24. Tish

Chapter Twenty-Four

Tish

"Bye, sweetie. Mwah, mwah!" I gave Teddy exaggerated kisses before handing him over to the friendly woman at the daycare.

Teddy was easily distracted when she lifted him into the air and spun him in a circle. The daycare drop-off was going well so far. Although I experienced a few pangs of guilt, I was relieved he seemed to be adjusting well.

When I got into the office, Archer Cannon, Griffin's cousin, was talking with one of the contractors on the building project for the new distribution center.

"Hey, Tish," Archer called over.

When the contractor waved, Archer fell into step beside me as I walked toward my office. "How are things?" I asked.

"Good, I think. Everything situated with the guy who got injured on-site yesterday?"

"I already called over and checked in with him this morning," I replied.

"I am so grateful you're here," Archer said, his tone heartfelt.

I smiled at him as I walked into my office. "Yeah?"

"Seriously. All the HR stuff stresses me right out," Archer said flatly.

I dropped my purse on top of my desk and slipped out of my jacket. "Well, it's my wheelhouse, so happy to take care of it."

Archer's gaze arced around my office. "You know, you could make the space yours."

I looked around at the impersonal space. "I haven't had time. I needed to hit the ground running since I've been on maternity leave."

Archer narrowed his eyes at me. "There's a reason it's called "leave". I happened to know you were working for part of the time anyway. A baby is more work than work."

I burst out laughing as I rested my hips against my desk. "I'm actually relieved to be back at work-work. Don't get me wrong, I love Teddy more than I could've imagined loving any other human, but it's really nice to have adults to speak to on the regular."

Archer chuckled. "Phoebe said the same thing. I know some people want to be at home all the time with their kids. I like it in doses myself. Anyway, I wanted to get you up to speed on our planning for the year. We've got the project for the distribution expansion and the brewery and the restaurant. David is kind of our point person for the restaurant. He's usually in Fireweed Harbor, but he ran that restaurant for years as the chef. We could use all the help we can get."

"I've already been in touch with David. I know him from my time in Fireweed Harbor. Isn't the restaurant doing events already?"

Archer nodded. "Just events though. We've had so much interest, that we're pushing to get it up to full schedule. It's been so busy, and I just…" He lifted his hands in the air and let them fall.

"How about I just take that over? I'll coordinate with David, and you and Chase can focus on the distribution center, the brewery, and the renewable energy projects. I'm happy to help with anything."

"Honestly, if you can be on point with David, manage this entire office, and coordinate with HR on anything, we'll be fine."

"On top of all of that."

"If you want more furniture for your office, I can take you down to the storage space."

I glanced around in my bare-bones office, which at this moment consisted of a single desk and a small table in the corner. "I might take you up on that. By the way, who's going to handle the actual brewing here once it's up and running?"

My curiosity had nothing to do with Griffin, nothing at all.

"Hopefully Griffin."

"Oh," I said, striving to keep my tone as casual as possible.

"I can't imagine he'll be a firefighter that much longer," Archer added.

"Oh?"

"It's hard work. Phoebe did it for years. I had to manage my anxiety over it when we first got together. I'm relieved she only fills in for the town crew now."

I thought about Griffin being out in the wilderness fighting a fire. My heart pinched uncomfortably with a worry I hadn't even allowed myself to contemplate. It wasn't like we were a couple. I didn't need to worry like this.

"There you are!"

We glanced over together to see Phoebe standing in the doorway. Her toddler squealed in excitement at the sight of Archer.

Archer beamed, immediately lifting the little boy from Phoebe's arms and spinning him in the air. Seconds later, he returned to Phoebe and gave her a lingering kiss. Her cheeks were pink when he straightened. "Nice to see you," she said.

When she looked my way, I waved. "Hey there."

"I wanted to see how work is going for you," she said.

"It's going."

Archer cut in. "I am so glad she's here. She's as amazing as Rhys said she would be. We had some time with her before, but we finally have her full-time."

"Of course, she is," Phoebe said confidently.

"I don't mind handling the messes and the boring admin," I offered with a shrug. "I appreciate that Rhys speaks so highly of me. I only hope I can live up to expectations."

Phoebe narrowed her eyes. "You're already exceeding them and you've only been here full-time for a few days."

Archer glanced between us. "I need to run down to grab a phone call in my office. Should I take Archie with me?"

"Go for it," Phoebe said with a grin. "I'll fetch him on my way out and drop him off at daycare."

She waved him off before glancing back toward me. "How is it really? The whole daycare back to work? On the one hand, I couldn't wait. On the other, it was stressful."

"That's exactly how I feel. I'm so grateful you recommended the daycare. Teddy seems comfortable there. He was a little fussy the first day or two, but he's adjusted quickly."

"Good. I knew it would be okay. Do you want to grab some coffee, maybe midday today?" she asked.

I was about to shake my head when she tipped her head to the side. "You're allowed to have breaks. I know from Rhys that you worked way more than expected when you were his assistant. Plus, you're still doing two jobs."

"Rhys hired a new assistant," I pointed out.

"Yeah, and you're onboarding that person and making sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. That's a job. Take a half an hour for coffee with me," she pressed.

A laugh rustled in my throat. "I will."

"I'll come get you here."

She waved as she left my office. I opened my laptop to a wall of emails. About a half an hour before I was going to meet Phoebe, I went to take care of my pumping for the day. Pumping my breast milk was decidedly not fun for me. After I put the breast milk in my small office refrigerator, Phoebe and I headed out for coffee.

As she was driving, I asked, "How long did you breastfeed?"

"Are you having mom guilt?" she asked wryly.

"Yes!"

"I feel you. I managed to stick with breastfeeding for nine months and that was it."

"I hate pumping. I am beyond grateful that I have my own office and I can do it privately."

"Well, I haven't talked to anybody that enjoyed pumping," Phoebe said.

I laughed.

"If there's one thing I've learned about being a mother, you're going to have about five million reasons to feel guilty about all kinds of things and you're constantly going to second-guess yourself and wonder if you're doing it wrong. You're also probably going to assume everyone else is doing it better or whatever. With all of that, try to cut yourself some slack. If you hate breastfeeding, stop. The world is filled with perfectly healthy babies who didn't breastfeed. Don't feel guilty. If we need to do an intervention on the mom guilt, we will."

Tears sprung to my eyes. I hadn't realized how good it felt to have friends who had my back. "Thank you. I'm not planning to stop breastfeeding just yet, but I'm thinking about it. Meanwhile, I'm trying not to feel like shit for actually enjoying going to work." Impulsively, I reached over and squeezed her shoulder, wanting to give her a hug. "Thank you for being so nice to me. I feel like I got a ready-made support circle when I moved here."

Phoebe slowed to turn into the parking lot at Firehouse Café. "You don't need to thank me. You're a good friend. What comes around goes around."

When we walked into the café a few moments later, my eyes landed on Griffin. He was at the back of the line, talking to another firefighter I'd met in passing. As soon as Griffin's eyes snagged mine, my belly did a little shimmy, and sparks spun like pinwheels through me.