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"I worked in a bookstore, was helping e it by the time I left A small independent bookstore and coffee shop"
"Managed? At your age?"
"I&039;m twenty-four I know I don&039;t look it," she said with a hint of a smile "I don&039;t mind that, either But I can show you e, on partial scholarship I&039;ve got a good brain I worked suot the job initially because my daddy was friends with the owner But I earned it after"
"You said ed You don&039;t work there now"
"No" She was listening, Hayley thought She was asking the right questions That was soo But I have a letter of recommendation from the owner I&039;d decided to leave Little Rock"
"It seems a difficult time to leave home, and a job you&039;re secure in"
"It seeht time to me" She looked over as Stella wheeled in a tea cart "Now that is just like thethat , but I can&039;t help it"
Stella laughed "I was thinking exactly the same as I loaded it up I made chashe&039;s going to tell us why she thinks this was the right time to make a couple of drastic moves"
"Not drastic," Hayley corrected "Just big And I made them because of the baby Well, because of both of us You&039;ve probably figured out I&039;m not married"
"Your family isn&039;t supportive?" Stella asked
"My mother took off when I was about five You may not remember that," she said to Roz "Or you were too polite to ot aunts and uncles, a pair of grandmothers left, and cousins Some are still in the Little Rock area Opinion ismixed about my current situation Thanks," she added after Roz had poured out and offered her a cup
"Well, the thing is, I fully sad when Daddy passed He got hit by a car, crossing the street Just one of those accidents that you can never understand and that, well, just don&039;t seeuess you never do But he was just gone, in a ht down to the bones she hadn&039;t realized were so tired "I was sad, and uy It wasn&039;t a one-night stand or anything like that We liked each other He used to come in the bookstore, flirt withHe eet Anyway, one thing led to another He&039;s a law student Then he went back to school, and a feeeks later, I found out I was pregnant I didn&039;t knohat I was going to do Hoas going to tell him Or anybody I put it off for a fewto do"
"And when you did?"
"I thought I should tell hi into the store like he used to So I went by the college to look hiirl He was a little eether But it wasn&039;t like we&039;dWe&039;d just liked each other, that&039;s all And when he talked about this other girl, he got all lit up You could just see how crazy he was about her So I didn&039;t tell him about the baby"
She hesitated, then took one of the cookies Stella had arranged on a plate "I can&039;t resist sweets After I&039;d thought about it, I didn&039;t see how telling hiood"
"That was a very hard decision," Roz told her
"I don&039;t know that it was I don&039;t knohat I expected hiht to know I didn&039;t want toI wasn&039;t even sure, back that far, that I was going to keep the baby"
She nibbled on the cookie while she rubbed a hand gently over the uess that&039;s one of the reasons I went out there, to talk to hiht we should do But sitting with hiirl - "
She stopped, shook her head "I needed to decide what to do about it All telling him would&039;ve done was made him feel bad, or resentful or scared Mess up his life when all he&039;d really tried to do was help h a bad time"
"And that left you alone," Stella pointed out
"If I&039;d told hi is, when I decided I&039;d keep the baby, I thought about telling hi He was still with that girl, and they were talking about gettingStill, once I started to show, there was a lot of gossip and questions, a lot of looks and whispers And I thought, What we need is a fresh start So I sold the house and just about everything in it And here I a for that fresh start," Roz concluded
"I&039; for a job" She paused, moistened her lips "I knoork I also know a lot of people would step back fro Faht be a little "
She cleared her throat when Roz said nothing "I studied literature and business in college I graduated with honors I&039;ve got a solid eot money - not a lot My partial scholarship didn&039;t cover everything, and my daddy was a teacher, so he didn&039;t h to take care of myself, to pay rent, buy food, pay for this baby I need a job, any kind of a job for now You&039;ve got your business, you&039;ve got this house It takes a lot of people to help run those I&039; for a chance to be one of the?"
"We put in flower beds every year Daddy and I split the yard work And what I don&039;t know, I can learn I learn quick"
"Wouldn&039;t you rather work in a bookstore? Hayley ed an independent bookstore back home," Roz told Stella
"You don&039;t own a bookstore," Hayley pointed out "I&039;ll ithout pay for teeks"
"So the seasonal help in a feeeks In the meantime Stella, can you use her?"
"Ah " Was she supposed to look at that young face and bulging belly and say no? "What were your responsibilities as er?"
"I wasn&039;t, like, officially the er But that&039;s what I did, when you come down to it It was a s, custo Just the bookstore end of it There was a separate staff for the coffee shop"
"What would you say were your strengths?"
She had to take a breath, calm her nerves She kneas vital to be clear and concise And just as vital to her pride not to beg "Custoood with people, and I don&039;tthe extra tiet what they want If your customers are happy, they come back, and they buy You take the extra steps, personalize service, you get customer loyalty"
Stella nodded "And your weaknesses?"
"The buying," she said without hesitation "I&039;d just want to buy everything if it was up toBut sometimes I didn&039;t hear anizing, and so the new syste - some of it very tedious - to deal with"
"I can handle a keyboard PC and Mac"
"We&039;ll go for the teeks," Roz decided "You&039;ll get paid, but we&039;ll consider the teeks a trial balloon for all of us If it doesn&039;t work out, I&039;ll do what I can to help you find another job"
"Can&039;t say fairer than that Thanks, Cousin Rosalind"
"Just Roz We&039;ve got soet your car up here so you can get your things in"
"In? In here?" Shaking her head, Hayley set her cup aside "I said I wasn&039;t after a handout I appreciate the job, the chance at the job I don&039;t expect you to put e faive us all a chance to get to know each other, to see if we&039;re going to suit"
"You live here?" Hayley asked Stella
"Yes And ht and six They&039;re upstairs asleep"
"Are we cousins?"
"No"
"I&039;ll get the gas" Roz got to her feet and started out
"I&039;ll pay rent" Hayley rose as well, instinctively laying a hand on her belly "I pay my way"
"We&039;ll adjust your salary to compensate for it"
When she was alone with Stella, Hayley let out a long, slow breah I bet she can be plenty scary when she needs to You can&039;t have what she has, and keep it, grow it, without knowing how to be scary"
"You&039;re right I can be scary, too, when it comes to work"
"I&039;ll remember Ah, you&039;re froan"
"That&039;s a long way Is it just you and your boys?"
"My husband died about two and a half years ago"
"That&039;s hard It&039;s hard to lose souess all three of us know about that I think it can , soot the baby"
"Do you know if it&039;s a boy or a girl?"
"No Baby had its back turned during the sonogram" She started to chew on her thuuess I should go out, take the gas Roz is getting"
"I&039;ll go with you We&039;ll take care of it together"
In an hour they had Hayley settled in one of the guest rooawked She knew she babbled But she&039;d never seen a more beautiful room, had never expected to be in one Much less to be able to call it her own, even te her fingers over the glealass la of the headboard
She would earn this That was a proed in a long, wariven and would pay Roz back in labor and in loyalty
She was good at both
She dried off, then rubbed oil over her belly, her breasts She wasn&039;t afraid of childbirth - she kneork hard toward a goal But she was really hoping she could avoid stretch marks
She felt a little chill and slipped hurriedly into her nightshirt Just at the edge of the ht a shadow, aher ar, and the door was closed, as she&039;d left it -
Dog-tired, she told herself and rubbed her eyes It had been a long trip froe of the future
She took one of the books she&039;d had in her suitcase - the rest, ones she hadn&039;t been able to bring herself to sell, were still packed in the trunk of her car - and slipped into bed
She opened it to where she&039;d left it bookhts, with an hour of reading
And was asleep with the light burning before she&039;d finished the first page
At Roz&039;s request, Stella once again went into her sitting roolass of wine
"Honest iht, proud Honest She could have spun us a sob story about being betrayed by the baby&039;s father, begged for a place to stay, used her pregnancy as an excuse for all s Instead she took responsibility and asked to work I&039;ll still check her references"
"Of course She seemed fearless about the baby"
"It&039;s after you have the"
"Isn&039;t that the truth?" Roz scooped her fingers through her hair twice "I&039;ll make a few calls, find out a little more about that part of the Ashby family I honestly don&039;t remember very well We never had much contact, even when he was alive I do remember the scandal when the wife took off, left him with the baby Froed very well"
"Her erial experience could be a real asset"
"Another , cast her eyes to heaven
"Pray for me"