CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Sebastian?” Morgan popped her head in his office door a few days later and he looked up from his laptop.
“Yes?”
“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’t quite adding 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. We all want 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 not exactly what 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 back would be a lot of help.”
He hesitated. “Did your aunt tell you about my niece?”
“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 duties here. 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.”
Sebastian rose and led her back to the workroom. He handed her an apron and she slipped it on, then pulled a hair clip out of her bag and tied her long dark hair out of the way.
She stared at him expectantly.
“Uhh, let me see what we have to work on today,” he said. He’d gone through the list this morning, but he really hadn’t expected to do a test run with her this afternoon.
Sebastian grabbed a clipboard with a list and scanned it until he found an order for a birthday bouquet. It was one of the pre-designed styles he offered on his website and there were no substitutions requested. That was a good one to start with.
Sebastian explained the plan and Rosaleen listened intently as she followed him to the cooler.
He listed the number and color of flowers, greenery, and filler that were required and she carefully plucked the lavender and purple roses, purple snapdragons and ranunculus, and white anemone from their buckets.
He showed her where the shelves of vases were stored and had her grab the hammered gold pot that the purchaser had upgraded to.
He had binders full of photos of the arrangements, and he flipped to the one he was asking her to make. He laid out tools and stepped back.
“Now, see if you can recreate that.”
Rosaleen shot him a small smile. “Trial by fire, huh?”
He laughed softly. “I just want to see where your skill level is at. I can always tweak it or redo it if necessary.”
“Got it.” She squared her shoulders and got to work.
The arrangement came together slowly, which wasn’t a surprise since Rosaleen stopped every so often to squint at the photo, mutter under her breath, and re-arrange things. But when she was done, while it wasn’t perfect, it was aesthetically pleasing.
“Well done,” he said inspecting it, impressed by her work.
“Yeah?”
“Yes. I like the way you gave it a lot of visual movement,” he said as he rotated the arrangement to see it from every angle. “It isn’t perfectly symmetrical. You worked with the natural shape of the snapdragons to create flow from left to right, then built around that.”
Rosaleen smiled at him. “Thank you. I studied your arrangements online before I came in. You use a lot of movement in your pieces. I think that’s why I like your style. It feels more natural and organic. Modern, but still approachable.”
He grinned. “Well, I appreciate the flattery.”
Surprise crossed her face. “Oh, I didn’t mean …”
He waved it off. “I’m kidding. Now let’s go talk hours and salary. Because if this is what you can do before I hire you, I’m looking forward to seeing what you can create with more training.”
Somehow, when Crawford walked into the playroom of the children’s hospital, he wasn’t surprised to see Sebastian and Harper there.
He sighed. No one had told him they would be, but it seemed like there was no getting away from the guy.
And well, as Harper ran toward him calling out, “Mr. Luke! Mr. Luke!” he wasn’t mad about seeing her.
“Hey, kid,” he said, bending down to pick her up with a groan.
“I didn’t know you were gonna be here,” she said, latching her arms around his neck.
“I didn’t know you were gonna be here either,” he said with a smile.
“Are you hurt? Uncle Sebby said you were doing better but I was worried.”
“Still a little sore,” he said. His hamstring was doing better.
Despite the initial swelling, it appeared to only be a Grade 1 hamstring strain.
He was responding well to rest, laser and ultrasound therapies, and Andy had just started some electric muscle stimulation therapy that seemed to be doing the trick too.
He hoped to be back in a couple of weeks.
He looked Harper in the eye and said, “But I’m tough. Like you.”
She beamed at him. “Did you have to go to stay in the hospital? I don’t like when I have to do that. Mommy and Uncle Sebby stay with me, but I don’t like it.”
“No one likes to be in the hospital overnight,” he said. “But sometimes, you just gotta do it to get better.”
“I know.” She rested her head against his shoulder. “But it sucks.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Uncle Luke!” At the sound of that nickname, he turned to see Evie and Maura O’Shea running toward him. “You came!”
“Yeah,” he said with a smile, reaching out to touch each of their shoulders since he couldn’t give them hugs like usual. “Your dad said you were gonna be here today, so I thought I’d come help.”
He was on injured reserve and the team was on break anyway. There was only so much TV or movies he could watch before he went stir-crazy.
“You haven’t been over to Grandma’s house in foreverrr,” Evie said, glaring at him through her glasses.
“I know. Sorry.” He winced. “I’ll try to come over soon.”
Catherine appeared at his elbow. “Hi, girls.”
“Grandma!” they chorused.
“Hey, Luke.” Catherine touched his shoulder, then went up on her toes, so he obligingly bent over so she could kiss his cheek.
When he’d come to Boston, he hadn’t known what the fuck to make of the O’Shea family.
They were loud and affectionate, and it was a lot to deal with all at once.
But he’d grown to care about them. He’d seen the way they fought and made up, folded him into their family and treated him like he was one of their own.
Or, at least as much as he would let them.
“Hi, Mrs. O,” he said, bending to brush his lips across her cheek too. He had an especially soft spot for her.
Catherine smiled at the girl in his arms. “Hi, Harper. It’s good to see you again.”
“Hi, Miss Catherine,” Harper said, lifting her head.
Luke squinted at Connor’s mother. “You know Harper too?”
“Yes. We met at Sebastian’s shop recently.”
“Huh.” Luke had a lot of questions about why she’d been at Sebastian’s shop and why the fuck it seemed impossible to get away from the dude, but he’d save that for another time.
After that, it got a little bit chaotic as Luke set Harper down and Catherine introduced her to Maura, who was her age, and Evie, who was a couple of years older. Harper clung to Luke’s leg, shy again.
Sebastian stepped forward, kneeling down to talk to her. He ignored Luke, but it was hard to not think of the last time he’d been on his knees in front of him …