4. Make Nice
MAKE NICE
“ H ere you go, Elias. I don’t get to see you in here often.”
Phoebe was waiting in line at the post office on Friday morning. It’d just opened and she hoped that she’d get in line first, but she wasn’t so lucky.
“Had to come put my John Hancock down on something personally,” he said.
Really, the town was small enough that it’d be her luck that not only was the person in line ahead of her an early bird, but he had a lot of mail and a few things to sign for.
“I’m always happy to see your smiling face,” the worker said. “Mandy is going to be so upset she missed you. Her loss and my gain.”
The guy called Elias, that the postal worker obviously knew, handed over a piece of paper and the young woman at the desk took it and went to the back to get it.
The man turned to look behind him and Phoebe realized it was the guy who was in the truck that she’d slid into a few days ago.
She could stop referring to him as ‘the man in the truck’ now that she heard his name.
“Hey,” he said. “Phoebe, right? We meet again.”
“We do,” she said. “Funny how that has happened again.”
“Small towns,” he said, smirking. “It will happen more than you realize.”
“Guess they know you here,” she said.
And it explained why the worker was flirting with Elias. In the building’s bright lighting, she noticed his rough handsomeness, a type that had never attracted her before.
Holy cow.
No hat on his head this time. He had some dark brown hair that was a bit messed up by either the wind or his fingers.
His eyes were ice blue in color and were appraising her as she was appraising him.
There seemed to be some humor in them now. “I’m pretty well known,” he said dryly.
She didn’t know how to take that and didn’t have a chance to think much of it before the postal worker returned with a big envelope.
“Just sign here, Elias. Not sure why they didn’t deliver it to the business rather than your house.”
“No clue,” he said, signing his name and looking over the envelope, then frowning at it and snorting with a shake of his head.
“Anytime we can get you in here, I’m not complaining,” the worker said, letting out an annoying little giggle.
Elias nodded but didn’t say another word, then turned and winked at Phoebe.
Like it was some private joke she knew nothing about and hated to be on the outside.
He was right, small town nonsense she was unfamiliar with and wanted no part of.
In Charlotte, there were multiple post offices and if you went into one, the chances of running into someone you knew unless you were famous, in the news, or on TV were slim. Even then, people knew you but you didn’t necessarily know them.
Not here it seemed.
“Can I help you?” the woman said. She had a nametag on that said Janey.
“I need to send this certified mail,” she said. She would have sent Sophie to do this, but her secretary called in sick this morning.
Since Sophie had been sneezing and coughing in the office all day yesterday, she happily told her to stay home the rest of the week.
The last thing she wanted was to deal with being out of the office when she was the only one doing the bulk of the work.
“Sure thing,” Janey said. “So glad I got to start my morning with the sight of Elias.”
She cleared her throat. It wasn’t very professional of Janey to be saying that.
Didn’t seem like there was anyone around who cared all that much and she needed to not be such a stick in the mud about it.
Other than she didn’t want her name included in frivolous talk.
“He appeared friendly,” she said. What more was she going to say?
Admit that he was drool-worthy and she might have had to make sure her jaw was closed and nothing was dribbling out of it when he’d winked at her?
Yeah, that wasn’t going to ever happen!
“Oh, he is,” Janey said, her shoulders doing a little wiggle. “We don’t see him often in here anymore. Or not as much as I’d wish.”
Phoebe nodded her head like Elias had done. She wasn’t in here to chat or listen to gossip, but just wanted to get this taken care of and go about her boring day.
Getting this letter out for Bill would be the start of what she hoped was an easy win for her client.
But if there was one thing she’d learned in her career, it was that nothing was guaranteed. Though this one could be pretty fast and simple.
Janey processed her mail, swiped her card to pay. Phoebe took her receipt and then went to leave.
“So you work at the new law firm that opened up?” Janey asked.
“It’s my firm,” she said. “I’m Phoebe Kelly.”
Might as well make nice with the people that would take care of her mail. Not that she’d be in here often. But if they wanted to mention her business, she didn’t have a problem with that, as long as it was professional.
“Nice to meet you,” Janey said. “I like to know who everyone is. It’s pretty easy in a small area like this.”
“So I’m noticing,” she said with a brief smile. “You’ll probably see one or more of my staff in here rather than me, but today I was the lucky one.”
“Do you have any cards?” Janey said.
“Excuse me?” she asked. Her purse was on her shoulder as she was turning to walk away.
“Business cards?” Janey said. “You have no idea how many times people come in here looking for information on businesses. They know I know so much.”
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes over that statement. No reason not to hand over a card. The last thing she wanted was talk that she was some snotty stuck-up bitch.
“Sure,” she said, pulling her purse open and taking a few out. “Here you go. I appreciate it.”
“Thanks,” Janey said. “I’ve got a drawer that is sorted by services.”
“Sounds pretty organized to me,” she said.
“I like to be,” Janey said. “Keeps me entertained when there isn’t a lot going on. With the holidays over, it’s going to be slow for a bit until tax season.”
Phoebe laughed. How could she not over something like that?
Nor the fact that she was pretty sure Janey would be more than thrilled to extend their conversation.
“Have a great day,” she said and turned to leave.
She walked into her office a few minutes later.
“Sorry I was on the phone,” Ellen said. “I would have taken care of that for you.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I need to figure out where everything is and get out some in the area. Got to be seen.”
“You’re not going to get lost unless you take back roads to the farms or golf courses.”
“I don’t plan on doing that anytime soon,” she said. Unless she had to for a work reason.
She wanted to laugh when she thought of crazy possible reasons she’d have to go out for business.
Getting hit in the head by a stray golf ball.
A kick from a horse.
She wouldn’t laugh out loud over that.
It reminded her of what the guy in the truck...no, no, Elias said to her. Asked if she was an ambulance chaser.
No, she wasn’t. She’d never be one.
And when she thought of things like stray golf balls and donkey kicks from a horse, it was with laughter and then the idea of it, no, thank you.
“I’m with you,” Ellen said. “My daughter, she wanted to learn to ride a horse. Begged for years when she was younger.”
Ellen didn’t look that old to her. “How old is your daughter?”
Might be nice to get to know her staff a bit more. Didn’t want to appear cold.
That was one thing she knew she had to work on here that she could get away with in Charlotte in a bigger office. Keeping to herself never got her labeled much before. Here, it could be a worry.
“She’s sixteen now,” Ellen said. “Her name is Maddie. I’ve got a son, Marcus. He’s eighteen and graduating this year.”
“That’s nice,” she said.
“My husband and I finally caved and paid for horseback lessons for Maddie. Brought her out to the farm and she got close to the horse and burst into tears on us. Said she didn’t realize the horse would be that big close up and she said no way, not doing it.”
“Oh,” Phoebe said, laughing. “That’s a bummer.”
“It was. The farm was nice enough to refund us the money. My daughter learned to make sure she didn’t ask us for anything again unless she did her research,” Ellen said, shaking her head.
“We could have just gone for a visit and she’d have known her reaction rather than spending months begging for something one of her friends had. ”
“Ahhh,” she said. “It’s always that way. How old was your daughter at that time?”
“Ten. Thankfully she’s not into golf either. Marcus is, but he can do that with his father. Not my thing any more than horseback riding.”
“I’m right there with you,” she said.
“Well,” Ellen said. “Unless you like to drink beer, there isn’t much to do around here either.”
She didn’t know what that comment was about and was too busy to ask or volunteer that her brother was a brewmaster for the biggest brewery in North Carolina.
It’d be a sin to not like or at least drink beer.
She liked it, and drank it, but not a ton.
“I don’t have a lot of free time at this point anyway,” she said and walked back to her office.
She had to stop saying that too or she was going to end up single for another ten years.
Except, she had to be successful first, then she could focus on a man or a relationship.
If she could figure out what that even meant to her.