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But now that she was here, he felt obligated to at least consider her for the position. After all, she’d gotten dressed up in that Queen Elizabeth suit for the occasion.
The first time he’d met her, she’d looked quite different. She’d been wearing a bikini, in fact. And what a bikini. Sure, bikinis were pretty much par for the course in Port Clara, but Jane wore hers better than any other he’d seen. In fact, he’d like to see—
He gritted his teeth. Best not to dwell on what she looked like under that suit. He tried desperately to think like a businessman.
Hiring Jane Selwyn would be illogical. He’d already interviewed a better-qualified candidate who was perfect. But though Carol was right that he’d made a decision, he hadn’t yet contacted the artist to offer the job.
He could still reconsider.
Jane’s portfolio showed talent, but it was decidedly amateurish. And despite the small-town atmosphere of Port Clara, he had no intentions of limiting his services to local used-car dealers and barbecue joints. He intended to compete with agencies from Houston—New York and San Francisco, too. Jane was so underqualified.
But the biggest reason of all not to hire her was what she did to him on a physical level. He’d never met a more beautiful woman. Not just your average beautiful, like a model or a beach bunny, but an ethereal, angelic beautiful. With her black, wavy hair, her high forehead and her lush red lips, she reminded him of one of those 1940s movie stars—Vivien Leigh, maybe.
Her husband had been right to punch Max in the face. Although he hadn’t made any outrageous come-ons when he’d first met her, his thoughts had been decidedly carnal, and good ol’ Scott had sensed it.
Max had been in the business world long enough to know that work and sex mixed together like nitro and glycerin. Workplace affairs caused no end of heartache, not to mention the loss of productivity. If he hired Jane, their relationship would have to be strictly business.
Of course, he’d decided long ago he would never act on his attraction—the minute he’d seen her darling, bright-eyed, blond-haired little girl.
Single moms were off-limits for Max. He didn’t need that lesson shoved down his throat again.
“I’ll work for free,” she said, breaking into his thoughts.
“Excuse me?”
“Give me a two-week trial, and you won’t have to pay me. We can call it an internship. Let me prove what I can do. I’ll work twice as hard as anybody you could possibly find. I won’t complain. I’ll take work home with me at night. I’ll…I’ll…” She trailed off as she apparently ran out of incentives.
Thank God she hadn’t offered fringe benefits with the boss, or he might have snapped up her offer.
As it was, he couldn’t help but consider what she had proposed. The one problem with the other artist was the salary he’d demanded. Launching this business had been far more expensive than Max had planned for. His cousin Reece, who was also his CPA, was having kittens over the cost overruns for the office remodeling. Getting free graphic arts services would help with his bottom line.
But he quickly nixed the idea. It wouldn’t be fair to Jane. She obviously needed a job, which meant she needed money, too. She had mouths to feed.
And he had to hire the best-qualified candidate.
Max stood, signaling an end to the interview. “It was a pleasure seeing you again, Jane. As I said, I haven’t made a final decision yet, but I’ll let you—”
“You aren’t going to hire me, are you?”
“I’m still considering all—”
“My ex-husband and I finalized our divorce because of you,” she said abruptly. “You owe me.”
He hadn’t seen that coming. Cheeky move. “Oh, really? I thought I did you a favor.”
“No, actually, I did you a favor. If I hadn’t agreed to Scott’s rotten divorce terms, he was going to claim you and I had an affair and drag your name through the mud. He said he would ruin you and your business here in Port Clara before you even got started. And he could, believe me.”
Max sat back down with a thud. “I remember he made some threats, but I thought that was just heat-of-the-moment stuff. Did he actually think we were involved? Based on one conversation?”
Jane nodded. “He thought I was having affairs with everyone, from his brother to the pool boy. But in you, he found someone he could actually damage. And not just with his fists. He knew where you came from, all about your family. He could have caused you considerable embarrassment with his lies, if nothing else.”
“Why didn’t you let him? You barely know me. He couldn’t have proved anything.”
She blew out a breath and massaged her temples with two well-manicured fingers. “You seemed like a nice guy. You didn’t deserve to have Scott as an enemy. He wouldn’t have been able to prove anything, but by the time we went to court, the damage would have been done.”
They sat silently for a few moments. She was right—he did owe her. Still…
“I can’t believe I just did that,” Jane said finally. “Trying to force your hand. It was something Scott would do. Please, forget I even brought this up.” She stood and gathered her things. “I don’t want to be hired if I’m not the best qualified.”
“Wait a minute, Jane—”
“No, really, it’s okay. This never would have worked out, not with this history between us. I shouldn’t have even sent my résumé in. I’ll see myself out.”
She fled his office, and he let her go before he said or did anything he’d regret. He watched the way her hips moved when she walked, the little hitch that said she was only the hottest woman he’d ever met in his life. But he couldn’t think about that, he had to think about the big picture.
He felt sorry for her, he really did. She was obviously in dire straits if she would resort to using guilt to get him to hire her.
She had talent—lots of talent. She needed the job, which meant she would work hard to please Max and his clients. Her salary demands as outlined in her résumé were modest, unlike those of the candidate he’d been leaning toward.
Max took a sip from his coffee cup and grimaced when he realized it was left over from this morning and stone cold.
Had he really been a factor in Jane’s divorce? Allie was tight-lipped where Jane was concerned. But she’d given him the impression that Jane’s marriage had been on the rocks long before Max’s ill-fated flirtation that had resulted in a black eye and a fat lip.
Max sauntered into the reception area, where Carol presided over their only coffeepot. He’d ordered another one for the office break room, but it hadn’t yet arrived.
“What in the world did you do to that girl?” Carol asked. “She flew out of here like her hair was on fire.”
“We have a history,” Max said, hoping that would end the matter, but of course it didn’t. Carol always wanted to know everything that was going on and she had an unhealthy interest in Max’s love life. But she was very good at her job, juggling phone calls and packages, soothing ruffled feathers and keeping all those plants alive. She was a keeper, even if she was a tad nosy.
Carol removed her reading glasses and arched one well-plucked eyebrow at him. “I gathered that. I guess you aren’t going to hire her.”
“Actually…I’m thinking about it.”
“Mm-mm, Mr. Remington, are you letting your hormones make decisions for you? I’ll admit Jane Selwyn is a beautiful woman, but—”
“She’s very talented. And she needs the job.” That was something Carol should understand. She was recently divorced, too, and she hadn’t been the most qualified candidate, either. But he’d followed his instincts and hired her. His instincts seldom led him astray.
So what were his instincts telling him about Jane?
The jury was still out.
“THANK YOU SO MUCH for looking after Kaylee,” Jane told her friend Sara, who happened to be married to Reece Remington, another of Max’s cousins. Port Clara had experienced something of a Remington invasion back in the spring, when the three cousins had inherited the fishing business from their uncle.
Jane thought it rather peculiar that two of her best friends were now married to Remingtons, but they all seemed so happy. Around them, she always tried to reflect back that happily-ever-after feeling they both radiated.
“I’ll watch her any time.” Sara still held on to Jane’s three-year-old and seemed reluctant to turn her loose. “She’s so good. Plus, when I have my own kid I’m hoping you’ll return the favor.” Sara patted her tummy, though her pregnancy didn’t show at all yet.
Jane sighed and sank into one of the overstuffed chairs at the Sunsetter Bed-and-Breakfast, which Sara and Reece had recently bought. “How much could I make as a babysitter in Port Clara? That may be all that’s left for me.”
“So the interview didn’t go well?”
“It went about as badly as an interview can go. To start with, Max has already made a hiring decision. He saw me out of courtesy, probably because of my association with Allie and Cooper. But I lost it. I acted like a harpy. I told him he owed me because it was his fault…” She stopped abruptly, not wishing to talk about Scott or the divorce in front of Kaylee. Her daughter, almost four, was growing bigger and smarter every day. She was a sponge, soaking up everything she heard and often repeating it.
Sara understood anyway, and her eyes widened. “Jane, you didn’t.”
“It just came out of my mouth.”
“It wasn’t really Max’s fault…was it?”
“No. Scott and I were attempting a reconciliation that weekend, but it never would have worked. If it hadn’t been that incident, it would have been another.
“I know it’s all for the best. But that doesn’t change the fact that I need work and I just blew my last chance.”
“You know,” Sara said cautiously as she disentangled Kaylee’s grasping hands from her long, curly brown hair, “I could ask Reece to put in a good word—”
“No, please. This whole thing has been humiliating enough. I’m an intelligent, responsible adult with a college education. I should be able to get a job based on that. I refuse to use connections to get what I want. That’s too much like…well, you know.”
Sara sank into her own chair, shifting Kaylee onto her lap. “I was so sure that job would work out for you. You’re exactly what Max needs. Are you positive there’s no chance?”
“Max wouldn’t hire me if hell froze over.” She paused, then said something she’d only toyed with before today. “I’ll have to sell the boat.”
“Oh, no. You love the Princess II.”
“It’s an extravagance, and I can’t even sail it without help. If I sold it, I would have enough money to tide me over until I get on my feet.”
Jane’s cell phone rang and she immediately perked up, hoping it might be another job lead. She’d dropped résumés all over town, and even a few in Corpus Christi, though the larger city was almost an hour’s drive from Port Clara.
“Jane Selwyn.”
“Jane, it’s Max Remington. The job is yours if you want it.”
Chapter Two
By eleven o’clock on Jane’s first day of work at the Remington Agency, she was terrified Max would fire her before lunch.
She hadn’t been all that strong in computer skills at school, and what little she’d learned was woefully out-of-date. Her first assignment was to lay out a simple ad for a new restaurant. Max had given her everything she needed—copy, photo and graphics. She could see the ad in her mind. But getting the computer program to do her bidding was an effort in frustration. So far she’d spent more time reading the manual than actually getting anything done.
She had finally figured out how to size her photo and adjust the color balance when Max tapped on her partially open office door and stuck his head in.
“Is the ad done yet?”
“Um, no, not quite yet. When do you need it?”
“Five o’clock today.”
“Okay.”
“Want me to pick up lunch for you?”
“Sure, that would be wonderful.” It was a cinch she wouldn’t have time to go out to eat. She would be lucky to get this sucker done before she had to leave at 2:45 to pick up Kaylee from preschool.
She had arranged for an after-school babysitter, but Mrs. Billingsly couldn’t start until next week. Jane had explained about her shortened workdays to Max, who hadn’t taken the news with a smile. He probably already regretted hiring her.
Jane reached for her purse in her desk drawer, intending to give Max some money, but he waved it away. “I’ll take care of it. But you will get the ad done, won’t you?”
“I’m doing my best.”
Max flashed a strained smile. “Great.”
Jane returned her attention to the screen and yelped in surprise. Her photo had turned green. The people looked like Martians. She must have hit the Okay button by mistake when she was adjusting the color balance.
She held her breath and hit Control-Z, the panacea for undoing mistakes, and thankfully the photo turned back to its normal colors.
Jane worked steadily, making slow progress and glancing worriedly at the clock.
By 2:45 she had everything roughed in like she wanted it—but she needed to make some refinements. Now that she was getting the hang of it, she found the graphics program to be incredibly powerful. She could certainly be finished by five—if she didn’t have to pick up Kaylee.
She grabbed her purse and attempted to slip out of the office unnoticed, but as luck would have it, Max came into the hallway just as she did.
“Oh, Jane. Are you done with the ad?”
“Um, almost. I have to pick up Kaylee. But I’m coming back, and I’ll finish up before five, for sure.” She turned away from him and headed for the exit.
“Wait. You’re bringing your daughter here?”
Jane turned back slowly. “That was the plan.”
“Jane, this is a place of business. It’s not a day-care center.”
“This is an unusual situation. Once I have my babysitter, this won’t be a problem. I did explain that to you, right?”
“Yes, but that was before I knew you would take all day to do an ad that should have taken you a couple of hours.”
“I haven’t been wasting time, really. Most of today was spent learning the program. Anyway, I only need a few more minutes to finish up, and Kaylee won’t cause any problems, I promise.” She mentally crossed her fingers. Kaylee was very well behaved most of the time. But every so often she still threw a hideous tantrum, a holdover from the Terrible Twos. Just please, don’t let it be today.
He tried again. “The office isn’t a safe place for a child.”
“She’ll be fine. I’ll keep her with me in my office. You won’t know she’s here.”
Max clearly wasn’t happy about the arrangements, but he didn’t argue further. “The ad will be done by five? And you’ll e-mail it to me?”
“Absolutely.”
Finally he relaxed his stance. “All right.”
“I really have to go or I’ll be late. They charge extra if I’m late picking up, and I can’t afford it.”
“Do you need an advance on your salary?” he asked suddenly. “’Cause if you need money for food or something—”
