13. Off The Hook
OFF THE HOOK
“ A re you starting tomorrow, Talia?” Elias asked his baby sister on Sunday.
He was at the brewery again, just like most days.
Maybe he needed to get a life. He was trying.
Trying pretty damn hard and hoped Phoebe felt the same way after their two dates.
With her hands clinging to his arms as his lips slanted over hers yesterday, he hoped she was smart enough to figure it out.
“I’ll be there around nine,” Talia said.
He stopped the roll from his eyes. His office opened at eight. It wasn’t his problem she had an hour's drive.
He was going to give her the benefit of the doubt and let her try to learn a few things, but she would not come in and be lazy either.
“What is your plan?” he asked. “Do you have one?”
“I thought I could work three days a week,” Talia said. “I don’t want to drive an hour daily. Mom said I could stay with you, but I doubt you want me there.”
Now that he was chasing a woman, he didn’t want her around. But he’d never tell his family no.
“You’re more than welcome. If you want to work Tuesday through Thursday and stay Tuesday and Wednesday night, you can. I’m barely home anyway.”
“We’ll play it by ear,” Talia said. “I might get a call for another placement.”
“What is Mom saying in the background?”
“Here,” Talia said. “You talk to her.”
He figured talking with his sister would result in a conversation with his mother too.
“Hi, Mom,” he said. “What’s going on?”
“I told your sister she is not to use you and your business as a fallback when she isn’t doing something else. She knows better.”
He was glad to have his mother in his corner.
“It will be a conversation I’ll be having with her, don’t worry.”
“Good,” his mother said.
“Let it go,” he said. “I’ll find out more and what she is hoping to accomplish coming here. I’ll clarify that, though I need help, coming in and out of the office isn’t helpful if people have to train her and she doesn’t stick. Unless she does customer service.”
“Put her on the lines filling orders,” his mother said, laughing. “Or better yet, delivering the beer to the vehicles.”
He heard Talia shout no in the background.
He laughed. “She’s going to see how it’s done,” he said. “It’s part of the process to understand everything.”
“She won’t think that,” his mother said.
“Not my problem,” he said.
“What’s new with you?” his mother asked. “Something other than new brews or work.”
That was pretty much all he ever reported back to her.
Did he say he had two dates?
Nah. Not going there with her.
It might not turn into anything more.
But he wanted it to.
They both had very demanding careers. Businesses to run.
Wanting something didn’t mean it was going to actually happen though.
“Not much,” he lied. “Same old, same old.”
“You’re lucky some of my other kids are settling down that you’re off the hook.”
“Gee,” he said. “Thanks. You’re busy with Laken’s wedding and I’m sure you’ll be talking to Charlotte soon enough on theirs.”
“I’ll give Charlotte and Foster some time yet to figure that out. But I’ll be flying to New York soon. We’ve got Laken’s shower in a few weeks. She says she has it covered, but you know I’ll want to put my touch on it. Talia will have to fly there too.”
“I know,” he said.
“You’re at work right now, aren’t you?” his mother asked.
“Did you expect me to not be?” he asked.
“If you had much of a life then you wouldn’t always be working.”
“How long does it take for a record to go from being scratched to breaking so I don’t have to hear it anymore? Records were your generation, right?”
“Don’t be a wise guy,” his mother said, laughing.
“It’s a serious question,” he said. He was positive she knew he was smirking.
“Bye, Elias,” his mother said and hung up.
He’d gotten good at that.
When he noticed the time on his phone, he did one more walk-through of the plant and left. No reason to stay other than being home was lonely.
He drove by the police station and twisted his head when he noticed the black Mercedes and the woman he was locking lips with last night talking to a young woman, then the two of them getting in their cars.
He was still sitting at the light when she pulled into the road. She noticed him and waved.
He smiled and waved back.
She picked her phone up and pointed to it.
He did the same and lifted his hands in a shrug, then pointed to her.
Her head went back in a laugh and then his phone rang in his truck.
He hit the button.
“Wow,” he said. “You understood what I was saying.”
“My turn,” she said. “Got it.”
He’d never been with anyone who understood when he did things like that.
Hell, even his siblings didn’t get him half the time.
“Yep,” he said. “Your turn. Can I ask what you were doing at the jail? Or you can’t tell me, huh?”
“A misunderstanding and charges dropped,” she said.
“You’re growling,” he said. “I wish I could see it.”
But the light had turned green and he turned to head home and she was going straight to her place. Not that he’d seen it or knew exactly where she lived, but they were heading in opposite directions.
“No,” she said. “You don’t want to see it. Let’s say a young officer who was provided proof of what was going on refused to believe it. He was overzealous to get an arrest and he’s lucky that we aren’t going after him.”
“Oh boy,” he said. “Not to tell you how to do your job or anything.”
“I know,” she said. “Small towns. I didn’t say that to the officer, but I sure the hell wanted to. My client was young and scared. I’m just glad that she found my name and called.”
“On a Sunday?” he asked.
“We’ve got a hotline,” she said. “I didn’t expect it to be used much around here.”
“Guess you’re going to find otherwise,” he said. “Glad it worked out.”
“It did,” she said. “Is it a safe bet to say you’re working today?”
“I’m not working now,” he said. “On my way home.”
“I hadn’t planned on working,” she said.
“Doing laundry?” he asked.
“Nope,” she said. “I got it finished yesterday. I was channel surfing and telling myself it’s okay to take a day off. That I don’t need to always work. I know things are going to get busier and that I should take advantage of it now.”
“Good for you,” he said.
“Is that sarcasm?” she asked.
“No,” he said. “Just saying it's good you recognized it. I had the pleasure of talking to my mother earlier. Actually my sister to find out when she was coming tomorrow. Then my mother got on the phone. I asked her when the record was going to break on the get-a-life lecture.”
She laughed. “I talked to my mother today too. We had a different conversation. Seems Ben ratted me out on the date.”
Since she was laughing he would not take offense to it. “What did Ben say?”
“Not much at all. My mother would get the information from me.”
“So you told her about me?”
He was surprised. He hadn’t done the same with his mother after just two dates.
“I did,” she said. “She wanted to know how we met. I made her swear not to tell my brother Matt. He won’t let me live it down that I tapped your bumper.”
“I barely felt it,” he said. “Can I confess something?”
“Sure,” she said.
“I didn’t feel you hit my bumper. I heard swearing and looked in my side mirror and saw your car sideways.”
“You didn’t hear me swearing,” she said, laughing. “You’re making that up.”
“I believe I heard, shit, shit, shit. Very loudly.” There was silence. “Are you there, Phoebe?”
“I’m so embarrassed,” she said. Her laughter stopped at this point.
But he burst out in the joyous noise. “Don’t be. If I hadn’t heard it, I might not have looked and seen you. I’m not complaining about that.”
“That’s nice to know. But it leads me to believe you might be complaining about something else?”
“Nope,” he said. “I’m pretty laid back.”
No way he was going to admit he’d love nothing more than to see her again.
Get his mouth on hers.
His arms wrapping around her body.
Yeah, if he said that she’d think he was one of these guys that had to be with someone nonstop.
Since he couldn’t stand that from a woman, he wasn’t going to be the one to give that indication.
“I’m not laid back,” she said. “I should say that. My mother said many people say I’m snobby.”
“I don’t think you are,” he said. “Why would they?”
“Maybe because in Charlotte I’m different. Not on purpose. Just could be more of who I’m around or what is available to me.”
“Sushi,” he said. “You’re not going to find it here.”
“I’m just as happy with oven-baked burgers,” she said.
He smiled when she said that.
Since she devoured it and cleaned her plate, he didn’t think she was lying.
“Glad to hear it,” he said. “I’ve eaten some fancy fare. Hard not to with West as my brother. It’s normally when I’m visiting him.”
“Do you go to New York often?” she asked.
“Not really,” he said. “I have to go to my sister Laken’s wedding in March.”
“March what?” she asked. “Ben is getting married in March.”
“Laken and Jamie are getting married March fourteenth,” he said.
“Ben is getting married on the twenty-eighth,” she said.
“Imagine that,” he said, tongue in cheek.
“You’re humoring me, aren’t you?”
“Maybe,” he said. “Problem with it?”
“Nope,” she said. “I’m not stuffy or anything. I know people think I’m cold too.”
“I don’t see that either,” he said. “You’ve got a lot of labels for yourself. You need to stop that.”
“I didn’t realize it,” she said. “I don’t give them to myself. Other people do.”
“Then other people can shove it,” he said. “That’s what I say.”
She snorted. “I like your attitude. Did you get home yet?” she asked. “I just pulled into my apartment.”
“I’m close,” he said. “And you need to go and finish up with whatever you were dealing with at the jail.”
“I do,” she said. “Then I’m going to put some mindless TV on while I search for dinner.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to offer to bring dinner to her, but he needed to slow down.
Three dates in a row, three days in a row, wasn’t something he’d ever done before.
“Sounds like you’ll be doing the same as me.”
“You’ve got a lot of yummy burgers left,” she said.
“I do,” he said. “I’ll most likely have that.”
“Enjoy your night,” she said.
“You too,” he said. He debated for about a minute. “Maybe I’ll see you again this week.”
“I’d like that,” she said. “We’ll try to get our schedules to mesh.”
“Now that sounded way too businesslike for me,” he said, rolling his eyes.
She laughed. “That would be an example of snobbishness.”
“Maybe a little,” he said. “But it’s fine. We’ll work something out.”
“I’m sure you’re going to make it happen,” she said. “Something tells me that’s the type of man you are.”
“Compliment or insult?” he asked.
“Totally a compliment. Because I’m the same way.”
“I believe that might have been a challenge issued,” he said. If he flipped the visor down to look in the mirror he’d be smiling bigger than his mother when his father used to return home.
“Night, Elias.”
She hung up, laughing, and left him sitting in his garage that he’d just pulled into.
Damn. He might have just found his match.