Slightly Irregular by Rhonda Pollero

eight o’clock meeting with Miss Egghardt. You handled the estate. The appointment is with Lenora Egghardt regarding her uncle’s estate and some sort of money order she received.
    “From the tenants Lenora wasn’t sure existed?”
    “Probably. And she now insists she has knowledge of some real property currently in the possession of those elusive tenants and thinks it is possible that they are distant cousins. Looks like you’re going to have to reopen the estate, and I just want to make sure you exercised due diligence in your attempts to deal with the heirs. I want you at that meeting.”
    Luckily, she couldn’t see me roll my eyes. “I’ll be there.”
    “Be there at seven thirty. I want you to bring me up to speed on this before I review any real estate documents. I’ll need to besure we didn’t close the estate again , without dotting all the ‘i’s and crossing all the ‘t’s.”
    “I think you’ll find everything was in order. I followed the law. Notices were filed in the Palm Beach Post ,” I said, feeling a little irritated by the implication that I’d failed to do my job. While I may not be the most enthusiastic employee, I was good at what I did, especially when it came to trusts and estates. “How did this end up on your desk? Usually Vain—er, Mr. Dane handles this sort of thing.”
    “I’m assuming it’s because of the potential contractual issues. I did meet with Mr. Egghardt once. It doesn’t matter. Just be here at seven thirty. My office.”
    “My pleasure.” I felt my nose growing. There was nothing pleasurable about being at work at seven thirty in the morning.
    I speed-dialed Becky. She answered on the third ring. “Your boss just became a pain in my butt.”
    “Ellen? Makes sense. She seemed kinda desperate to find you. And in spite of what you think, she likes you. Thinks you have potential.”
    “No, she likes you and thinks you have potential. You’re the teacher’s pet,” I teased. I then recapped everything from coming home, to the beach, to the new construction, then shared that part about Liam barging in through the door while my mother was here and finished up with the end of my phone call with Lieberman. “Can you believe that?”
    “I don’t know. Sounds very knight-on-white-horse-ish to me. He really just burst in?”
    “I was talking about Ellen’s meeting time, but yes, he did burst right in. And somehow the next thing I knew, I was tellingmy mother I was bringing Liam to Atlanta as my date for Lisa’s wedding.”
    “Did she stroke out right there on the floor?”
    “Practically,” I said, feeling the tension drain from my shoulders. After all, the expression on her face was classic. “It did shut her up about the wedding escort. So now, when I come solo, she’ll be grateful. Well played, I thought.”
    “Unless Tony and Liam both show up. She actually called Tony?”
    “Don’t remind me. I have to see him tomorrow. Not sure how I’m going to explain my mother to him.”
    “Mention your mother is desperate to marry you off. Most guys hear the ‘m’ word and run screaming from the room.”
    “Why didn’t Ellen send you? Why send Liam?”
    “Well, she did call me, but I told the truth. I had no idea where you were. I even skipped the whole brunch thing. I’m still not sure letting anyone at the firm know we’re tight is in my best interests.”
    “I know, but that still doesn’t solve my Liam conundrum.”
    “Ellen was probably annoyed and figured sending a Liam-O-Gram was a speedy solution.”
    Liam is a lot of things, but a solution isn’t one of them.

    After a fitful night , I got up early and drank my pot of coffee while sitting on the draped chaise next to the pool. Sam was right: the cabana was perfect. The warm breeze coming off the ocean made the bug smoker unnecessary, and I watched thegiant red ball of the sun rise, casting a bright golden blanket on the water. I wasn't thrilled when I had to abandon my comfy cocoon to get