Page 15 of Wild Scottish Fortune

“You need a date because of your mum?”

“She’s relentless.” Mentally, I kicked myself. Not quite the way a woman wanted to be asked out. Embarrassment rushed through me. Usually, I handled these situationsmuch better, but there was something about Orla that put me off my game.

“Um,” Orla said, and I knew she was about to say no.

“I’ll pay you,” I rushed out.

Pay her? You idiot.Seriously, had I just offered to pay her to be my date?

“Pay me?” Orla squeaked. The pink on her cheeks heightened.

“Yes, of course. Common Gin is a major sponsor as well. So, it would certainly fall within a business scope. No reason not to be reimbursed for your time.”

“Let me get this straight. You want to pay me to be your fake date to a gala so your mum will leave you alone? But also to represent the company?”

Och, I’d bungled this.

“Aye?” Even I didn’t sound convinced, but I was already knee-deep in this, so I might as well keep going. “Just think, you’ll get to dress up and eat tiny food passed around by snooty waiters.”

“I don’t have a dress.” Instantly, Orla’s face changed.She was now the one who was embarrassed. Lovely, just lovely. Not only had I insulted the woman by offering to pay her for a date, but I’d made her uncomfortable about not having a dress.

“Neither does Lia,” I said, throwing Munroe’s wife neatly under the bus. “She was grumbling all about it. Munroe’s assured me that there is a dress budget.”

Liar, liar.

Orla’s eyes shifted over my shoulder, and she shook her head lightly, as though arguing with someone behind me. Iturned, but the space was empty and when I looked back her expression was smoothed.

“To be clear…you’ll buy me a dress, pay for my time, and I get free dinner?”

“I can’t promise that the dinner will be fabulous, but yes to the other things.”

“How much?” Orla demanded, her eyes taking on a calculating look.

“Two hundred and fifty pounds.” I named what I thought would be a nice price for a date but not insulting.

“Make it five hundred and I’m in. The animal shelter is saving for supplies for its extension.”

She was going to use the money for an animal shelter?I felt even worse.

“What animal shelter?”

“The local shelter. I volunteer there a lot because I can’t have a dog. They need more space and I’ve offered to build the extension for them, but they still have to acquire the supplies even if I can get it for them at cost, you ken?”

Great, now I felt like a right shite about what I’d just fumbled my way into. I’d just wanted her as my date because I enjoyed bantering back and forth with her, and she intrigued me. Yet somehow, I’d managed to make her think I needed to please my mum and that I paid for companionship. Could I be any more awkward?

“Why can’t you have a dog?”

“I told you yesterday while you were trying not to cry outside the outbuilding.”

Right, okay, I guess thingscouldget more awkward.

“I was not crying,” I insisted. Had I been crying? I couldn’t quite remember.

Orla’s expression softened.

“One of these days, you’ll need to tell me what happened in there.”

“I ate something bad for lunch. Fish. It was a bit off.”

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