Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
CALLUM
“Parker. It’s nice to meet you.”
Instinct and long-dormant social training prompted me to take the hand she offered, but something far deeper struck me as our palms met. A sense of like recognizing like. Another moment of connection I hadn’t anticipated. My fingers closed automatically around hers, so small in mine. Those big brown eyes widened fractionally, but she didn’t pull away, and I couldn’t seem to make myself let go.
“Right. Parker. Nice to meet you, as well.” Alex’s voice broke through whatever spell this woman had managed to cast. “Will you excuse us for just a moment?”
“Oh, of course.” Cheeks turning a pretty pink, she withdrew her hand and stepped back. “I’ll just be right here.”
My palm still tingled from the soft rasp of her delicate fingers against my skin as Alex propelled me through the door to the back.
“Are you lot expecting me to unload all these kayaks by myself, then?” Finn demanded.
“It can wait,” Alex insisted. “Did you post an ad for an office manager without telling us?”
Finn swung toward me. “What’s this?”
“I didn’t, no. But she’s perfect.” A gift from bloody God, the way she’d marched in and taken over without even batting those Disney-princess eyes. I was willing to go to great lengths to get her to stay. Up to and including paying her salary out of my own savings. It would hardly make a dent.
“Who’s perfect? What’s happening?”
“Callum thinks he’s found us an office manager,” Alex explained.
“Oh, well, we need one of those, for sure. Who is this woman?” Finn wanted to know.
Alex folded his arms. “Parker, of no last name, whom he’s basically offered the job to without knowing a thing about her.”
“I know what I need to know. She took over with a difficult customer on the phone before I could tell him to go fuck himself.”
Finn blinked. “She… took over?”
“Grabbed the phone right out of my hand.” Which I’d been too stunned to protest, then too fascinated by watching her in action to interrupt.
“Brave woman,” Finn murmured. “However, leaving that aside, if you didn’t post an advert for an office manager position, then she didn’t walk in looking for a job. So why is she here? To book some of our services? Rent some equipment? Ask for directions?”
That was a fair point, but I couldn’t shake the idea that she was exactly what we needed. What I needed to save my sanity and the business. “She said she could use a job. We need somebody.”
“Aye, we do need somebody, but hiring someone who literally just walked in off the street doesn’t seem like the best way to go about it. There are protocols for such things. Interviews to be conducted. References to check.” Alex was big on protocols.
All of it sounded like a colossal waste of time to me. “I dinna need to check references. She can do the job.” I knew I was edging into belligerent, but I just needed them to go along with this.
Alex studied me for a long moment. “Why her?”
“Apart from the fact that she waded in and simply handled the situation… she’s no’ afraid of me.” The admission hurt, because it meant I had to acknowledge that plenty of people were afraid of me. And we all knew that would ultimately impact who’d be willing to work for us.
My mates exchanged a look.
Finn nodded. “Okay. Well, let’s go talk to her to find out if she’s even remotely qualified for this job. Then we’ll go from there.”
Some of the knots that had set up in my shoulders began to loosen a bit. We went back out front. Parker stood beside one of the picture windows, examining the array of photographs that lined the back wall, displaying the assorted services and adventures we offered. Sunlight broke through the clouds outside, limning her in gold and flashing off the nearly black strands of her hair. She glanced over as we came out, her lips curving into a faint smile. She looked so at ease. What must it be like to be that comfortable anywhere? When was the last time I’d felt at ease in my own skin?
Alex took point. “Let’s backtrack a little. I’m Alex Conroy. This is Finley Patterson and Callum Quinn. We own Out of Bounds Scotland. And you are Parker…?”
“Lawrence.” Her accent made the word sound like warm honey.
“Well, Parker Lawrence, I presume you didn’t actually come in looking for a job today, so why are you here?”
Her faint smile dialed brighter, and it was as if someone turned up the sun in the room. “I was hoping to book an excursion with y’all.”
“You’re a tourist, then?” Finn asked.
My heart sank with the implication. I’d jumped the gun, made assumptions. I knew better.
Parker’s gaze flicked to me. “Well, not exactly. I actually am looking to move over here, which will ultimately require a job. But I came in because I’ve been following y’all’s YouTube channel and Instagram, and the trips look so lovely, I wanted to go on one myself.”
“We can certainly help you with that,” Alex confirmed. “But since it got brought up, would you be interested in a job?”
“Definitely interested, but I’d like some more details before I commit to anything.”
She wasn’t saying no. I took a firm grip on the hope that wanted to leap like a rabbit in my chest. Just because she felt like my salvation from having to people didn’t mean she’d take the position.
Again, Alex took the lead. “What we’re really looking for is an office manager. Someone to handle the phones, the filing, and organizational stuff. We have an online booking system, but as you’ve evidently already experienced, there are people who will call instead, and they need to be taken through the options. Hand-held, as it were. There are also equipment rentals to manage.”
“Would that require physical wrangling of the equipment?”
“One of us should always be around to manage that. It’s more the documentation side. Do you have any experience with that kind of thing?”
“Well, I’ve been a virtual assistant for a popular romance author for the past few years. There are a lot of moving parts to her business, and she’d rather someone else handle the details so she can stick to writing. That’s what I do. Handle those boring details, so she can do what she wants to do. I like to organize things, and spreadsheets are my love language. I’m Southern, so I’m morally obligated to be good with people. The phone doesn’t bother me, and I’m the picture of self-restraint when it comes to entitled stuffed-shirt blowhards who have more money than sense.”
This last she directed at me, with a quirk of her mouth that made the corners of her eyes crinkle, as if she were inviting me to laugh with her.
I folded my arms. “He was a total wanker.”
“He was,” she agreed. “Bless his heart.”
My lips twitched. “Is that the polite Southern way of saying ‘fuck him’?”
“It’s a multi-purpose phrase that’s heavily dependent upon context and tone.” She winked. “But if the shoe fits.”
In my inexpert opinion, Parker Lawrence seemed like a fantastic fit for our needs. But that might simply be my abject desire to never have to answer a phone again. “Is this all something you’d be interested in?”
Please say yes.
“Well, it’s kind of tough to say. Probably. But there are things like pay rates and work visas and I don’t know what-all kinds of details. I literally just got to town today, and I wasn’t prepared for any of this.”
Neither was I.
“Are you looking for temporary work for a few months or something longer term?” Alex asked.
That was something I hadn’t considered. That she could intend to work her way across the country. It was something I’d have expected of someone younger, closer to university age. But I pegged Parker closer to late twenties. Was I off in my estimation? Or was she simply doing things in her own time?
Something clouded those big brown eyes. “I have six months to see if I can make this work, and I don’t want to be going back to the States at the end of it. In the end, I’d like to settle somewhere.”
What was in the US that she didn’t want to go back to? A life she didn’t like? A problematic partner? An unsupportive family? What made a woman like her up and decide to move across the world?
“What if we do a trial period of, say, two weeks?” Finn suggested. “That should be ample time to see if we all suit, if you like the area, and if you even like the job before we pursue the more complicated matter of getting you a work visa and such, if you decide to stay. And while you’re here, we can take you on the excursion of your choice.”
“That sounds very fair and reasonable. I appreciate the opportunity, gentlemen.”
As my business partners began to hash out the details, I let out a long, slow breath. She was staying, at least for a little while. She’d be taking over almost all the shite about the business that I hated, and if she was as good as I suspected she’d be, maybe I’d never have to answer a phone again. That might be a bit of a pipe dream, but finding her felt like the first real win I’d had in a very, very long time.
I’d take it.