Best of Bosses 2008(145)

‘Very well,’ he said grimly and his frown deepened as he nodded to a vacant table with two chairs. ‘Over here will do, Miss—’

With a shrewd smile, Sally turned her name-plate over.

‘Ah, yes. Miss Finch. Not Sparrow.’

It was a small victory and she wished she felt more relaxed as she sat, hoping her heart and lungs would behave normally as Logan Black lowered his long frame into a chair on the other side of the small desk that separated them.

She drew some comfort from Janet’s suggestion that the boss was an introverted thinking type. It made sense. She’d met men like him before, in the Outback. Quiet, almost reclusive men, driven by inner goals.

Now he said, with an affectation of boredom, ‘Ladies first. Apparently, you have to tell me all about yourself.’

‘What would you like to know?’

His eyebrows were black and perfectly arched and, in response to her question, the right one lifted. ‘How are you settling in to your work here?’

‘I think I’ve settled in rather quickly. I love working here.’

‘That’s good to hear.’

To cover the awkward silence that followed, Sally said, ‘I guess it’s my turn to ask you a question.’

‘Fire away.’

‘What did you have for breakfast?’

‘I beg your pardon?’

Logan couldn’t have looked more stunned if Sally had asked for his home telephone number.

‘I—I asked what you had for breakfast.’

‘What kind of a question is that?’

‘A safe one, I hope.’

He smiled.

Oh, my gosh. When he smiled the skin around his eyes crinkled and his face was transformed. He looked just as he had playing football with his nephews—delightfully carefree and young.

‘I had a cup of coffee for breakfast,’ he said.

‘Is that all?’

‘Yes. It’s all I ever have.’

Sally was sure she shouldn’t correct her boss, but she couldn’t help herself. ‘But breakfast is terribly important. My father and brothers couldn’t face a day’s work without a mountain of toast and a full cooked breakfast.’

‘What kinds of work do your father and brothers do?’

‘Is that your next question?’

Another gorgeous smile. ‘I guess it is.’

Emboldened by this warmth, Sally told him, ‘My father and my eldest brother, Matt, run our family’s sheep and wheat property at Tarra-Binya. Steve’s on an oil rig off Western Australia. Josh operates a big drag line in the Central Queensland coalfields and Damon’s a mustering contractor, when he’s not on the rodeo circuit.’

The dark eyebrows rose higher while she told him this. ‘That’s quite a family. I can see why they need their big breakfasts.’

Sally smiled. ‘And now it’s my turn to ask another question.’

Logan Black actually chuckled. ‘I’m nervous.’

‘Don’t be.’ She stifled a terrible urge to ask him about the white roses. I can’t ask that. I mustn’t. Instead, she blurted, ‘What’s the most important thing I should know about you?’

‘I’m your boss.’

‘Come on, that’s cheating. It has to be something I don’t already know.’

‘Who said there were rules?’

‘We’re supposed to be getting to know each other.’ The sudden tightness in Logan’s face warned Sally that she might be overstepping the mark. ‘Of course, you’re right. You’re the boss and you should set the rules.’

He accepted this as his due. ‘I’m sure we’re not supposed to get deep and meaningful. Stick to everyday, non-invasive questions. Ask me whether I’ve lived in Sydney all my life, or where I went to school. Favourite subjects at school. That sort of thing.’

‘Let me guess. Your favourite subject at school was mathematics.’

A surprised little laugh escaped him. ‘Absolutely.’

‘And you went to a private boys’ school like Sydney Grammar or King’s.’

Again, he looked amused. ‘Almost right. I started at Sydney Grammar, but—’ he dropped his gaze and released a rough sigh ‘my family fell on hard times and I couldn’t stay there.’

‘That’s rotten luck.’ The grim set of his mouth told Sally that this had been a huge disappointment. ‘You’ve obviously done very well in spite of the setback,’ she suggested gently.

Shrugging her sympathy aside, as if he wanted to get away from the subject of his family’s misfortune, he said, ‘But I have lived in Sydney all my life.’ He looked up again. ‘I guess you must have spent most of your life out west.’