She had much to offer the world but he was beginning to suspect she wasn’t able to see that clearly herself.
“I’ve never had to fire anyone and can only imagine how difficult it must be. Do you still encounter this woman around town?”
“No. Fortunately, her husband took another job shortly after that in California so they moved away. I can’t tell you how relieved I was when I heard she was leaving, especially because she had begun spreading rumors around the community that she had been fired unfairly and had even told people she was considering suing.”
“You didn’t press charges?”
“No. Her husband paid me back the cost of the merchandise she had taken. They could well afford it, which was another thing I didn’t understand. Why not just pay for it with her employee discount, which is substantial? He was embarrassed about the whole thing, and to be honest, I just wanted to forget it.”
“That must have been difficult, coming only a few months after your mother’s death. Especially when your mother had been the one to hire her.”
“Yes. I think she was dishonest from the day my mother hired her but I didn’t realize it for several weeks. I might have acted sooner if I hadn’t still been feeling a little lost, trying to run things on my own. It was a tough time.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thanks. If you want the truth, the whole incident left me a bit scarred.”
“In what way?”
“I need to hire a few more people to pick up the slack at the shop since I’ve become so busy on the wedding gown side of things, but I’m afraid of making the wrong personnel decision. What if I end up having to fire someone again? I’m not sure I have the fortitude to do that.”
“You do,” he said confidently. “You’ve done it once. It will probably be easier the second time around.”
She laughed a little. “I would much prefer if the first time was the only time.”
“Look at it this way. You’ll be the one doing the hiring this time. You can vet candidates as carefully as you need to so you can be absolutely sure of a person’s character before you take on a new salesclerk.”
“You’re right,” she said with a surprised kind of look. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He was finding so much more to admire about Samantha Fremont than he’d ever imagined when he first met her.
“If you weren’t running a boutique, what would you do?” he asked after a few more moments.
“Design dresses.” She answered with such alacrity, he almost laughed.
“You could give it a moment’s thought,” he suggested.
“I don’t need to. That’s my favorite part of the job. I love creating the ideal wedding dress for someone to wear on her perfect day.”
“Ah. You’re a romantic.” He didn’t need confirmation. He had figured that out about her already. He supposed any woman who designed wedding dresses would have to be something of a romantic.
“In some ways, I guess.”
“If you love it so much, why don’t you design dresses full-time, then?”
She appeared to give his question serious thought, her cheeks slightly pink from the exertion as they walked uphill.
The children didn’t seem to be bothered by the climb. They appeared to be having a wonderful time, scampering ahead like mountain goats. Mountain goats with walking sticks, anyway.
“It’s not that simple, I’m afraid,” Samantha finally said. “If I wanted to focus solely on making dresses, I would have to close the boutique and I have no idea if I could make a living designing wedding dresses alone. If you do the math, there can’t be that many brides in the Lake Haven area to keep a business going indefinitely.”
Pursuing her passion seemed an easy enough decision to him, especially in his own circumstances. He didn’t have a choice about how he would be spending the rest of his life.
“If designing wedding gowns is what you love, why not take the chance?”
“I can’t throw away a thriving business with a long history in Haven Point to pursue a fly-by-night dream. It’s just not practical. I have employees. Payroll. People who depend on me.”
He wanted to argue that dreams were important, too, but knew that would be hypocritical, given his current situation, so he said nothing.
They walked without speaking for a few more moments, accompanied by the murmur of the creek next to the trail and the twittering of birds in the trees. It was a singularly peaceful endeavor, walking in nature, surrounded by wild beauty. He had always loved it but there was something about this place that called to his soul.
She stopped at the top of a rise to take a drink from the water bottle in her daypack and he called ahead for the children to do the same.
Amelia trotted back and grabbed her and Thomas’s water bottles that Ian was carrying in his pack, then returned to her brother, carrying them.
“May I ask you a question, if it’s not too presumptuous?” Ian asked after his daughter was out of earshot.
“Until you ask it, how can I know if your question is too presumptuous?” Her eyebrows raised with both curiosity and humor. That was one of the things he was discovering he liked best about Samantha. She never seemed to take herself too seriously.
“How about this? I’ll ask the question, then you can decide whether it’s too presumptuous to answer.”
“Fair enough.”
He didn’t quite know how to ask the question now that he’d started this.
Finally, he just blurted it out. “Speaking of wedding gowns, why haven’t you had your own, er, perfect day? Why aren’t you married with a bunch of little ones of your own?”
He winced. “And now that I hear that out loud, never mind. It is too presumptuous and none of my business. Not everyone wants that traditional life. More and more these days, it seems to be the exception and not the rule. I’m also perfectly aware a woman does not need a man to be happy.”
He was rambling, mostly because he
