Nessa crossed her fingers under the table. That would get Flynn out of the house half the day. It didn’t take a psychoanalyst to see that he was going to get bored if he didn’t have something to do. And if he was bored, he might slip back into his old ways. She remembered that he’d always been a little hyper, even as a kid. While she was content to read a book or sit and watch Nanny Lucy cut out fabric for quilts, he was always running here, there, and yonder. She’d never given a thought to the fact that he had to live in a walk-up apartment when he went home, or that he spent a lot of days alone while his mother worked. Then when his mama died, he had to live with his father, and that couldn’t have been pleasant. No wonder he’d felt free as a bird let loose from a cage when he came to Blossom.

“I’m very serious,” Flynn answered. “I’ll work the first week for free. If we get along and you think I’m learning the job, then you can start paying me the second week. That sound fair?”

“More than fair,” Jackson answered. “You sure you want to start tomorrow afternoon?”

“Sounds good to me.” Flynn nodded.

“That’s not fair,” April said. “I’m the one who needs a job, and I bet I could learn just as fast as Flynn can.”

Nessa slathered a hot roll with butter and wished that she could throw in her name for the job. But that would never work. She got hot flashes just sitting close to the guy. Working right beside him in a small workshop was out of the question.

“You said you like animals, right?” Jackson smiled across the table.

“Love them. Animals and flowers never break your heart,” April said.

“Our vet is an older lady, and she also has an animal shelter right beside her small-animal clinic. When I was in there last week, she mentioned that she’d like to hire part-time help. It’s getting harder and harder to get enough volunteer help for the shelter, and she can’t keep up with the small-animal practice and run the shelter, too,” Jackson said. “She said what she needs is someone who’s willing to go back and forth from clinic to shelter as she needs them. I can call her in the morning and put in a word for you if you really need to work, but again, this is only part-time.”

“I only have time for part-time since we have to finish the quilt.” April’s tone was full of excitement.

“I’ll give Maudie a call first thing in the morning,” Jackson said. “The animal clinic is right off the highway on the east side of Paris.”

April groaned.