NEVER AGREE TO A JOB INTERVIEW in which the interviewer has seen you naked.

Nevada Hendrix was confident that nugget of advice had been sewn on a pillow somewhere, or made into an inspirational poster. Unfortunately, no one had shared it with her before. Now, facing Tucker Janack for the first time in ten years, she discovered it was very, very true.

She’d had a plan. That’s what killed her. She’d polished her résumé, practiced her answers to different interview questions, had bought a new blazer and had even paid an extra seventeen-fifty to get some stupid gloss treatment to make her hair look shiny. She who avoided all things girly whenever possible. Done in by a formerly naked guy and gloss treatment.

“Hello, Nevada.”

“Tucker.”

She was careful to keep her game face in place — whatever that meant. All she knew was that having her mouth drop open and gape in astonishment wasn’t going to make her look capable.

“I was expecting your father,” she admitted. After all, the call she’d received about the final interview had specifically said she would be speaking with Mr. Janack. Not a name she associated with a guy she’d known back in college.

“I’m running the construction and doing all the senior hiring personally on this project,” he said, motioning for her to take a seat, which she did.

They were in a conference room at a hotel in Fool’s Gold. Ronan’s Lodge, known to locals as Ronan’s Folly, was a beautifully constructed building with hand-carved woodwork and elegant furnishings. Things she might have stopped to appreciate under other circumstances. As it was, she couldn’t see much past the man who’d taken a seat across the table from hers.