Horseback Hollow to take the reins while my dad is recovering.”

“Yet, you don’t have a copy of the briefing your dad gave me.” He held up the papers.

He was so smug. She didn’t know what she wanted more: to smack that smirk off him or to walk up and kiss him to see if he could still turn her inside out.