Page 55 of This Christmas
The store is also clean, reorganized for a better shopping experience, and we’ve added a gift section, as well as a meat butcher. Now hunters can bring their game here to have it butchered and wrapped—saving our neighbors time and money.
All in all, everything is on the upswing and my dadcouldn’t be happier. Evangeline tells me he’s lost ten years, in a good way. That my return is giving my dad life again.
“What about if I hire them for part-time work?”
“Whatever you want,” I tell him. “Honestly, they might like it. I know I loved working in the mornings so I could go to the lake in the afternoon.”
Dad nods and steps around me to help a customer. The next remodel is going to be the cashier space. Right now, it’s a small space and if someone has more than five things, they have to stack them or wait for my dad to bag the items. He then has to carry the bag around the front because of the lack of space. We’re going to put in a new register space, giving staff more room.
“I’ll see you later,” I tell him as I take the bottle of wine and head toward the door. My next stop is the new Italian restaurant that opened two months ago. Da Vinci’s, yes named after the man himself, has been a popular go-to for Eve and me. We eat here at least twice a week, with one being take out.
“Good evening, Mr. Whitaker,” the young woman greets me at the door. “Here’s your order.”
“Thank you.” I sign the slip saying I’ve picked my order up and take the bag. Right away, my stomach growls. The aroma of marinara, basil, and roasted tomatoes drifts from the bag. I’m thankful the office and apartment are a few blocks away. I’d walk, but then I’d have to come back for my car later.
My car is new as well. When I was in New York, I didn’t have one. Didn’t need one. Once I decided tostay, buying one was at the top of my list. I didn’t want to leave my dad without transportation, and I couldn’t keep paying the rental fee. Once Caryn admitted to setting everything up, I wanted to get as far away from her devious hand as I could. This meant getting rid of the rental. I went with an economical Honda SUV Hybrid. I like it but love the gas mileage better.
I park next to Eve’s car and take the bottle of wine and dinner to the apartment, and then come back to the car to get my work files. Inside the office, I stop at Noelle’s desk and hand her the stack of files, letting her know about the new deeds to be filed at the clerk’s office in each town. She loves having out of town clients because it gets her out of the office every now and again.
“I’ll take care of them.”
“Thanks. Is Evangeline in?” I assume she is because she didn’t text me that she had to go anywhere, but I also don’t want to assume she’s not with a client or something.
“She’s in the conference room.”
I give her a smile and then head toward my office to drop my stuff off. Noelle’s really good about taking detailed messages and sending them to our emails. Thankfully, I don’t have to spend hours listening to voicemail. Evangeline was lucky when Noelle came into her life. I’m not sure we’d function as well as we do without her. Which is why I’m pushing Eve to promote Noelle to paralegal and hire another receptionist. Noelle’s more than earned it.
At the conference room door, I rap my knuckles on the doorjamb and lean in. “Okay to come in?”
Evangeline looks up and nods. “How’d the closing go?”
I go to her and pull her chair away from the table and capture her lips with mine. “I missed you.”
Evangeline smiles. “I missed you too.”
Walking to the other side of the table, I sit down and stretch my legs out. “The closing went well. I was a little nervous when I got over there, and the seller still had some things in the house. My client wasn’t happy. We gave them an hour.”
“Everything else go okay with it being a remote signing?”
I nod. “I’m not going to do them anymore or at least not without a bigger fee. Noelle’s good at her job but things can change on the fly, and I need to be able to print changes. The mobile printer isn’t as efficient.”
“Makes sense. We have the space here, might as well use it.”
My eyes travel to the mess she has spread out on the table. “What’s all this?”
“Medical records of a potential client in Adams. A wife believes her husband got cancer because of their water. She says it’s contaminated.”
Evangeline hands me a sheet of paper which looks like water testing. “What am I looking at?”
“PFAS levels are off the charts.”
“I don’t remember much from environmental law, but I’m assuming these are bad.”
“Very. She says there are others in her area who have died. She’s going to set up a meeting so we can all talk.”
“This will end up being a class action lawsuit. Are you trying to become Erin Brockovich?”
Evangeline smiles. “If it helps people, why not.”