More Than One Night. Heatherly Bell

bedroom. But now... Well, it was a little icky to come on to her employee. And there was the whole ethical/legal dilemma. She couldn’t ignore that issue even if she wanted to. If her investors were to find out they might think her less than professional.

      Besides, she’d be twenty-eight this year. Even if she’d never had a one-night stand before Sam, she had a past filled with go-nowhere relationships with Class A commitment-phobes. And for the first time, she wondered what that said about her. Why did she always wind up with men who were in some fashion or another unavailable? While her mother might have something to say about that, Jill was sure she didn’t want to hear it. Point being, she had to learn to want a man who was available to her, and that certainly wasn’t her employee.

      And that night in San Francisco, it hadn’t been Jill in Sam’s arms. It had been her alter ego, Angelina. That Angelina was a wild woman. She was fearless.

      “It was one night.” One wild and crazy night she allowed herself. A little fun for once with no strings. “He wasn’t supposed to be a part of my daily life.”

      “Well, now he is,” Carly said.

      “Thanks for the 411,” Jill deadpanned.

      “Oh my God, you’re not going to fire him, are you?” Zoey looked on the verge of tears. “He might need this job.”

      Jill patted bleeding-heart Zoey’s hands. “No, of course not. I’ll just make it work. Take a hands-off approach. Lay down the law and all that.”

      “You’re so good at that,” Zoey said.

      “But wait,” Carly said. “Maybe there’s something you’re not telling us.”

      “Right.” Zoey turned to Carly. “Like...what?”

      “Like he wasn’t any good.” Carly set Grace back in her stroller and handed her a set of plastic keys. “Looks aren’t everything. Maybe he was high on the Chris Scale, but um, you know, was ‘lacking’ in other vital ways.”

      That would have been nice. Or rather convenient. Not then, but now.

      “No.” She cleared her throat. “Not lacking. At all. In any way.”

      Carly grinned. “I see.”

      Wrong though it seemed for someone she’d met once, Sam had been the best she’d ever had. And if it was going to be difficult to work with him, day in, day out, watching him all sweaty, challenging himself physically, working hard... Well, she was up to the task. She would look but not touch. A woman had to get her kicks somewhere.

      Hers was a tough job, but hey, someone had to do it.

       Chapter Three

      Later that evening, Jill went back to the office trailer as she often did, this time to work on the bookkeeping she’d been avoiding. She had stacks of receipts to enter into a spreadsheet so the accountant could put together the next financial report for their board of investors. The board already wanted her to hire a general manager to report directly to them. They really needed a receptionist and scheduler since lately the phone had been ringing off the hook for bookings. Now that they were a month away from opening, all their advertising was coming to fruition and they were booked six months in advance for the most popular events. The bookings could be outsourced but Jill did this herself, too.

      The office phone rang, and heck, since she was here at nine o’clock, she picked it up. “Wildfire Ridge Outdoor Adventures. How can I help you?”

      “Hi! I thought I was going to be talking to a machine. We’re having a big family reunion and want to water-ski and kayak. You guys do that?” a woman’s voice said.

      “Absolutely. Our Anderson Lake here on the ridge is equipped for all that. Where did you hear about us?”

      “Your Facebook page and one of my friends.”

      Good to know all her hard work for the business was working. She should probably spend more time on social media. She spent several more minutes talking with the woman, who was arranging a fortieth anniversary surprise for her parents.

      Guess it was high time to hire some more administrative help. For her, the guides had come first, and she’d wanted to pay them a decent salary so she’d insisted that most of their initial payroll budget go to that.

      But Jill seriously should spread the workload around so she could focus on her strengths—marketing and growing the business. She wanted to hire a general manager, but she’d looked through stacks of résumés and they all seemed like corporate drones to her. She wanted someone else who would put their heart into this business the way she had. Anyway, she didn’t even have the time to interview anyone. She’d simply taken on all the work herself and made the job her life for the last year.

      Jill understood hard work. She had studied business at Cal Poly, trying to find her place in the world of high finance. Aiming high, after all, was the Davis way. With her father the doctor and mother the scientist setting the bar, it was always just high enough to be out of Jill’s reach. Then her older brother, Ryan, her hero since the time she was a child, had made his own way. Shown Jill there was another way to succeed. He’d gone to West Point, become an officer and later a decorated war hero. Now he was the newly elected youngest Sheriff in Fortune.

      No one in her family did anything halfway.

      No one other than Jill. She’d dropped out of business school when she realized she’d never be happy in corporate America. Not what her parents pictured for their straight-A-earning daughter, but they’d never understood her anyway. Never accepted that she didn’t quite fit in with the Davis family.

      She’d always had an entrepreneurial spirit instead of an academic spirit, and loved a well-placed challenge. She’d been scouting locations to open a B and B in Fortune when she’d happened upon an article in the local newspaper about the employment challenges for young veterans coming back from the war. The next thing she knew she’d worked out a business plan for an outdoor adventure company, hiring veterans to be the guides.

      The park would open in a month’s time. She needed the men to help finalize the courses and do test excursions for their first group of booked test clients.

      An hour later, Jill rubbed the heel of her bare foot, leaned away from the monitor and stretched her aching back. For someone who would launch an outdoor adventure company, she was spending far too much time on her behind lately. She managed to hit the gym for her scheduled torture twice a week, but being around all these hard bodies, that wasn’t going to be enough.

      She stood up, stretched again and forced herself to do fifty jumping jacks. Out of breath and sweating, she took a break and went to her window. The side of her trailer faced Sam’s, but that’s not why she’d assigned it to him. It only made sense that since he’d been enthusiastic enough to arrive early, he deserved the bigger trailer. There was no other reason.

      She peeked through her window’s blinds. And there, framed by a sliver of moonlight, she caught the distinct figure of Sam’s back, hunched over the fire pit. He was with the other guys that had come in after him. Michael, Ty and Julian. They were laughing and seemed to be enjoying themselves.

      Sam poked at the fire. He looked over his shoulder in her direction. And caught her staring.

      “Oh crap.”

      She quickly shut the window blinds to give the men their privacy. The last thing they’d want is a boss who lived here 24-7 spying on them. They could take care of themselves and didn’t need her guidance. She trusted them, too, and wanted them to know it. And she also didn’t want Sam to think she was lusting after him, because the man already had enough confidence in himself.

       For good reason.

      She headed back to her desk to shut down her laptop. Rather than get the attention of the men as she left her trailer, maybe she’d sleep on the little cot she kept