Page 25 of Fierce-Michael

Nothing that Jolene hadn’t said to her or anyone else over the years in passing. Just conversation.

“He does seem to have it under control,” she said.

“I love some of the new shirts that were just done,” Jolene said. “I told Alex that I want shirts printed for all the kids.”

Kelly smiled. “That would be cute,” she said.

“Yes. I’ve got everyone’s sizes right here,” Jolene said. “But I didn’t want to bug her with it. I don’t like dealing with the customer service people either. Can you take care of this for me?”

“Sure,” she said, reaching for the piece of paper. “Are these for all the family in Durham too?”

There were a ton of names on it. More than the children in Charlotte. “They are,” Jolene said. “Might as well give them shirts with their names on them too.”

“That’s sweet.” There were names, sizes, and colors. Boys were getting red, and girls getting white.

“I thought it’d be a cute surprise for everyone. Something to put in their Easter baskets for next month. I’ll send all the ones to Durham at once for my sisters-in-law to take care of. They put baskets together for all the kids too.”

“This is a lot of baskets,” she said.

“We like to spoil our grandkids,” Jolene said. “Speaking of that, I need to go check in with Ella and pick up Madison and Landon for her today.”

“Bye,” she said and went back to work.

An hour later, Cade popped into her office. “Is my mother sending you on errands again?”

“It’s fine,” Kelly said. “I’ll make a call in a bit and take care of it.”

“If you don’t mind running over there, that would be great,” Cade said. “Alex will have a few things for me and I don’t want her lifting anything. Someone could put it in her car, but she’d do it anyway. I’ve got to run out of town and won’t be back until late.”

“No problem,” she said. “Are they ready now? I can do it and get it over with.”

“Should be,” Cade said. “Thanks.”

It would give her a chance to see Michael again. Maybe.

She grabbed her jacket and purse, walked down the stairs and out the back door.

When she got to Marshall Printing fifteen minutes later, she parked near the door in a visitor spot and walked in.

“Hi, Kelly,” Nancy said. She worked the front desk. “Are you here for Alex?”

“I need to pick something up in her office and then I’ve got an order of shirts that Jolene needs. She didn’t want to call it in and I said I’d take care of it.”

“Give it to me,” Nancy said. “I’ll do it.”

She handed the paper over. “I’ve got the shirt ID at the top with color and sizes next to each name. There is a total of each on the bottom.”

“Perfect,” Nancy said. “Makes it much easier. Let me call Alex.”

The phone rang a few times with no answer, then Nancy called Alex’s secretary to be told that Alex was in a meeting in the conference room.

“Can we just go back and get the box?” Kelly asked. She was positive she could carry it if Alex thought she could.

“We can,” Nancy said.

They walked through the main area, then down another hall. This was a different route from what she’d done the other day when she was in a room that looked out onto the floor. So much for maybe catching sight of Michael.

But as she got closer to Alex’s office, she heard his deep voice on the phone, the sound of it sending tingles throughout her body.