This is a continuation of The Lawsons Pt. 6
Recap - Roger and Emma are wed, with Sarah expertly planning an impromptu wedding on the property. Not leaving Roger out, Emma works with his Marine friends to have them in attendance to support him along with a contingent from a local Marine Reserve unit. They honeymoon in Laglio, Italy by Lake Como, in an elegant villa that they wind up purchasing as a vacation home. While there, Emma confirms her submission to Roger. They also discuss Sarah's retirement as the property caretaker, and hatch a plan to recruit Corporal Samantha Baker, one of the reservists who attended the wedding, to be Sarah's successor.
All characters in this story are 18 years of age or older. This is a work of fiction.
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Emma and Roger returned to Montana having thoroughly enjoyed their time in Italy. The paperwork for their new home was almost complete and Derek promised to be by in the next few days with everything that would need their signatures. On the flight back, Roger had written up the job description for the new position that he and Emma hoped Samantha would apply for. It was listed as an entry-level position, but the pay was likely better than anything around Bozeman, not to mention that it was full-time with benefits and a very good retirement plan.
They had to let Sarah know about it, choosing their words carefully. Emma did mention how she had mentioned retiring a few times in passing conversation and that Emma was worried that they didn't have a backup plan in case Sarah decided to follow through. They had been nervous about telling her and hoped she wouldn't take it as they were trying to get her to move on. Luckily, Sarah agreed that having someone groomed for her position was a good idea. And she finally confirmed with them that she would like to retire at some point in the near future, but she wasn't sure, exactly, when that would be.
Roger posted the open position on a few popular job websites and put an ad in the paper in case anyone actually read those anymore. He then called the Gunnery Sergeant with Samantha's reserve unit to see if he could work some magic to convince the young Marine to apply.
Having set up a new email account just for applications, Roger kept checking his phone to see what was coming in. So far, they had received five, but nothing yet from Samantha. The job still had a few days left before it closed, so he hoped for the best.
"We may not even like her," Emma said as they rode Bella and Jupiter around the property. "I feel bad that she's struggling, especially because she's having to take care of her mother. But as you said, she may not have people skills."
He nodded as they took the horses through the woods toward the creek that ran through their property. "Well, the idea is still sound. If not her, we'll have other applicants to look at for the position."
They rode for another hour before returning to the house. Roger had promised to grill some steak and veggies for them since the kitchen staff left after lunch. Emma wanted Sarah to eat with them as well, so the ladies brought out a bottle of wine and sat in the lounge chairs watching Roger do the heavy lifting with the food.
By the time the potatoes were almost finished, his phone chimed. He opened it and found an email from Samantha with a resume attached. "Emma," he said as he handed her the phone, "she submitted something."
The ladies leaned in to look things over as Emma opened the attached file. "Uh, okay, she lives here in town, she's working full-time at a shoe store in the mall, part-time at the grocery store." She paused to scroll through what was there. "There's information about her military status--you'll have to look at that, Roger," she said as she kept scrolling.
"Oh!" Sarah said with a smile. "She has a degree in business management. Two-year, but that's good. Better than what I started with."
Roger nodded. "Anything else?"
Emma continued reading through the document. "She had a few jobs in high school, but nothing pertinent. But she did list a few activities that she likes to do."
"Anything fun?" Sarah asked.
"Hiking--" Emma stopped and laughed. "Didn't she get enough of that in the military?" She shook her head and kept reading. "Fishing, hunting, swimming, and reading."
"Intellectual, depending upon what she's reading, and the outdoorsy type," Sarah said, then asked, "Roger? Isn't a corporal a leader of some sort?"
He flipped the steak, removed the potatoes, and checked on the corn. "It's the first non-commissioned officer rank. Think of it as an assistant supervisor position."
"And that's not something everyone can just get, can they?" she added.
"Unlike the Army, you don't have a choice but to become a corporal at some point before getting to sergeant rank," he replied as he walked over to look at the application himself. He noticed Sarah and Emma looking blankly at him. "The Army has a specialist position running parallel to the corporal position. One is specifically for leadership, the other is not. But the Corps is all about fostering leadership, so no specialist."
He looked through the military section of her application. He wasn't expecting much since she was in finance, so no combat awards or anything. But everything else looked good. "If she hadn't gone to a reserve unit, she would likely be a sergeant already," he said as he handed the phone back to Emma. "Speaking of, she has close to four years left in her contract to the Corps, barring any type of medical discharge or something. So, she'd have drill once a month over a weekend, then there would be two or three weeks a year where she would be on deployment stateside, and then there is the very distinct possibility that her unit could be deployed overseas for an undetermined amount of time. If we hire her, we cannot replace her because we don't like that she's doing military stuff. Federal law."
The group fell silent as Roger walked back over to the grill and began removing the food. He placed the steaks on their plates and turned back to the women. "They need to rest about ten minutes," he said and sat down with a beer. "So, are we going to give her a shot?"
The girls looked at each other and nodded. "Yeah," Sarah said.
He nodded. "The opening closes tomorrow. It's Wednesday. I can call to see if she can come in Friday for an interview." He paused. "Are we going to bother with the other applications?"
Once again, the girls looked at each other. "How about we wait and see how Samantha does? If she bombs, we can bring the others in."
Roger looked at Sarah for confirmation. She nodded.
Agreeing, he said, "Okay. I'll call her tomorrow and set up an interview."
Sarah leaned over to Emma and whispered, "Is she cute?"
* * * *
Roger spoke with Samantha on Thursday. It was a brief conversation. She remembered him from the wedding and thanked both he and Emma for the gift card.
"Did I catch you at a bad time?" he asked.
"I'm sorry, First Sergeant," she replied. "I'm in the middle of my shift and I can't be caught on my phone."
"It's Roger, or if you're not comfortable with that, Mr. Lawson, I guess, since I'm a civilian now. Are you free on Friday? We would like to interview you for the position you applied for."
"What time?"
"You're the one working two jobs, you tell me when you can be here," he replied.
"I have to be in at ten," she said. "I can come in early."
"How's eight?"
"I can do that," she said. "Same place as the wedding?"
"That's right. Pull up to the front and ring the doorbell. I'll let you go," he added. "I don't want to get you in trouble there."
