Page 78 of Cheap Shot

“Rosaleen Gallagher is here for you.”

“Oh, yes.” He glanced at the time of the clock to see she was ten minutes early. That was a good sign. He closed the laptop lid. “I’ll be right out.”

He found a college-age woman standing in the front of the shop. She was dark-haired and fair-skinned, with a bright smile.

“Welcome to Twig & Bloom,” he said. “I’m the owner, Sebastian Breckon. Why don’t you come back to my office, and we can get your interview started.”

Despite Brie’s wariness about Catherine’s motives, which Sebastian was trying to keep in mind, he was as charmed by Rosaleen as he had been by Catherine.

“She’s your aunt?” Sebastian asked after they’d finished the usual small talk and social niceties.

“Yes,” Rosaleen smiled. “My mom is her youngest sister. It’s a huge family and there was a rather large gap between them.”

“Ahh that makes sense,” Sebastian said. “I was trying to do the math, and something wasn’tquiteadding up.”

She laughed and took a sip of the coffee he’d offered her.

“So, I’ve looked over your resume,” Sebastian said. “Can you tell me a little bit more about why you’d like to work here?”

“To be perfectly honest,” Rosaleen said. “I would like to pay my bills.”

Surprised by her forthrightness, Sebastian laughed. “Fair enough. Weallwant that.”

“That being said, I love color and design. I’m a mixed media artist so I work with a ton of different mediums. I think floral design is something that could broaden my range and that I could incorporate into my own work in the future once I learn more.”

“That makes sense,” Sebastian said. “Do you have any experience with it?”

“Only a little. I took a flower arranging class once and loved it but it was only a few hours of instruction. I do follow some florists online and watch their tutorials. My mom also has an enormous garden, so I know all the flower names. Well, maybe not all.” She gave him a lopsided smile. “But a lot.”

“That’s a benefit,” Sebastian said, brightening. That had been one of his biggest hurdles with training people entirely from scratch.

“And I think my background in color theory and studio arts could be a huge benefit.”

“I agree.”

She hesitated. “I know my application is kind of a long shot. I saw the job posting and I know I’m notexactlywhat you’re looking for. But I’m hard-working, I’m reliable, and I love to learn.”

“The first part is true,” he admitted. “But I’m trying to be open-minded about this. And even having someone to work the front of the shop along with Morgan while I’m working in the backwouldbe a lot of help.”

He hesitated. “Did your aunt tell you aboutmyniece?”

“Yes. She explained her health situation. And I watched the video the Harriers posted of her day with Luke Crawford. That was really sweet of the team to do.”

“It was. Harper loved it,” Sebastian agreed.

“Also, if you ever needed babysitting, I’d be happy to do that too,” Rosaleen said earnestly. “Between the O’Shea and Gallagher families, there have always been a ton of kids running around and I’ve been babysitting for as long as I can remember.”

“Oh, well, that would be up to Harper’s mother,” Sebastian said. “And it certainly wouldn’t be part of your job dutieshere. But it’s great to know in case of an emergency.”

“Of course. That makes sense.”

“How would you feel about coming in for an afternoon so I can see what kind of flower arranging skills you have?” he asked.

She brightened. “I’d love that. I could do it today, if that works for you. If not, I’d be happy to come in any day this week. All my classes are in the morning.”

“Oh,” he said, surprised by her willingness to jump in immediately. “Yeah, I could do today.”

“Perfect.”