Page 14 of Love Is Brewing

“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.”

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