As rejections went, she was more than clear. He didn’t like it, but he wasn’t going to beg. He nodded once, then left, still confused about what was going on. He got halfway across the parking lot when a pickup pulled in next to him.

“You’re a long way from the Amazon,” a familiar voice called.

Tucker saw Ethan climbing out of the truck and grinned.

“What are you doing here?” Tucker asked.

He and Ethan shook hands, then slapped each other on the back.

“I run the place,” Ethan said, pointing at the sign. “Not that I’m here much these days. I’m over with the turbines.”

Tucker knew his friend had become involved with turbine construction. Wind energy was a growing field and Ethan’s product was in high demand.

“I have some names for you,” Ethan told him, pulling a worn briefcase off the passenger seat. “Good guys you’ll want to think about hiring. A couple work for me, but I’ll let them go. With Nevada leaving, there’s going to be less construction work.”

“Leaving? Where’s she going?”

“To work for you.” Ethan looked surprised. “I know she applied.”

“She did. I just offered her a job, but she turned me down.”

“I don’t get it,” Ethan told him. “She was excited about the opportunity.”

“I wanted her on board.”

There had to be something else going on, Tucker told himself. It couldn’t just be the past. Assuming what she’d said was true, that their time together had been…awful, even that shouldn’t be enough to keep her from coming to work for him. He wasn’t some jerk of a boss.

“I was planning on giving her a team of my best guys.”

Ethan frowned. “Let me talk to her.”

Tucker shook his head. “Don’t. She either wants the job or she doesn’t. It needs to be her choice.”

“Okay. But don’t think this means you’re going to be in town and avoiding me. I want to have you over for dinner. You can meet Liz and the kids. See all you’ve been missing with your nomadic lifestyle.”