Page 22 of Love Is Brewing

“Guess we can start with that,” she said. “Charlotte.”

“And you wanted to come here and open a practice over a big city?”

“My family has a big practice in Charlotte. Kelly Law. I’m opening their first satellite office. Or getting it set up. We’ll see how it goes and if I stay.”

Not what he wanted to hear.

In a small area like this, it was hard to find a woman who didn’t know who he was and wasn’t looking for some free ride.

She seemed to not know anything about him.

He kind of liked it that way, but he wouldn’t play it up either as some of his brothers had done in the past.

It wasn’t his way.

“How long are you willing to try it?” he asked.

“At least a year,” she said. “Maybe two. It takes time to get my name out there with people in the town. I’m used to my firm carrying a lot of weight. But I’m here to do this on my own.”

“I’ve heard of Kelly Law,” he said. “Seen the commercials, now that you say it.”

Which just hit him, Ben made a comment about stopping to see his sister when they left and he knew Ben’s family were attorneys.

Was it that small of a world that Phoebe could be Ben’s sister?

Guess he was going to find out because he wouldn’t sit on that information.

There wouldn’t be any reason for him to do it.

“That always happens,” she said, frowning.

“Hi, I’m Melanie. I’ll be your server tonight. Can I start you out with a drink?”

“I’ll take a seltzer with lime if you’ve got it,” she said.

Melanie looked at him. He normally only drank his own beer, which wasn’t served here. There was Fierce beer on the menu. “I’ll take Fierce Five,” he said.

He and Mason found it funny that Elias’s brewery was named Fifth Kid and Mason’s flagship beer was Fierce Five—what the Fierce quintuplets had been referred to most of their life.

“My brother brews that,” she said.

Which answered his question and gave him the opening he needed. “I just talked to your brother and Mason earlier today.”

“What?” she asked, sitting up straighter. “Oh my God. Elias from Fifth Kid or something like that?”

He wouldn’t take offense to the fact she didn’treallyknow the name of his business.

“Elias Carlisle,” he said, putting his hand out to formally shake hers. “Owner of Fifth Kid Brewing.”

She shook his hand, the heat of their palms setting off a firestorm up his arm.

He wasn’t sure he’d ever felt that with a simple handshake in his life.

“Phoebe Kelly, attorney at law, trying to operate a satellite office on her own without her parents watching her every move.”

The minute those words were out of her mouth, she rolled her eyes as if she regretted saying it.

He’d bet she was someone who knew everything she was going to say at all times.

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