Sculpting Grace: A Light Romance Novel (Art of Grace Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

intruder?
    I opted for sneaking, largely because I couldn't think of a passable war cry. Moving as quietly as possible, I stepped around the corner, safety scissors in hand - and paused as I caught sight of a large, frizzy head of blonde hair bobbing behind the desk.
    "Oh, hi!" came the voice from somewhere inside the mop of blonde hair as its owner turned towards me. "Are you Becca?"
    I quickly lowered the scissors. It seemed that I'd made a miscalculation somewhere along the line.
    "Yes, I'm Becca Grace," I said, taking a cautious step forward. "And you are...?"
    I let the question dangle, and the blonde bit. "Oh! I'm Lizzie, Lizzie Henderson. Mr. Halesworth hired me to be your assistant!" She sat back in the chair behind the front desk and beamed up at me, looking completely pleased with herself, like she'd just aced a challenging exam.
    "Halesford," I corrected. Despite myself, I couldn't help but immediately take a shine to the young woman. I guessed that Lizzie was in her early twenties, probably barely out of college, but her personality just flowed out another foot from her body in all directions, like an aura. "It's good to meet you, Lizzie," I said, stepping forward to shake her hand (and at the same time, drop the scissors back down on the desk before Lizzie asked me why I was carrying them).
    She pumped my hand eagerly, twice, and then sat back down in the chair. Looking over the counter at her, I found myself strangely reminded of a golden retriever, so eager to please. If I squinted, I could almost imagine a big furry tail thumping back and forth.
    "Have you ever worked somewhere like this, Lizzie?" I asked.
    She paused for a moment, and then shook her head. "I owned a lemonade stand, once?" she asked hopefully.
    "What, as a kid?"
    "No, in my sorority. Beta Tau Theta, go Cheetahs! We just smiled at all the nice fraternity boys, and they came rushing over to buy lemonade!" And she beamed at me, certain that she'd nailed another answer.
    Where in the world did uncle Preston find this girl? "Well, this isn't quite the same," I warned her. "We're selling fine art, here, not cups of lemonade and glances at your cleavage."
    "Oh! Am I showing too much?" And as I watched in amazement, Lizzie looked down at her own chest, grabbing her shirt and pulling it out so that she could take a look. What, was she checking to make sure her tits hadn't wandered off?
    "No, no, that's not it," I hurried to reassure her, after closing my open jaw. "I just mean that we want to be professional, here. Most of the clients who come in aren't looking for the, er, Zeta Theta Pi experience."
    "Beta Tau Theta," she corrected me absently. "Okay. I can be professional." She leaned in a little closer to me and lowered her voice, as if confiding a secret in me. "To be honest, this is my very first real job since college! I really want to do a good job, so just tell me if I'm going to screw anything up!"
    "I'm sure you'll be fine," I reassured her. Inside my head, I wondered why I was even bothering to talk about professionalism. Lizzie wouldn't be likely to see more than a dozen customers in her whole time here, and most of the little old ladies probably didn't give a hoot about professionalism. Hell, flashing a bit more cleavage would probably help bring in a few more male senior citizens - if they didn't have a heart attack at the sight of a bouncing, beaming Lizzie.
    "So, what do I need to do?"
    I hurriedly dragged my focus back to the present. "Right! Well, as it turns out, managing the art gallery isn't too much trouble. Here, let me show you around, and then I'll walk you through filling out the forms for a sale, and how to handle different types of payment..."
    Lizzie might come off as an air-headed blonde, but she listened with an almost unnerving level of focus as I talked her through the steps of managing the gallery. I got the sense that every iota of her concentration was on me, and it made me both stand a little taller and feel almost