8. Chain Of Events
CHAIN OF EVENTS
“ I ’ve got it,” Phoebe said when the bill was placed down an hour later.
Elias reached for it just as quickly and she slapped his hand and then was appalled she’d done it.
He dropped his hand away as if it actually hurt when she knew it didn’t.
“Now you’re worse than my mother doing that.”
“You talk about your mother and siblings so fondly,” she said. “Fifth Kid Brewing. I’m assuming you’re the fifth kid?”
“I am,” he said. “Out of eight.”
“Good lord,” she said. “Your parents had to be busy. I’m the baby of three. You know Ben. I’ve got a brother, Matt, between us. He’s an attorney at the family firm too.”
“Can I confess that when I formally met Ben earlier today and heard his last name, it reminded me of you, but Kelly is a common enough last name.”
“It is,” she admitted. “Just like Carlisle is, but I doubt everyone thinks you’re related to the billionaire.”
“They don’t think it,” he said seriously. “They know it or find out soon enough.”
Her smile dropped. “No,” she whispered. She leaned in. “West is your brother?”
Elias laughed. “You don’t have to whisper. It’s big news in this area. You would have heard it soon enough, if not from the locals then from your brother, I’m positive. Yes. He’s the oldest of the eight of us.”
She pulled her credit card out and put it in the billfold without even looking at the bill. She didn’t care what it said.
It’s not as if she was hurting for money. She knew he wasn’t either.
First by the fact he owned Fifth Kid Brewing, but more knowing who his older brother was.
Talk about putting her foot in her mouth since the minute she ran into Elias.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I had no idea. I’m still learning things about this area and am lucky I found a restaurant to eat at tonight.”
“It’s easy to find on the main street,” he said, laughing. “But I get it. And I appreciate you didn’t know who I was. Trust me when I tell you, that’s the reason most want to get to know me.”
“You mean rather than buying you off with a meal so they don’t have to fix a scratch on your truck?”
He smiled and his eyes crinkled up some. She didn’t know his age, but she was positive with a bit of research she could find out many things about him.
She was good at research and would admit that she did it often when she was interested in a guy.
This almost didn’t feel right to her though.
“There you go,” he said.
She handed over the billfold with her credit card. “This was nice,” she said. “I can’t tell you the last time I sat and had dinner with another person who wasn’t work related and I didn’t have to be on my game the whole time.”
“I don’t normally have that problem,” he said. “Even business meetings, we aren’t a formal breed.”
“That’s a nice thought,” she said. “I’m always formal. Kind of have to be.”
“Unless it’s a snowstorm,” he said.
“I’ll give you that,” she said, smiling.
Her credit card came back and she glanced at the amount, added a nice tip, signed, and returned her card to her wallet.
“Since you were so relaxed and all, how about we do this again? Maybe have it planned out better than you stealing my parking spot?”
“I think I might like that,” she said. “But don’t feel obligated or anything.”
“When it comes to a woman, the last thing I feel is obligated. My mother would kick my butt.”
She wasn’t sure what he meant by that. She wanted to think it wasn’t anything bad but wasn’t positive either.
“I’m glad it worked out the way it did,” she said. “You’ve got my card and know how to reach me.”
“And you know where I work and can reach me too,” he said.
“Are we going to leave it like this?” she asked, standing up.
She’d lowered her voice. “You’re going to make me call your business and ask to be put through?
They’d want to know why since you’re the owner and all and probably don’t take calls from many.
I’ll have to say I’m an attorney. You know, throw my weight around. ”
“You’re good,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows. “I bet you go into the courtroom and throw them off with that sweet smile of yours.”
“No one thinks I’m sweet,” she said. “They think I’m cold.”
“That’s funny,” he said. “I don’t see that. Or I haven’t seen that of you.”
They were walking out together. “You need to get your food.”
“Shit,” he said. “I forgot. Give me your phone.”
“What?” she asked. “Why do you want my phone?”
“So I can put my cell phone number in it,” he said. “I don’t make a habit of carrying business cards around with me and the ones I’ve got don’t have my personal number on them.”
“Got it,” she said, fishing her phone out of her purse, putting it toward her face to unlock, and then handing it over.
“I just sent myself a text and put my name in the message.”
“Smart,” she said. “And fast.”
“Got to be efficient in life. I’m positive you know a thing or two about that.”
Phoebe walked to her car while he went back in to get his original food order and she drove home.
The minute she was in the house, she wanted to pull her laptop out and research Elias but told herself not to.
A little surprise was a good thing.
And for all she knew, they might not even go on another date.
Who was going to make the next move? She didn’t want to do it and should have kept her mouth shut because now she had his personal information and he might expect her to do it.
She went to her room and changed out of her pants and sweater.
Not having to go to court, she dressed down some in the office.
When she noticed it was seven, she figured her brother would be home by now and she’d call him.
He should know that she had dinner with Elias. Not that she felt this was going to be a conflict, but transparency was something she’d lived by.
Unlike her grandfather.
She was damn well not going to be anything like him or what he thought of when it came to a woman.
She wished those thoughts and opinions could be as dead as her grandfather, but sometimes it was just so hard.
Once she was sitting on the couch, she picked her phone up. She saw the text that was sent to Elias and updated his contact information.
She almost put “guy in the truck” and then stopped herself. That would be stupid.
No, it would be funny and one thing she did little in her life, personal or professional, was something funny.
She went with her first instinct and added it under his contact information.
Then she called her brother.
“Hey, Phoebe,” Ben said. “Couldn’t get enough of me today?”
“It was great seeing you,” she said. “And a surprise. Got a minute to talk?”
“Always for you,” he said. “Eve is still working. I’m going to start dinner the minute she sends me a text. She was out of town doing some audit or something and got held up.”
Her future sister-in-law was a CPA for some big firm in Charlotte not that far from Fierce Brewing. Eve’s sister, Hope, was married to Mason’s cousin Devin. Both of them worked at the brewery too.
“I won’t take up too much of your time,” she said. “Just wanted to tell you what a small world, or more like a small town, Southern Pines is.”
“I noticed that myself,” Ben said. “Not sure how you’re going to handle that. Matt joked about you and your sushi, but I don’t think there was anywhere for you to get coffee on the way in either.”
“Only fast food type places,” she said. “Which is why Matt gave me that espresso machine that I’ve been using. But that isn’t what I meant by my comment. I hadn’t realized it at the time who Elias was when you mentioned his name.”
“The owner of Fifth Kid Brewing,” Ben said.
“Yeah. But I mean, I ran into him a few times already in town.”
“You have?” Ben asked.
She had to weigh her words on how she said this. She decided to be honest with her oldest brother. He’d get a kick out of her running into Elias on a snow day.
“Well,” she said. “It started on Wednesday. An ironic chain of events.”
“You know I have to hear this,” Ben said.
She told him about it all and listened to his laughter.
“It ended with dinner tonight. I still didn’t know who he was. We were talking about where I was from and I said Charlotte and Kelly Law Firm.”
“And he put it together with me,” Ben said.
“He did. Right away, he said he’d met with you and Mason today. I told him I’d be calling you. I still made a fool out of myself when he said our last name was common and I said his was too, that most probably don’t think of the billionaire.” Ben was roaring with laughter.
“He admitted that was his brother, right?” Ben asked.
“He did. I felt bad. Anyway, we had dinner and then left.”
“Are you going to have dinner with him again?” Ben asked.
“Maybe,” she said. “I don’t know. It was an impromptu thing. I’m busy. I know he is.”
“Extremely,” Ben said. “But if you do go on another date with him, I don’t have a problem with it.”
She clenched her jaw. She didn’t need his permission or approval. “I don’t even know if it was a date tonight.”
“Had all the elements of it to me,” Ben said.
Except a kiss, but she wouldn’t admit that popped into her head to anyone.
She didn’t even want to admit it to herself.