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She completed a surreptitious wipe of a sweaty palm on her slacks. “It will be my pleasure.”
Mr. Kravit’s face folded into a frown. “Damned IRS. Always wanting more money. I dream of growing my business to where I won’t have to pay them. All those loopholes for the truly wealthy.” He ran his hand through his steel gray hair with a rueful grin. “But perhaps my chance has passed.”
Charley shook her head. “Maybe not. I personally guarantee my firm will surpass your expectations. Now I need to return to Charlotte and put together a team based on what we’ve talked about.”
“I appreciate you coming to Knoxville, Charlene. I like to meet those I hire in person.”
“Thank you, Mr. Kravit.” For not letting her age and gender get in the way of business. “And clients call me Charley.”
“But Charlene is such a pretty name,” he said with a shake of his head. “Charley sounds like a boy.”
Indeed. Like a boy. What her daddy had wanted. She’d started her life with a deficit.
She grabbed her briefcase, and Mr. Kravit opened his office door. “My secretary will show you out. Have a safe trip home. The mountains along I-40 are beautiful.”
Mr. Kravit’s secretary led her to the elevators. They made small talk until they reached the exit leading to the parking lot. Charley pushed open the glass door and choked on the unusually hot June temperature. At six o’clock, the asphalt radiated the heat of the day and interjected its distinctive tar-like odor. Summers in the south. One either loved or hated them. She fell on the less-than-enthusiastic side of that sentiment.
After crossing the lot, she opened the trunk of her Camry. She snagged her car keys and phone from her briefcase and crammed them into the overstuffed purse she’d left in the trunk. Speaking of her handbag, she needed the ibuprofen in there. Her head felt like someone had driven a nail into it, right behind her left ear.
Rounding the Camry, she opened the driver’s door, and the word ‘oven’ flashed in her mind. She slid in, tossed her purse on the passenger seat, and pressed the ignition button. The blast from the AC was barely cooler than the air in the car. She stifled a groan. The sooner she got moving, the sooner it would cool off.
Nestled on the west side of the Appalachian chain, Knoxville gave way to the verdant mountains Charley treasured. Her personal escape from her stressful life.
Stress her father had known well. He’d initiated an expansion covering three states before he’d died of a heart attack a year ago. As his last wish, he’d made her promise to keep the firm open as his legacy.
When he was alive, she’d worked in his shadow in a constant fight with herself over how much she loved being with him but disliked the endless pressure. Now, the pressure was all hers.
Her car wound its way through the mountains, and before long, the gentle curves of the interstate led into Asheville. Her stomach growled. A glance at the clock told Charley it was past her supper time. Eight o’clock. The long summer days threw her off.
She was waffling about where to grab dinner when a highway sign designating Exit 50c made her decision. The choice would take her twenty minutes out of her way, but it would be too late to work when she got home anyway. She’d bust her tail tomorrow.
Meeting Mr. Kravit had taken her from what she really needed to finish—an IRS deadline next week for a client she’d undoubtedly lose if she didn’t get on it.
Decision made, relief washed over her like a shower on a hot day. This washerexit, the one that took her to her favorite place in the world. Edwards, North Carolina.
Oh, she knew. Most girls chose Paris or Tahiti as their favorite place. Not Charley. Give her a small town with the necessary amount of eclectic to keep it interesting, and she was happy.
Her father must have felt the same about Edwards. He’d purchased a cottage there for family getaways when Charley was very young.Time there was precious. She saw so little of him otherwise, which was why she’d joined his firm. After her mother passed, he was all she’d had.
The cottage was her place now. Thinking of it that way made her chest ache.
The exit dumped her onto a highway that dropped to two lanes before reaching Edwards. Ahead, a pickup truck with construction supplies in its bed sat off to the left, flashers blinking.
As she approached the vehicle, a guy in a sweat-soaked t-shirt flagged her down. She lowered her window. “What’s going on?”
The man wiped his hand over a flushed forehead. “Just wanted to warn you. We accidently dumped some roofing materials around the bend. Shingles and nails. We’ve tried to clean it up, but the low light makes it hard to be sure. Drive as far over to the right as you can, and you should be alright.”
“Okay. Thanks for the warning.”
She crept forward, riding the shoulder until she finished the curve.
The highway straightened out before turning into Main Street. Familiar storefronts with benches beckoning people to sit a spell were like a comfortable pair of slippers. Charley knew just where she wanted to go. The best burger place in Edwards. The Ground Round—both what they were made of and their shape. And the Round’s beer selection was spectacular.
She drove into the not-so-crowded parking lot at the end of a row of buildings as the sun set and chose a space under the only streetlight in the lot.As she put the Camry into park, the low tire pressure gauge flicked on.
Crap, she’d need air as well as gas before she left Edwards. But food came first.
As she reached for the door handle, four men on Harleys roared past her car. They stopped at the edge of the asphalt, dismounted, and headed for the restaurant. Charley studied the identical leather vests they wore. The three-piece patch on the back said Devil’s Seed on the top and North Carolina on the bottom. A rather macabre rendition of a devil’s face laughed on the center patch.
