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“All right, then,” he said, giving her his first smile—and it was pure fiction “I’ll contact you e’ve made our decision ”

“Thatoff the stool

“It means I’ll contact you if ant to hire you ”

“Yeah ” She tried to stay optimistic; it was only the first of many potential jobs Maybe other employers would be more liberal minded “So, do you want my phone number?”

He looked at her finally “You can give it to me if you want ”

She wanted to tell hinity, but she had Grace to consider, so she wrote down her phone nuht interior Outside, she opened her newspaper and found the next opening A waitress position at Esmerelda’s Mexican Kitchen

For the rest of the afternoon, Lexi tried to believe in herself, even as one job after another evaporated in front of her Most of the available positions were part-time, without benefits She lost track of the times some employer had one to prison in good tie was less than nine dollars an hour That gave her maybe fifteen hundred dollars a o to rent

But apparently none of that et a job She’d spoken to twelve employers today, and every conversation ended up the same way

What have you been doing since high school?

College, really? Where?

Who was your last employer?

Oh (and the look)—the prison library

I’ … I’ll let you know …

One excuse after another The hell of it was, she couldn’t blame them Who wanted to hire a twenty-four-year-old ex-con?

And if that weren’t bad enough, after her useless job interviews, she’d checked out housing on the island