Home On The Ranch

“The local tourist bureau is compiling a list of all the artists and craftspeople in the area and is going to create a trail with a map so tourists can go from one to the next shopping for handmade items and original art.”

“Sounds like a good way to bring in more tourist dollars.”

He tried to picture Ella sitting in a little metal toolshed with the name of her business painted on the outside. For some reason, he didn’t like the image. She seemed like a hard worker, a go-getter, someone who believed wholeheartedly in what she was doing. Someone like that deserved a better public presence than a place you’d normally store garden tools and lawn mowers.

“If you’d like me to look at a business plan or your work flow plan, let me know.”

She stopped with her glass halfway to her mouth. “You’d do that?”

“Yeah. Why do you seem so surprised?”

“Because quite honestly I’m surprised you stopped progress on getting the house ready to sell long enough to come eat, let alone look at the business plan of someone you’ve known barely more than two seconds.”

“It’s something I can do easily when I go back to the hotel at night.” It was certainly a better use of his time than staring at the ceiling imagining Ella lying in bed next to him. At that thought he had to shift in the booth to make himself less uncomfortable. Thank goodness the table hid what those kinds of thoughts did to him.

“I’ll think about it. Thank you for the offer.”

“That wasn’t meant to say you don’t know how to run your business.”

She flipped her hand as if to wave away his concern that he’d insulted her.

“Just a little intimidating. I mean, I’m not exactly running a big corporation here.”

“Every company starts small.” True enough, but a lot of them failed, too. Ella seemed to believe in her business so much, it’d be a shame if hers failed because of lack of proper planning. Sure, he didn’t understand her business, but all businesses came down to numbers. And numbers and logistics he understood.