I grabbed a pen off my desk and handed it to her.
She smelled like vanilla with maybe a hint of pear. I had a good nose, and she did too, apparently. “You can take that into the tasting room and bring it back here when you’re finished.”
Instead, she just plopped into the chair and leaned forward to use my desk to complete the forms. Brazen, and entirely too sexy.
Plopping myself behind the desk, I tried to ignore her. After several moments of drumming my fingers on my desk, unable to keep my eyes from straying to her, I finally broke down and addressed her directly. “Why does the head of product development at Avec Coeur with a degree from NYU, who knows nothing about wine, want a job in a tasting room in a town she has no ties to?”
Brooke looked up from her forms. “How do you know I have no ties here?”
“Because you wouldn’t be looking for a place to stay by week’s end otherwise.”
She held my gaze a second longer than necessary and then turned her attention back to the paperwork.
“I was recently laid off, so that would explain why I’m the former head of product development. Then my friends and I came for a long weekend, and I’ve sort of fallen in love with this area and thought it would be a good place to recoup.”
Recoup. Hmm. “From being laid off?”
“Yes.”
She said it in a way that hinted at more.
So not only was I hiring someone who knew nothing about wine, but apparently there was something more to the story. “Why were you laid off?”
Brooke raised her head again. This time, she didn’t bother to hide her annoyance.
“I ask as a potential employer.”
“Potential? I thought I had the job?”
“Neo should not have overstepped like he did.”
“So I’mnothired?”
“If you want the job,” I said reluctantly, “it’s yours. My brother offered it, and I won’t renege on that offer.” Even if I wanted to.
I left that part unsaid, but I was sure the feeling was clear enough.
She said nothing and went back to filling out the forms. I pretended to get back to work, but the bright screen of my laptop stared back at me, the words blurring together. And then it occurred to me. “We need someone immediately. If you can’t start—”
“I can start anytime,” she interrupted me. “How many hours a week?”
“We’re open six days a week, eleven to five. Shift starts at ten and ends at six, usually. Take as many shifts as you want, but we need you every weekend.”
“Every weekend this summer?”
“No, every weekend in the fall,” I said, true to form as the dickhead I was being today. I couldn’t help it for some reason with this woman. She just rubbed me the wrong way.
“You have the perfect disposition for this job, working with people and all,” she said cheerily, not bothering to hold back, despite the fact that I was now her boss. She clearly didn’t need the job, which meant she’d be a less than an ideal employee. But if I was being honest, Neo probably made the right call. With everything going on, we needed help. Tasting room associates were a dime a dozen on the lake, but by now, most people looking for summer jobs already had positions.
Didn’t mean I needed to like it, though.
“I’m usually much nicer.” I took the form she handed me.
“I see,” she said, clearly offended. Unfortunately for her, soothing my new employee’s ego wasn’t on my to-do list today.
“If you really want to start now, the staff will be coming in soon. You’ll shadow for a week and then kick out on your own. Can you come in every day this week?”
She blinked. “I can,” she hedged. “I just have to find a place to stay. But I guess I can do that after work.”