Heatherly Bell - More Than One Night

“Right on.” Carly laughed.

“Look, I’m the one who’s been celibate for three years. That night has had to last me a long time. Three years!”

“It’s been even longer for me,” Zoey protested. “I’m not even going to say how long.”

“Aw,” Jill said, hugging Zoey.

Jill and Zoey both turned to Carly.

“This morning, before Grace woke up.”

“You’re not even supposed to be able to have morning sex when you have a baby!” Jill said.

“I know, right?” Carly kissed Grace’s plump cheek. “She’s possibly the best baby ever.”

Zoey glanced lovingly to Grace, then outside to Boo. “I don’t see why you can bring her in here and I can’t bring Boo in. He’d behave.”

Carly wrinkled her nose, but apparently chose to ignore the comparison of her stepdaughter to a well-trained Great Dane.

“So what are the men like who showed up today?” Carly said. “Anyone to help you, um, get over that dry spell?”

“Funny you should mention that,” Jill said. “Because Chris? He’s one of my guys. Except his name is Sam.”

“Get out! Chris is here ?” Carly squealed.

“His name is Sam.”

“Sam, Chris, what’s the difference if he’s hot?” Zoey said.

“You forget,” Jill said with great patience. “I’m now his boss. As in, he’s my employee. As in lawsuit waiting to happen.”

Carly snorted. “Technically, Levi was my boss for a while when I was Grace’s nanny.”

“But you and Levi fell in love. Maybe I don’t want to get sued.”

Both of her friends looked at her expectantly. She’d never been one to doubt equality, both in the workplace and the 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.