Page 13 of Love Is Brewing

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 asI’dwish.”

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.

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