Page 55 of Wild Scottish Fortune

“I never said you didn’t. I just asked if you wanted some help.”

“Why would you help me with business stuff? Don’t you do enough of that on your own?” Orla asked, a suspicious note in her voice.

“I do.” I turned to her and grinned. “But I’m scary good at it, which is why Munroe puts me on most of the difficult projects. My brain just seems to love spreadsheets and organizational tasks.”

“Sophie claims to love spreadsheets too.” Orla’s expression now mirrored her suspicious tone.

“Yes, I’ve heard. I’m guessing they’re not your favorite?” I pointed at the sofa. “Mind if I sit?”

“Yes, go ahead. Um, I guess I should offer you tea or something? I don’t really have beer, but?—”

“A cup of tea is just grand, thanks.” Tea would give her something to do and keep me here longer, which I hoped would ease her nerves enough to talk about what had happened in Edinburgh. I’d done some reading on needy children in Scotland that morning, and even if Orla’s experience hadn’t been half as bad as what I’d read about, I imagined it had to be a traumatic history to recount—let alone get highlighted in front of hundreds of rich people. The look on her face was still burned into my heart. I never, ever, wanted Orla to feel that way again.

Which was quite a thought about someone that I’d only shared one kiss with.

The thing was? I was a risk taker. Calculated risks, Ishould say, but a risk taker, nonetheless. I liked to operate on the belief that hard work and dedication would see me through, and because of that, I was more willing to jump when others weren’t. I’d lost some of that when my father had died, and we’d learned who he was as a person. So much of my life I’d been working hard to please someone that I found I couldn’t respect when I’d learned just who he was. Then I’d worked hard to care for my mother, someone else who had just lost my respect.

But Orla?

I had nothing but admiration for her. Even more so when I got a glimpse at what she’d come from. It made me want to get to know her more deeply, to be vulnerable with her in a way that I wasn’t with most, and I could only hope she would allow me to do so. One thing I think I could understand was that many people had let Orla down in this world. I didn’t want to be one of them. If I could keep showing up for her, maybe, just maybe, she’d let me in more.

“Is it payroll that’s stressing you out? I’ve got a good service that can help with that.”

“Services cost money,” Orla said, from where she filled a kettle with water.

“They do, but your time is valuable. At some point you need to delegate some things, or you’ll fall behind.”

Orla sighed, putting the kettle on, and turned to me. She looked adorably rumpled today, in baggy sweatpants and a loose gray jumper, her hair piled on her head in a messy knot. I wanted to cross the room, pull her into my arms, and bury my face in the crook of her neck.

“I am falling behind. I just don’t have the time to hireanyone because I don’t have the time to see where I need to hire.”

“Ahhh, you need a manager.” I rubbed my hands together gleefully. “Right in my wheelhouse. Let’s talk it out and I can offer some tips?”

“Finlay.” Orla rolled her eyes as she put two mugs on a tray. “I can’t afford your advice, or likely the services that Common Gin uses to streamline their business. I’m working on a far different budget here.”

“Doesn’t matter. There’s always an answer. Your time is valuable. So first you need to look at where your time is best spent. What can you do that nobody else can do?” I wanted to keep her distracted with questions so she would keep talking to me.

“Manage the crew, oversee the work, build, payroll, work with the clients.” Orla ticked the items off on her fingers.

“And which of those is most important to you?”

“Clients, crew, building.”

“That’s fine, so we’ll list those as your top focused tasks. See the thing is that you have to assign a value to your time. For example, say your time is worth one hundred pounds an hour, well, then you need to start looking at tasks that you are doing that aren’t worth that, and begin to find ways to delegate or streamline those tasks.”

“Huh.” Orla brought the tea over on a small tray and sat next to me. I was grateful it was a love seat because it forced her to be closer to me. “I never thought about it like that.”

“You often don’t have to think like that until your business grows to a tipping point where you’re forced to hiremore help or take fewer projects. Which would you like it to be?”

“I don’t want to take less projects because I just hired more crew and I know they’re depending on me.”

“Then you need to hire more help. Let’s talk it out. What do you absolutely despise doing?”

Orla nodded to the ledgers.

“Payroll.”

“That’s easy enough. I can give you some recommendations for affordable services that will make the process easier for you. What’s the next biggest time suck?”

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