to the other up-and-coming growth ideas he wanted to institute to keep Three Bars viable and robust as a company.
“Mr. Bishop?”
Snapping his head up, he saw Cari Taylor standing in front of him. He grinned apologetically, quickly sliding his phone into his pocket. “I think I have nose-glued-to-the-cell-phone disease,” he said, holding out his hand toward her. “My mother raised me better than that. Call me Chase. It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Taylor,” and he shook her long, slender hand. He expected her skin to be soft but firm. Instead, he felt small calluses on the inside of some of her fingers, and it was a bit sandpapery on the heel of her hand, which told him she worked outdoors a lot. “Welcome to Silver Creek,” he added. “And thank you for coming. Do you have some luggage with you?”
She shook his hand and smiled tentatively. “Yes, I do, but before we get to that? I’d like to be able to sit down and speak to you about something very important that wasn’t on my résumé.” Hesitating a moment, she added in a lower tone, “And you may not want to think about hiring me because of a . . . situation in my life . . .”
Surprised, Chase released her hand. “Well,” he said, “my ranch is only ten miles away. Would you agree to sit down at the kitchen table over a cup of coffee and talk about it?” He was confused. What wasn’t on her résumé? She looked stressed, a bit pale, perhaps. It wasn’t easy to ignore that she wore a tailored navy-blue pantsuit with a ruffled collar of white silk. The white pearl earrings certainly brought out her femininity.
“Don’t you have a restaurant here in the terminal?” she asked. “I don’t want to put you to all that trouble of going out to your ranch.”
He gave her an affable look. “No worries. Come on, let’s go to the luggage carousel down at the end, over there.” He pointed in that direction. “Silver Creek is a small community and we’re lucky to have an airport at all, never mind a real carousel.” He looked around. “There’s no restaurant here, Ms. Taylor.”
Managing a slight, nervous smile, she bobbed her head. “Point made. Please call me Cari?” After all, his friendliness and easygoing nature made her shed a lot of her professional modus operandi.
“Fair enough. Let’s go. You show me your luggage and I’ll carry it for you to my truck that’s parked out front.”
More surprise. “Nowadays, men don’t do that.”
“Well,” he said, giving her a teasing look, “welcome to the Land of Cowboys, Cari. We aren’t called the Knights of the Range for nothing.”
He did, after all, wear a black Stetson cowboy hat, a short-sleeved white cowboy shirt that was pressed, and a pair of Levi’s. The only thing was that his boots were pretty well scarred up and certainly not new. There was a boneless grace to him. He stood well over six feet tall to her five feet seven inches. His arms were already getting tanned and she guessed it was because cowboys were outdoors all the time. At the carousel, she pointed out two pink bags.
“That’s all you have?” he asked, leaning over and picking them up. “They’re pretty little.”
Grimacing, Cari said, “I wasn’t thinking I’d be staying very long.”
Chase frowned. “I was hoping you’d stay a couple of days, see the ranch, see the layout, our clover and alfalfa pastures, our fruit tree orchard, which I understand from Theresa Sandoval, who is going to be working with whomever we choose to run the operation, are essential to honey production.”
Cari couldn’t avoid the worry she saw in his gray eyes. “I’ll wait until we reach your ranch to tell you the rest of the story.”
Nodding, he ushered her out the nearest door, pointing to his white ranch pickup that had bright red lettering on the door that said: THREE BARS RANCH. Cari Taylor appeared to be a scared rabbit trying to hold herself together over whatever secret she was hiding until they could talk about it at the ranch house. Worry nibbled at him, but he let it go, placed her bags in the extended cab seat and opened the passenger door for her. Again, he saw her surprise over his gentlemanly ways. He wasn’t sure that the world had to destroy everything about respecting a woman, in the name of equality. That was a discussion for another day. What was she going