Time had been kind to Tucker. He was still tall — which shouldn’t be a huge surprise. So few men shrank these days. His hair was dark, with just enough curl to keep him from looking too pretty. The dark eyes, square jaw and hint of a smile on his kissable mouth were exactly as she remembered.

Um, no, she told herself firmly. Not kissable. Far from kissable. He was her potential boss. Or not, depending on how he remembered the past.

She swore silently and wondered why old man Janack couldn’t have kept control of just one more project. But when it came to Tucker, she’d never been able to catch a break.

“It’s been a long time,” he said, giving her that slow, easy grin of his. The one that had made her feel like the most special girl in the world. That had been a complete lie and had broken her heart to the point that it had almost not healed itself.

She drew in a breath, pushed all memories of a younger Tucker out of her brain and squared her shoulders. “As you can see from my résumé, I’ve been busy. After college I worked in South Carolina for a couple of years, learning all aspects of construction from the ground up, so to speak. We did mostly commercial spaces and, before I left, I was in charge of a five-story building.”

It may have sounded small to him, but it was something that made her proud. “We came in early and under budget, with the cleanest inspection record the company had experienced.”

He nodded as if he already knew all this. That, if he’d read her résumé, he did.

“Why didn’t you stay?” he asked. “They can’t have wanted to let you go.”

“They didn’t, but I wanted to come home.”