Chapter 16
Sixteen
Be the woman you needed when you were a little girl.
—Birdee’s motivational pep talk to herself
Birdee
“Hey, there.” My newest boss, Hershel Shepherd, greeted Charleigh and me as we came through the door for our first day of work. “Early. I like it. Y’all ready to fill out paperwork?”
Charleigh and I both nodded, and Mr. Shepherd guided us toward HR, which was just a woman in a corner office off the main room, with a brilliant smile.
“Thanks, Hershel.” The woman waved him away. “I have it from here. When I’m done with them, I’ll take them where they need to go.”
Hershel winked and disappeared without having to be told twice.
“Close the door, please?” the woman asked.
I did, and took the seat next to Charleigh when she gestured for me to.
“I got your insurance paperwork last week, and it’s already up and running.
They said that you’ll have your insurance cards within the next week or so.
It’ll be sent directly to your house,” the woman said.
“Oh, and by the way, I’m Nicole. And whatever you do, don’t get anywhere near Hershel.
He’s a great guy, but he’s really clumsy and lives with his head in the clouds.
He knows his stuff—this is his company after all, but he’s an accident waiting to happen.
If you see him coming, maybe duck down a hallway and wait for him to pass. ”
My lips twitched at Nicole’s words.
Last week when I’d met with Mr. Shepherd, he’d broken a coffee cup, split open his pants, and caused the food delivery driver bringing in the staff’s lunch to drop every bit of their food on the floor. And that had only been an hour worth of time spent with the man.
“We noticed.” Charleigh chuckled. “We came in at separate times, but when we were comparing our notes afterward, Hershel came up. He did not disappoint.”
She rubbed at her forehead. “When Chris Gates and Hershel Shepherd started this company, I came right along with them from our previous employer. Hershel was bad then, but the older he gets, the worse his attention span drifts. I’m not kidding, y’all.
I have done over four workman’s comp claims because of him since we started.
I promise you, this is a really great place to work.
But the man seriously tries my patience. I can’t wait for Chris to get back.”
I’d told Charleigh all about Chris, and how much I liked him, so she was eager to meet him as well since she’d be working as his assistant and right-hand woman.
She was also assigned partially to me, too, so we’d be sharing her.
“All right, first thing’s first. I’ll print out your papers so you can fill them out, Charleigh.
As for you, Birdee, we’ll just type them in as you tell me what to put down.
It’ll save some paper. I think I need more, and the last person I’m asking to get me a box of computer paper out of storage is Hershel. ”
Five minutes later, Nicole was looking at me expectantly.
“Ummm,” I hesitated.
I mean, it wasn’t a hard question. I did have family I could put down. But did I want any of them to be called in the case of emergency?
I never put one down when I’d taken the job with Stacy.
I had Shade, sure. But Shade didn’t do well with blood, and neither did his mother, Reyelle. They were great people. I loved them to death. But put them in a situation where you had to be calm, cool and collected at a hospital and they unraveled.
Both of them passed out at the sight of blood.
So they weren’t getting put down.
I could put Mable or Cody down, but what would be the point? We were sisters, but we weren’t much more than just in name only. If I put Mable down, it’d be like putting my neighbor, Boone, down.
“Birdee?” Nicole pushed gently.
That’s when I blurted out the name, not thinking at all as I did.
“Creed Daugherty. His number is…”
Nicole clacked away. Meanwhile, Charleigh hissed, “You could’ve put me down. Not the man that yelled at you and called you a bitch.”
Luckily, she’d said it so quietly that Nicole hadn’t heard over her clacking on the keyboard.
I winced. “I could’ve put you, but if it’s a work incident, you’ll be notified anyway, won’t you? What if we’re both incapacitated? Who would we call then?”
Charleigh hadn’t been all that open with her past, but I did know she didn’t have any family.
Her closest friend was me.
Weren’t we just two peas in a pod?
“I guess we know that he’ll take you to the hospital in case of emergency, at least,” she admitted.
He would and he did.
At least there was that.
I rubbed my chest where I still felt the ghost of his touch as he poked me there in anger.
Charleigh caught it and narrowed her eyes.
I stopped and turned back to Nicole, answering all of the questions.
By the time five o’clock rolled around, we were well versed in everything Great Dane Pet Food had to offer. We knew where the assembly lines were. We knew how all of the food was packaged. I’d been shown my lab. Charleigh had been shown her office.
We were both in fairly good moods as we walked out the door. Charleigh with her keys to her car in her hand, and me with the new keys to mine.
“Have a good night, y’all!” Nicole breezed to her car. “See you in the morning, bright and early.”
Nicole roared out of there like her hair was on fire.
Charleigh and I both watched her go for long seconds before turning to each other and having a good laugh.
“I like her,” Charleigh admitted.
“Same,” I concurred as I turned to look at the brand-new Escalade I was expected to drive. “This is insane, right?”
“Insanely cool.” Charleigh walked up to peer into the windows with me by her side. “Are you excited?”
“Nervous,” I admitted. “What if I hurt the car?”
“You won’t,” she promised me. “Unlock this bad boy.”
I did, and we both inhaled deeply. “I love new car smell. Too bad I’ll never know what it feels like.”
I bumped her with my shoulder. “You can ride with me anytime you want to.”
She winked at me before taking a step back. “See you tomorrow at work?”
I stared with a knot of growing nervousness growing like a weed in my belly.
“Of course,” I promised. “Be careful.”
“Always am.” She buffed her nails on her shirt before saying, “Precious cargo.”
I snickered as she blew me a kiss and walked to her car.
I waited for her to get inside and drive off before I got into the Escalade and started it up.
It roared to life with a purring growl, then idled quietly as eight thousand prompts popped up on the screen.
“No seat belt detected.”
I cleared that only for the next one to pop up. “Ice on road.”
I skipped that one, too.
There was always ice on the road.
“Low tire pressure.” It dinged.
I cleared everything, then put my seat belt on and put it into Drive.
The car whirred to life, and I shit you not, it felt like I was entering into the Twilight Zone with the amount of lights and gadgets that filled the space around me.
The drive home was pleasant—I felt like it was kind of hard not to be pleasant seeing as I was in a brand-new car that cost more than most people’s first homes.
“Whoa,” I said as it came to a gliding stop in my driveway. “So smooth.”
Turning the car off, I rounded the corner of my house and stared in dread at the huge back porch.
“Should’ve put a box down or something already,” I grumbled as I walked closer.
I had to take everything off to set on the porch before I was able to heft my ass onto it.
Pulling out my key, I pushed it into the lock and opened it up, taking my usual hard look around to make sure nothing was stolen, or no one was hanging out that shouldn’t be.
Appearing empty, I did a walkthrough just in case, then stripped out of my work clothes and into my comfiest pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.
My next stop was the kitchen as I contemplated a box of ramen and an old container of chicken fried rice.
I’d just put the box of ramen back into the cabinet when a knock sounded at my door.
It only took one look through the sheer curtains of the front door to know exactly who it was.