Page 13 of Home Grown Talent
“Excuse me,” Jay bit out suddenly, drawing Owen’s attention back to the other guests. “I’m going to go and say hello to my agent.” He stood up and stalked away from the table, shoulders tense.
Owen turned to Tag to ask what had provoked that reaction, but Tag seemed to be deep in conversation with Aaron, so he turned back to Mason, only to discover that Misty had moved into Jay’s seat and was leaning over Mason to get closer to Owen. “Tell me, Owen,” she said. “How long have you had your gardening business?”
Owen smiled. “Well, I’ve been gardening for quite a long time, but I’ve only been in business myself for ten years. At the start, it was just me and my best friend, Mac, but now I employ a whole crew.”
“And how many is a whole crew?”
“Six people full time, plus one apprentice.” He smiled. “Being able to take people on has been one of the best things about owning my own business, but it’s kind of the scariest part too.”
“Being the boss, you mean?” Misty said. “Oh yeah, do I get that!”
“It’s not so much being the boss,” Owen said. “It’s more that… well, it’s pretty amazing to get to be the person who gives someone a job, you know? One of my guys is someone I took a chance on when he wasn’t in a great place, and watching his confidence grow has been incredible. And now I’m taking on kids out of school and helping them build a career from scratch. That’s really satisfying, but also the responsibility is pretty huge. I need to make sure the work keeps coming in, and I need to help people keep developing their skills so the job stays interesting for them.”
Mason huffed, not quite a laugh. “Very noble,” he said in a tone that implied that, if he wasn’t exactly rolling his eyes, he was thinking about it.
Brat, Owen thought again, reluctantly amused. Mason really didn’t like being ignored, did he?
“Oh, absolutely,” Misty chimed in, apparently missing Mason’s sarcasm. “Helping your team develop is so rewarding.”
Owen’s gaze flickered to Naomi, who was on her phone now, one hand over her other ear as she listened, frowning. Probably still trying to get a table at a fancy restaurant for Misty’s lunch next week.
“Am I right in thinking you and Lewis grew up on a council estate?” Misty asked then.
Owen dragged his gaze back to her, frowning at the question. “Um, yes, we did.”
“That’s amazing,” she cooed. “How on earth did you get from such a difficult start in life to having your own successful business?”
Owen wasn’t wild about the patronising note in her tone, but he forced himself to be polite. “It took a while,” he said mildly. “I left school at sixteen and worked in a supermarket for a while, before getting a job as a labourer in construction—I wanted to get a trade, you see, but it was hard back then unless you had some kind of ‘in’. I wanted to do joinery or plumbing, but I was getting nowhere. Then I met this guy who did landscaping on a job I was labouring on. He liked me and offered to give me a start, and I discovered I loved plants and gardens. It went from there. Took me a while to get where I am now, but I’m a slogger.”
“Wow! I knew Lewis was from a deprived background, but—”
“I wouldn’t call it deprived,” Owen interrupted. Okay, they’d grown up on a rough estate, and they’d had some tough years, but he’d done his best by Lewis.
Misty looked taken aback by his admittedly quite defensive reaction.
There was a brief awkward silence. It was broken, surprisingly, by Mason, who said to Misty, “You probably know Owen looked after Lewis when their mum passed away, right?” She nodded, and he went on. “According to Lewis, Owen was an absolute saint about it. Lewis certainly wasn’t deprived.” He laughed lightly, then added, “He probably got more attention from Owen than I got from both my parents combined when I was a teenager.”
Owen felt a stab of gratitude. That was Mason’s second sort-of intervention on his behalf this evening, he realised with faint surprise.
“Oh, yes,” Misty said to Mason, her gaze narrowing. “You and Lewis used to be together, didn’t you?”
Mason’s smile tightened just a fraction. “We had a brief casual thing for a while.” He shrugged one shoulder as though to emphasise the casual point.
Misty opened her mouth to respond, and for some reason he couldn’t quite put his finger on, Owen found he really didn’t want that line of conversation to continue. Without thinking about it, he found himself blurting, “So, you work in factual programming, Misty? That sounds exciting?”
Her gaze flicked back to him, her expression instantly brightening. “Yes, it is! I’m very lucky to work in a field I’m so passionate about. I produce Weekend Wellness, which is our flagship lifestyle show. Do you watch it?”
“Um…” Owen scratched the back of his neck. “Not usually, but I did actually see the part when Mason was on last weekend.”
Mason arched a brow. “I thought you had better things to do than watch TV?”
“I watch Leeches,” Owen protested. Then he shrugged. “But yeah, I don’t have time for much else. But, like I said, I did watch your bit on Misty’s show, and I thought you were great. You were really…” He waved a hand as he struggled to find the right word. “Animated.”
“Oh, Mason’s a natural,” Misty said, tossing a long sweep of golden hair over one shoulder. “People loved all the spontaneous flirting with Marc.”
Her expression changed then, her head tilting to the side as she seemed to consider something. “You know, Owen, I’ve wanted to add a gardening segment to the show for ages, and I think you’d be very telegenic.”
“Me?” Owen said, astonished. “Oh, no. I’m not the television type.”