“If she applies for the job, I’ll give her the chance to prove herself. But she might not want to. It’ll involve working closely with me.” He gave the smallest of laughs. “And I’m pretty sure she dislikes me.”
Or maybe he hoped she did. Because that would be safer.
For him and for her.
Chapter Seven
The paper was folded neatly in two, the line so crisp she could probably have cut her fingers on it. Becca pulled it out of her locker in the still room and unfolded it, her brows knitting as she read the top line.
Job Description. Lead Distiller. Project A
There was no note to say who it was from, or an explanation for why it had found its way to her locker. Just a printed piece of paper with a list of required duties, knowledge, skills, and desirable qualifications written on it. Becca folded it back up carefully and slid it into her pocket.
“So you got it?”
Becca looked up at Garrett Rhys. He’d been a lead distiller at GSC for longer than she’d been alive. He worked on the GSC legacy lines, and was three years away from retirement.
“Did you put it in there?”
“Not me. Mr. Carter. He offered me a copy, too. I said thanks, but no thanks.” Garrett flashed her a smile. “I like working on the current lines. By the time any new whiskey matures, I’ll be long retired.”
He wandered over to the mash tun, and Becca opened the description again. Why had Daniel not given it to her himself? Or emailed it to her – they so rarely printed things out nowadays.
It was like being back at school and having a boy pass her a note. Except she wasn’t sure if this was a good or a bad thing.
There was only one way to find out. She flashed Garrett a smile and headed out of the still rooms, the warm malty air replaced by the airconditioned crispness of the office corridors. With the job description rolled up in one hand, she used the other to rap on Daniel’s office door.
“Come in.”
She pushed it open, arranging a neutral smile on her face. “Hi,” she said before she’d stepped inside. “I was just wondering why you’d put this in my locker?” Then she realized Eliana was in his office, sitting in the leather chair opposite his, her ankles elegantly crossed.
“That’s my cue to leave.” Eliana’s eyes were soft as she looked at her son. Then she smiled at Becca. “Let you two talk alone.”
Daniel nodded, but his eyes were on Becca. They weren’t the empty ones she’d seen before, but they weren’t full of heat either. Just purely professional, cool and collected.
The way she wanted it.
Eliana patted Becca on the shoulder as she passed her. “Good luck,” she whispered.
“Sit down,” Daniel said, nodding at the chair his mother had vacated. Today he was wearing a dark blue shirt, open at the neck as always. It brought out the blue in his eyes, making them look more vivid than ever. His thick, dark hair was raked back off his face, and there was a hint of a shadow on his jaw.
Becca unrolled the job description. The neat line from where he’d folded it was still there. “Garrett said you left this for me.”
“I did.”
“There’s no note attached,” she told him. “Nothing to tell me why you left it.”
The corner of his lip twitched. He was so damn distracting. She’d never met somebody who aggravated her so much. Or made her heart skip a beat every time their eyes clashed.
It was unnerving.
“Why do you think I left it?” There was a hint of amusement in his voice. As though he was playing a game she didn’t know the rules to.
But she’d been brought up to play games. She knew them intimately. “Either you want to taunt me about a job that won’t be mine, or you want me to apply for the job.”
Their gazes connected and there it was again. The fizz of electricity that made her body react in ways she didn’t want it to.
She kept her face impassive, not moving an inch. She wasn’t going to be the one to look away first.