He grasped her hands in his. “Take what you need, Molly. I’m not going anywhere.”

She drew in a deep breath. “Thank you for that.”

She took a step back, and walked away.

At least she looked reluctant when she left the room.

Chapter 27

MOLLY HADN’T BEEN lying when she’d told Carter she was hesitant to start working for him because she was worried about her mother being alone. But she and her father discussed it, and her mother had been getting around just fine on her own. They made her solemnly promise she wouldn’t climb any ladders or do anything foolish.

Her mom promised she would only do normal things and said she’d learned her lesson the hard way. And if she felt uncomfortable about being alone, she’d call either Molly or Molly’s dad right away.

That suited her just fine, so following a weekend of holiday decorating at the house and a little holiday shopping, Molly reported for work Monday morning at Carter’s shop in Hope.

Admittedly, she was nervous, though she couldn’t pinpoint why. She’d started plenty of new jobs, always with anticipation and excitement. This should be no different, right?

Then again, there’d been Thanksgiving, and that kiss. She’d wanted so much more. More of that kiss, more alone time with Carter.

But she was confused about her feelings right now, so some space had been necessary.

Not that she had any more clarity today than she’d had last week.

She waited outside Carter’s office while he met with an employee. She fidgeted with the hem of her button-down shirt, then found herself playing with the rings on her fingers, and doing a close examination of her fingernail polish.

Finally, disgusted with herself, she took out her phone to play a word game to pass the time until Carter’s office door opened.

“Sorry for the delay, Molly.”

She stood and grabbed her purse. “Not a problem.”

Time to put on her work face.

She entered his office and took a seat while he closed the door to drown out the sound of engines and power tools.

“You look nice,” he said.

“Thanks.” He’d told her to dress casual, so she had. She looked down at her dark jeans and navy, button-down shirt, along with her brown, knee-length high-heeled boots. She’d also added a scarf. Not too dressy, but she also wasn’t so dressed down that she looked like she could be working in one of the garage bays.

“I have some employment paperwork for you to fill out. I’ve also cleared out the office next to mine so you’ll have a quiet place to work.”

She took a quick glance at her new office. Small, but more than she’d expected. “That’s great. Thank you.”

“There’s a laptop in there, and a printer. The system is linked to all four of the shops. Once you fill out your paperwork, I’ll walk you through everything and get you acclimated as far as the systems we use here to track sales, payroll, human resources, and accounting.”

Other than complimenting her appearance, he was all business, and she was thankful for that. She hadn’t had a chance to tell him she wanted to separate their personal relationship from their professional, and it looked like she wouldn’t have to.

He handed her a stack of papers. “You can take these to your office and fill them out. I’m sure you know the drill. Once you’re done, come see me.”

“Okay.”

The morning passed in a blur of paperwork, meeting the employees, and learning the various operations of his company. It wasn’t a difficult one, but of course it was still new to her.

He did take her out to lunch, but even then, everything remained centered on business. She asked him a lot of questions, and he gave her pointed, on the mark answers. They talked about ways to increase efficiency, all the while having salad and soup. Then it was back to work for more of the same.

By the end of the day she had a fairly decent handle on how to streamline some of the processes, and a lot more questions, which she’d jotted down in her notes file.

“I’ll take you to each of the shops this week. Though the processes are the same, each shop works independently,” Carter told her as they met up in his office at the end of the day. “Plus, I want you to meet with management at the other shops and all the employees so they get used to coming to you instead of me with questions.”

“Sounds good. It’ll likely take me a week or two until I’m comfortable enough to answer some of the questions myself. But I’ll be happy to field them, just so they get used to coming to me.”

He nodded. “And I’ll be doing a lot of redirecting, because my managers at the other shops—and staff at this one—are used to bringing every problem to me. I want that to change.”

“Right. Unless it’s a question about which carburetor goes in an ’03 Tahoe. I don’t know the answer to that one. Not off the top of my head, anyway.”

“If anyone comes to either of us with that question, they’re fired.”

She laughed. “Noted.”

He picked up his phone. “It’s five thirty. Go ahead and take off. I’m sure you’d like to get home and check on your mom.”

“I called her several times today. After the fourth phone call, she said I was annoying her.”

He cracked a smile. “Is that right? That must mean she’s doing well on her own.”

“I think she’s been dying for me to get out of the house so she can gain back a little of her independence. I can’t say I blame her.”