Page 12 of Love Is Brewing

He pulled out a piece of paper showing all of his health issues, how little he missed work for them, but that his employers were fully aware of them and had made comments in passing that they hoped he never passed out at work if his sugar was low or had a seizure if he forgot to take his meds.

She was shaking her head. “They said those things to me,” Bill said. “There are witnesses.”

“Well,” she said. “Let’s see what we can do for you.”

“You’re going to take it?” Bill asked. “We haven’t even talked about how much this is going to cost me.”

“Nothing unless you get a settlement,” she said. “And that is what we are going to try for.”

She hoped to hell her father didn’t slap her hand over that, but she was positive this was going to pay for Bill and her as her first win on her own.

And she was going to get it fast to give her the ego boost she desperately needed.

4

MAKE NICE

“Here you go, Elias. I don’t get to see you in here often.”

Phoebe was waiting in line at the post office on Friday morning. It’d just opened and she hoped that she’d get in line first, but she wasn’t so lucky.

“Had to come put my John Hancock down on something personally,” he said.

Really, the town was small enough that it’d be her luck that not only was the person in line ahead of her an early bird, but he had a lot of mail and a few things to sign for.

“I’m always happy to see your smiling face,” the worker said. “Mandy is going to be so upset she missed you. Her loss and my gain.”

The guy called Elias, that the postal worker obviously knew, handed over a piece of paper and the young woman at the desk took it and went to the back to get it.

The man turned to look behind him and Phoebe realized it was the guy who was in the truck that she’d slid into a few days ago.

She could stop referring to him as ‘the man in the truck’ now that she heard his name.

“Hey,” he said. “Phoebe, right? We meet again.”

“We do,” she said. “Funny how that has happened again.”

“Small towns,” he said, smirking. “It will happen more than you realize.”

“Guess they know you here,” she said.

And it explained why the worker was flirting with Elias. In the building’s bright lighting, she noticed his rough handsomeness, a type that had never attracted her before.

Holy cow.

No hat on his head this time. He had some dark brown hair that was a bit messed up by either the wind or his fingers.

His eyes were ice blue in color and were appraising her as she was appraising him.

There seemed to be some humor in them now. “I’m pretty well known,” he said dryly.

She didn’t know how to take that and didn’t have a chance to think much of it before the postal worker returned with a big envelope.

“Just sign here, Elias. Not sure why they didn’t deliver it to the business rather than your house.”

“No clue,” he said, signing his name and looking over the envelope, then frowning at it and snorting with a shake of his head.

“Anytime we can get you in here, I’m not complaining,” the worker said, letting out an annoying little giggle.

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