But instead of commenting on it, Reese let the other papers slide gracefully back to the desk as she picked up the folder. Sheopened it, took half the stack, keeping them in the folder, and handed the other stack back to Hallie.
“I’ll have mine reviewed by tomorrow,” Reese said, standing up from her chair. She flipped her fingers against the corners of the pages like they were a book. “And, Hallie?”
She looked up to meet Reese’s stare, knowing that she could continue her self-flagellation in private. “Yeah?”
“A woman we both love dearly helped me understand that life is a team sport. It’s not a sign of weakness to need help, okay?” Reese wore the same smile she had whenever she was looking at Sydney or talking about her, and it caused the strangest sense of emptiness to open up inside of Hallie’s chest.
Regardless of how Reese’s words made Hallie feel, she couldn’t argue with her boss’s logic at this moment. She pushed the feeling away and gave Reese a small salute. “Aye, aye, Captain. I’ll have my half done by tomorrow as well.”
Hallie took a deep breath and ran her fingers along the top of her desk, which she’d painstakingly spent last night organizing ahead of the interview scheduled for today. There was not a cookie or coffee cup in sight–except for the one she’d taken a few lukewarm sips from over the last fifteen minutes.
She wasn’t sure who was making this conversation difficult, but as she eyed Matt Hostas, per a résumé that painted a very different picture than his in-person interviewing skills, it didn’t much matter.
On paper, he’d looked great, but the reality was that Hallie would barely get a question out before he was talking over her. Add in that his responses were all vague yet rambling, a trulyspecial combination that would have left Hallie impressed at its absurdity if she wasn’t so stressed out.
“So, Matt,” she said abruptly, trying to redirect him from the meandering story he’d told about his last inn and how they’d done things, like their policies and procedures manual was a Bible and he, the most devoted follower.
He—blessedly, briefly—quieted, and she watched his Adam's apple bob up and down furiously at the sudden stop. “What’s up?” he asked, cocking his head to the side.
“Can you tell me why you left your last role? And what you’re looking for in this one?” The question was always going to be included, but now, she was genuinely curious to learn what he’d say.
Because Matt, as she’d gleaned from their conversation, wasn’t exactly what she’d call a “people person.”
He tapped his finger against his chin–his soul patch, more accurately–like he was giving the question serious thought. It was the longest he’d been quiet since sitting down across from her. “Not everyone vibes with my style.”
His style!?He was a man in his mid-thirties with a soul patch who’d worn a fedora and a velvet jacket to the interview. And even though it was irrelevant to his ability to do the job, Hallie couldn’t stop looking at the little patch of hair under his thin lower lip.
Hallie cleared her throat. “I assume you mean your management style? Or do you mean with guests?”
“I tell it like I see it,” Matt said, crossing his leg over his knee and leaning back in the chair. “Not everyone likes that. Employees or guests. But rules, on both sides, exist for a reason.”
Okay, so at least they weren’t talking about his fashion sense. Which was disappointing because what he’d just said was so much worse.
Hallie smoothed out the printed copy of his resume and flattened her palms against it. She took a second to get back into her supportive manager mindset before she tilted her chin up and smiled at him. Chipperly, she said, “Well, Matt, I really appreciate your time. We’re still interviewing some other candidates, but I’ll follow up with next steps if we decide to move forward.” She stood up and extended her hand.
“Oh, I thought you needed someone, like… urgently?” he asked as he shook her hand.
“Which means that if you move forward, you’ll be hearing from us soon.” It wasn’t a lie, though she resisted the urge to cross her fingers.
“Got it. Well, thanks…” He moved to the door, his long legs taking agonizingly slow steps, like he was waiting for her to suddenly change her mind and offer him the job on the spot.
There was no way Hallie would ever be desperate enough to hire him, let alone give him control over so much as pillow mint placement at The Stone’s Throw. It may not be hers, but she was still more protective over it than anything else in her life.
Which is why, as hefinallyclosed the door behind him at her request, she sank back in the worn leather chair and let out a deep, exhausted sigh.
True to her word to Reese, Hallie had reviewed her half of the résumés last night, thirty in total, which resulted in only a handful of people she was interested in having a phone call with. She’d emailed them to set up times, and no one had gotten back to her yet. This probably had something to do with her reiterating the need to cover Christmas and New Year’s, along with all but two days that Hallie would be in Colorado.
Reese was going to handle those, the two weekend days that fell between the holidays, just so it wasn’t impossible to find someone who could fill the role.
Hopefully, Reese was having better luck on her side, but in this case, no news wasn’t good news.
Hallie heaved a sigh as she refreshed her email. No new bites from candidates. Why? Why had she let this fester for so long?
She looked down at the framed photo on her desk of her mom, dad, brother, and her. It had been taken when she’d been about eight. They stood in front of The Stone’s Throw, Mason sandwiched between her parents, while Hallie stood off to the side, making a funny face at the camera.
There it was, that dull ache again. She didn’t try to pick apart what it meant. Instead, she picked up her phone and hit Reese’s contact.
“Hey,” Reese said, the sound connecting to what had to be her car’s speakers. “How’d the interview go?”
