He chuckled. “No need to sound so pleased about it. I might start to think you don’t like me.”
She laughed. “You so sure I do?”
“Depends. Are you gonna hire me?”
Kat ran through her options. Having Jack do his adventure tours through Sanctuary would give her another way to attract people. On the other hand, it might be the nail in her coffin if he screwed up as he had last year.
“How about we give it a trial run?” she suggested.
“Okay,” he agreed readily. “How often do you want me?”
She rolled her eyes at the double entendre. He’d made no secret of the fact he thought they’d be compatible, both of them liking the outdoors and preferring to keep busy, but she had no room in her life for a man. Especially not one who reminded her so much of Teddy, with his brash attitude and rough and tumble approach to life. It had become something of a running joke between them, and she suspected he wouldn’t know what to do if she ever took him up on his offer.
“Say, two or three afternoons a week, to begin with.”
“Can do.”
“You’d need to be organized enough to be back by dinner or make sure Tione knows to save meals for later.”
He sighed the sigh of the hard-done-by. “You’re really putting a crimp in my style.”
“Those are my conditions.”
“Fine. Okay. You wanna be the fun police, that’s all right with me. I accept your terms.”
“Can you handle having people who aren’t as fit as you, or who have injuries or chronic illnesses on your outings?” That was important to her, considering guests often opted to stay at Sanctuary while they recovered from illness or surgery.
“I’ll do my best, but I want to know what I’m dealing with ahead of time and reserve the right to prevent someone from coming if I don’t think they’re up for it.”
“That’s reasonable. Can you start Monday?”
“Sure thing.”
“Send me your plan for the first day by the end of the weekend and I’ll circulate it round to see how many takers we get.”
“Pleasure doing business with you.”
“You, too.” She paused, then added, “Play nice with Sterling. I don’t think he gets out much.”
“What’s it worth to you?” he teased.
“Why don’t you try it, and find out?”
“You’re just teasing. I know you better than that.” A click, and he’d hung up.
She heard a yell outside and glanced up in time to see Trevor playing tug-of-war with Betty, over her cardigan.
“Kat, will you lend me a hand?” Betty called.
Muffling a giggle, she went out to save the garment from the exuberant dog.