Page 40 of Daddy's Little Matchmaker

“And second, you hire an employee.”

Tessica frowned. “I can’t afford an employee. The whole point is to make the business profitable, not to run it into the ground.”

Connor nodded. “I understand that, but I think you’re looking at this business through the eyes of an employee ratherthan the eyes of an owner. Do youneedthe paycheck you get from the shelter? Because as an owner, you don’t have to pay yourself until you make a profit.”

She stared at him for a few moments without blinking.

“What?” he asked, unable to read her expression. “Do you think I’m wrong?”

She shook her head, and leaned back in her chair. “I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of that,” she muttered softly.

“I mean if you need the money for rent or?—"

“No,” she cut him off. “I don’t need the money. I always put the shelter checks into my retirement fund. I live off my accounting income.”

“Great. So for the next six months or so, don’t pay yourself and hire an employee so that you can go back to some semblance of a normal schedule.”

She nodded slowly while staring off into the distance.

Connor opened his mouth to tell her to eat her dinner, but caught himself before he could say it. It was going to take a while to curtail his Daddy impulses around her when they were being equals. Instead he said, “Are you done with your pizza?”

“No.” She sat up and took another bite. “Just distracted by my own stupidity.”

“Hey, don’t call yourself stupid,” he chided, and then realized he should probably apologize for overstepping, but before he could say anything she spoke up.

“Sorry, you’re right. Derogatory self-talk isn’t helpful. But I’m extremely irritated that I hadn’t thought of that myself.”

Pleased that she agreed so quickly, Connor shrugged. “Sometimes when you’re in the eye of the storm, you can’t see through the rain to find the right path.”

Tessica smirked. “A very poetic way to put it.”

“So, we agree? Ten hours during the week, nine hours on the weekends, you text me when you go over, and you hire someone before the end of next week.”

She took a bite of her pizza before answering. “I agree to the first three, and I agree to post the job and to interview people, but I’m not going to promise to hire someone, because maybe no one will apply.”

“Good point. Agreed.”

Tessica pushed her pizza away after eating most of one slice.

Connor ate one more big bite and pushed his away, too. “What’s your schedule tomorrow?”

“I’m going to the shelter first thing to feed the animals. Then I have two meetings with accounting clients in the morning. I should be back to the shelter by eleven or twelve and I’ll stay there until closing. Then after that I’ll need to catch up on emails and online accounting work.”

“I’ll open the shelter and feed the animals so that you can sleep in.”

“Oh…” She frowned. “How about we do it together tomorrow, so I can show you what each animal gets fed and where we log that. Then next time you can do it yourself.”

He sighed. “I suppose that’s a good idea. How about we close the shelter tomorrow afternoon and have Gwen come play with us upstairs?”

She pursed her lips. “That’s probably not the best way to make money for the shelter, but I don’t have any scheduled viewings yet tomorrow, so I suppose I could close for one afternoon.”

“Great. I’ll text Gwen, and ask her to come by at noon. We can all have lunch together.”

“Okay.”

He got out his phone and texted while Tessica put the rest of the pizza in the fridge, and put the plates on the counter.

Once he was done texting, he put his phone down, stood up, and walked over to her. “Let’s go to the bedroom.” He held his hand out for her to take.

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