Lamb Woodall.

Her name was actually Lamb. Not a nickname. Not short for something. Her parents had named her Lamb.

I made a mental note to thank my parents for giving me the sort of unique name that I had. I supposed Lamb could like her name, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be named after an animal, and certainly not an animal that was known for being fuzzy and timid.

I raised my head to watch her for a bit. I’d been looking over her résumé while she acquainted herself with the store so that when we sat down to the interview, both of us could ask questions. The last thing I wanted to do was hire someone who thought this was a florist shop. When I’d first opened, I’d had a lot of people come in, thinking that’s what the shop was. I needed someone who understood that, while I did sell plants, the point of Grow ‘n Heal was a function beyond simple beauty. Though many of my plants were beautiful.

Lamb took the lid off one of the jars and sniffed delicately. Fitting, I supposed since she was delicate. Barely over five feet and with fine features, she was the definition of the word. I felt huge next to her.

Damn. She even sneezed delicately.

“Lamb,” I said. When she didn’t respond, I tried again. “Lamb!”

She turned around, those long henna-red curls knocking a tin of tea to the floor. She flushed, pale skin going blotchy, and immediately bent to pick up the tea…and bumped into a display, nearly knocking it over.

“It’s okay,” I said. “Just leave it. We can pick it up later.”

She gave me a concerned look, and I smiled at her. I’d been a little worried about possibly hiring someone more than a decade older than me, but Lamb not only looked like she was younger, she acted like it too. Not immature, necessarily, but rather…inexperienced in some way.

“Miss Chaise, I’m sorry. I just get clumsy when I’m nervous.”

“It’s okay,” I said again. “There’s nothing to be nervous about. And it’s just Brea, not Miss Chaise.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Miss–I mean, Brea.”

I gestured to the chair across from me. “Why don’t you have a seat and tell me a little about yourself, and why you want to work here. And be honest. It’s all right to say that this is the only place hiring right now.”

She let loose an odd giggle that made her seem even younger. The strange thing was, I didn’t get the impression from her that it was something she put on. Whoever she was right now was who she was all the time.

“That’s not why I want to work here,” she said. “I don’t even know who else is hiring. I just walked by here and saw that you were looking for someone and I had to come in because I just love this place.”

I leaned back in my seat. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in here before.”

“No.” She shook her head, blood rushing to her cheeks again. “I’ve been going through the website and trying to learn as much as I can…so I can impress you…fudge-icicle.”

I blinked. An inventive take on that pseudo-curse that I’d never heard before.

“Lamb,” I said, “why don’t you just tell me about why you want to work here and why you think you’d be a good employee.”

Not like I had much in the way of other options since the only other applicant I’d gotten was Adam Freeman who’d ogled me the entire time, but I still wasn’t going to hire someone who didn’t have a clue about what I did here. The fact that she’d been looking at the website gave me a little hope at least.

“I’ve always been interested in plants and healing and how they can offer all sorts of benefits that people don’t realize. I’ve done a lot of research. Like all the ways mint is useful, like aiding in digestion, and how willow bark can help lower fevers and is a natural painkiller. I’ve read tons of books about homeopathic remedies and supplements.”

She did her homework. That was good.

“I don’t require you to actually make any of the salves or blends, but you’d be welcome to watch me and learn,” I said. “Most of the time, you’d be here by yourself, selling the things that are ready-made. If someone came in with a specific question, I’d expect you to call me if you didn’t know something with one hundred percent certainty.”

“Of course.” Her head bobbed up and down. “I really want to learn.”

“Good,” I said with a smile. “Do you mind if I ask a couple questions?”

“Please.” She folded her hands on her lap.

“What would Ranunculus ficaria be used for?” I went with something obscure to see just how deep she’d gone with her research.

She frowned. “I don’t think I’ve heard of that one.”

“It’s usually called pilewort.”

Her forehead furrowed as she thought. “I don’t know it.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “It’s a bit of an obscure one. When you look at a lot of the labels, I’ll have the Latin name, as well as the common name.”

“What does pilewort do?”

Good, she was curious about the answer rather than remaining ignorant about it.

“It can be made into a salve to help with hemorrhoids.”

“Oh.” She blushed.

“Any of the books you see, you’re more than welcome to read. I encourage you to at least look through some of the remedy ones to familiarize yourself as much as possible. Things in here are usually slow. That’s a good way to stay busy but still be doing something work-related. And if you want to buy any of them, you get a thirty-five percent discount.”

“That’s wonderful,” she said.

“Is there anything else you want to tell me?”

She nodded. “What about rituals?”

And there it was. The other common misconception about my store. I tried not to sigh.

Her blue-green eyes widened. “I know there are all sorts of plants used in cleansing rituals, protection, things like that. I know you wouldn’t do anything dark. I’m very interested in learning how to cleanse auras.”

I forced a smile. “That’s not what I do here. If someone wants to buy plants to use in something like that, they’re more than welcome to, but I don’t put together anything for rituals. What a person believes is their business, and I make a point to stay neutral. The supplements and homeopathic remedies I offer are science based.”

“Of course,” she said, color leaving her face as quickly as it had rushed in before. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“You didn’t,” I said honestly. “I want you to ask questions. It’s how I learned, and if you’re interested in more than simply running a cash register, it’s how you’ll learn too.”

“Does this mean I have the job?”

She wasn’t a bad sort of person. I could handle a little dotty. I had lived with Blair and Kevin, after all. For nearly a full month when I was thirteen, Blair had color-coded her wardrobe to influence the weather by sending positive color vibrations out into the universe, and around the same time, Kevin had started off each morning standing on his head to encourage toxins to leave his body.

“It does.” I held out my hand, but Lamb squealed and ran around the table to hug me.

“Thank you so much,” she gushed. “You won’t regret it, I promise.”

I hoped not. “Why don’t you come in Monday morning and we’ll start going over things.”

She nodded, hugged me again, and then practically danced out of the shop. I stood at the door and watched her go, unable to stop a smile. She really was a sweet person.

As I started to turn away, movement caught my eye. The man’s back was to me, but even from across the street, I could sense how much power was in that body. At five-and-a-half feet tall, I was a little over average height, but the man I saw was easily three or four inches above six feet, with broad shoulders and muscles that his flannel shirt couldn’t disguise. He had light brown hair that looked like it could use a trim, and as he turned to get into his truck, I saw enough scruff to tell me that he hadn’t shaved in a day or two.

Then I recognized the strong jaw and scowl. Blake Hunter. He’d already been living on a ranch outside the town when I arrived here, but I’d only seen him a handful of times since then, and I’d never spoken to him. The people in Rawlins talked about him on occasion, but I’d gotten the impression that other than the fact that he kept to himself, there really wasn’t much in the way of gossip when it came to him. Most of what I’d heard was about how he was gruff and sometimes rude, but that most people wrote it off as him just being eccentric and anti-social. There was, however, some talk among people of the female persuasion that he’d occasionally hook up with someone in town. He must’ve picked discreet women because no one I’d ever heard talking about it had been with him, but the rumors were there.

He was handsome enough, I supposed, but I didn’t understand people who seemed so angry all the time. I couldn’t imagine allowing that much negative energy into my life. I might not have been into auras and that sort of thing, but I believe that every person has an energy about them that comes from how they see the world and what they put out into it.

It was sad, I thought, that someone who appeared to have so much to give was so angry at life. I almost wished that I did believe that I could make him a tea or a salve that would open his eyes to the beauty of the world and all it had to offer.

I sighed and flipped my sign back to open before returning to my work. I had enough on my mind with this new shop and my parents being here. I didn’t need to take on the burden of someone I didn’t even know.