Heather stared at the woman’s perfect makeup, too tight clothes and tentative smile. She wondered how much pain this wonderful lady had endured in her life and how she’d come to be so strong. “Thank you for making my baby and me feel so very welcome. I would love for you to spoil Diane as much as you’d like.”
Flo grinned. “I might not get a lick of work done.”
They headed out to the main office. “I’d better get her settled so I can get to work,” Heather said, then paused. “Would you like to put her down?”
“Thanks.” Flo unstrapped the baby from her carrier with an expertise that told of years of practice. “Oh, that box right there is the baby monitor. The one in her room is bolted to the wall. Just hit that pink button to turn it on.”
Heather couldn’t believe all that they had done for her and was still confused as to what was going on. Little more than a month ago, she hadn’t met Jim Dyer and now he’d become an important part of her life. She wasn’t sure whether she should be scared or grateful. Then a soft sound came over the baby monitor. She heard Flo singing a lullaby to her daughter. Heather thought about how gentle Jim was with her child and how this job was an answer to her prayers. Obviously, after a run of bad luck where men were concerned, she’d finally started getting it right.
*
Jim walked into the office, a clipboard in his hand. He tossed it onto Flo’s desk. “The 197 charter is back. We’re about ten hours away from an overhaul,” he told her.
Flo made a note in her book. “I’ll make sure it gets scheduled.”
“Thanks.” Jim walked to his desk and looked through the pile of messages. He couldn’t actually concentrate enough to read them, but he made an attempt to act normal. He didn’t want Flo to know how pleased he was that Heather had started work today.
He’d arrived long before her day had begun and he’d been out with a charter until a few minutes ago. But when he landed, he’d noticed her small, sensible sedan parked on the far side of the building, and despite the fact that he told himself they were just friends, his body had gone on major alert.
Finally, he tossed the messages onto his desk and looked at Flo. “Did Heather get here?” he asked casually.
“Don’t pretend you didn’t know. I heard that skip in your step when you walked into this office. She’s in the nursery.” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “She was feeding Diane, but they should be done now.”
“I’ll just go make sure she’s settling in all right.”
“You do that.”
He ignored Flo’s knowing gaze and walked toward the rear of the building. Once he entered the hall, he knocked on the door on the right. “Heather, it’s Jim.”
“Come on in,” a soft voice called.
He pushed open the door. Heather sat in the rocking chair with Diane in her arms. The baby was upright against her shoulder, her plump pink fists resting on a towel that protected Heather’s light green dress.
“We just finished our snack,” Heather said with a smile.
She looked great. He’d seen her dozens of times in the past month, but this was the first time she’d been dressed in something more formal than leggings and a baggy T-shirt. The soft fabric of her dress draped over her body, showing the fullness of her breasts and the narrowness of her hips. She wore makeup that emphasized her green eyes and made her mouth look all pouty and tempting.
His gaze roamed over her familiar features, visiting his favorite places—her mouth, the sweep of her eyebrows, the way her hair—
“You cut your hair,” he blurted out, noticing for the first time that the blond strands fell just to her shoulder instead of a little way down her back. She still had her bangs, but now her hair had a little wave to it as it drifted around her face. She looked mature and sophisticated in a soft and sexy kind of way.
“Do you like it?” she asked, self-consciously touching the ends. “I treated myself to a cut yesterday. Sort of a confidence booster before starting my new job.”
“You’re beautiful,” he said sincerely.
He told himself he wasn’t supposed to notice things like that. She worked for him, they’d agreed to just be friends, and he wasn’t looking to get involved. He could come up with a dozen reasons, but none of them mattered. The more time he spent with her, the more he liked her…and wanted her. Thoughts of her slender body touching his, under his and welcoming him home had kept him up for more than one night.
“Thanks.”
Diane gave a very unladylike burp, then cooed with contentment.
Heather chuckled. “Better, sweetie? You ready to say hi to your uncle Jim?” She stood up and settled the baby into his arms.
He adjusted her with an ease born of practice, then touched her soft nose. “How’s my best girl?” Bright blue eyes stared up at him. He tickled her tummy. “Are you happy? Do you like coming to work with your mom?”
“How could she not?” Heather asked. “If I’d known this was what you planned when you said I could bring Diane with me—”
“What would you have done?” he asked, interrupting her. “I want you to be comfortable here.”
“You went overboard.”
“Don’t look at me. Flo did most of the work.”
“Then she did too much and you paid too much.”
“When Diane doesn’t need it anymore, I’ll donate it to a women’s shelter. Don’t worry about it.” He saw the questions in her eyes, questions and concerns about his real motives. He wanted to reassure her. “I did this because I wanted to. It makes me happy,” he said.
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“Because you’re naturally suspicious. I, on the other hand, am an open and trusting person.”
She smiled. “Yeah, right. We all believe that.”
“My other employees would. Just ask them.”
She gave him a skeptical glance but didn’t pursue the subject.
“Are you getting settled?” he asked. “Finding everything?”
“Yes. Flo’s been very helpful.”
Jim nodded. “I knew she would be. My accountant should be here in about an hour. He’ll go over the computer system with you and explain how he wants things done. You should be up and running with the books fairly quickly.” He glanced down at Diane. “I’ll be in the office for the rest of the afternoon so don’t worry about this one. If she gets fussy, I’ll take care of her.”
“Gee, Flo said the same thing. I guess the two of you are going to have to fight over who will be looking after Diane.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m beginning to think she’s the real reason you hired me.”
He took a step back in mock dismay. “Oh, no. You’ve found me out.”
“I thought as much.” Heather then went on to make a comment about already having started reading the book on the computer program.
As he listened, he thought to himself that it would have been better if his affection for Diane was the real draw because caring about a child was relatively safe. Unfortunately, he was far more interested in her mother. He wanted Heather in ways he hadn’t let himself want anyone in a long time.
Maybe it was the way they’d met. They’d formed an intimate bond before he’d had a chance to close himself off to her. He was paying the price now, allowing himself to stay in this too-small room, to be close enough to smell the scent of her body. It would have been safer and smarter to go out into the main office where an interested audience would force them to talk about business and nothing else.
“I should get started on that paperwork on my desk,” he said. “Do you want me to set up the playpen for Diane?”
“No, she was up most of the morning, so she needs another nap. I’ll settle her down. You go on.”
But it was surprisingly difficult to leave the room, and even after he returned to his desk and stared at the work in front of him, he couldn’t stop thinking about Heather and how dangerous it would be for her if they were ever to get involved.
*
Friday morning, Heather showed up with doughnuts. She took two dozen out to the hangar and left them there for the guys, then brought half a dozen inside to share with Flo and Jim.
Flo had just finished brewing coffee, and when she saw the pink box she made a low moan in her throat. “Oh, God, and I was doing so good on my diet, too.”
“I’m sorry,” Heather said quickly. “Let me take them outside to the guys. Just pretend you never saw them.”
Flo took the box from her and clutched it to her chest. “Take these away from me and I’ll be forced to kill you.” She sighed again, then lifted the lid. “Oh, chocolate and jelly doughnuts.” She winked at Heather. “I might need a few minutes alone with these two. If it gets too embarrassing for you, feel free to step into the other room.”
Heather laughed. “Go on and have your fun. I’ll take Diane back to her room.”
Her baby had been up since five so she was content to relax in the now familiar crib. Heather wound up a music box, pulled up the blanket and patted Diane’s tummy.
“Just squawk if you need anything, sweetie,” she said as she turned on the baby monitor. “Auntie Flo will be in here before you can draw a second breath.”
“I can hear you, you know,” Flo called from the other room.
“I thought you were busy ingesting sugar.”
“I am. Grab a cup of coffee on your way out and join me.”
Heather did as she suggested and took the chair next to Flo’s desk and sipped her coffee. Flo was still in raptures over the doughnuts.
“I’m only going to eat two,” she promised. “If you see me lurking near the box, you have permission to drag me away, by the hair if necessary. You’ll have to protect me from myself.”
“Why are you on a diet?” Heather asked. “You look terrific.”
Flo rolled her eyes. “This from a perfect size two.”
“I’m not a size two.” But she was a size four, which she figured Flo didn’t want to know. “You do look great,” she insisted. “I wish I were more like you and had some curves. I’ve been skinny my whole life. I have no muscle tone, my arms and legs look like sticks. I hate wearing a bathing suit because I don’t have much on top. What I have now is because I’m breast-feeding, and that’ll be gone before I know it.”
Flo wore her usual tight clothing. Today it was a magenta blouse tucked into black slacks. She licked the sugar off her fingers. “I’m not feeling the least bit sympathetic, but it does my heart good to hear you complain about your body. The same body I consider amazing.”
“Do you know what it’s like to have trouble filling an A-cup bra, let alone spilling out of it?”
“That’s nothing.” Flo dismissed her with a wave. “I can gain ten pounds in less than two weeks. I’ve never had a flat stomach in my life, and if my breasts were any bigger, they would start showing up on county maps.”
Heather laughed. “I once slept with a man who told me my hip bones were so sharp he was afraid I might impale him.”
“Really?” Flo leaned toward her. “I could beat that one a hundred times over, but it would make me feel good to have you win this little contest of ours, so that’s just what I’m going to do.”
Heather looked at the woman who was quickly becoming her friend. “Thank you, Flo.”
“For what?”
“Everything. You’ve been very kind to me.”
“I like having you around. It’s been lonely being the only girl in the place.”
Heather thought about all the men who worked on the helicopters and the pilots who were in and out of the office. “But there are so many cute guys around here. Don’t you like that?”
Flo’s smile faded and her brown eyes darkened with shadows. “I’m not a huge fan of the male species. I adore Jim and would do just about anything for him. And I have a great man in my life now, but it wasn’t always like that.”
She paused, and Heather didn’t know what to say. They had clearly steered close to a very personal topic. While she was curious about her new friend, she didn’t want to pry or intrude.
Flo must have read the uncertainty on her face because the older woman leaned over and touched her arm. “Don’t worry about it. You couldn’t have known about my past because we’ve never talked about it. I don’t blurt it out to everyone, but I don’t keep secrets, either.”
She paused and took a sip of her coffee. “I was a battered wife,” she said matter-of-factly. “My ex-husband beat me from the first night of our honeymoon until I left him nearly twenty-five years later.”
Heather gave an involuntary start of surprise.
Flo looked at her and smiled sadly. “I know what you’re thinking. Why on earth did I stay with him for twenty-five years?” She shrugged. “At the time, I could’ve given you a list of reasons. I didn’t have any skills. He hadn’t let me get a job or even have friends. I was very isolated and lived in fear for my life. But now, when I look at how horrible things were then and how far I’ve come, I can’t believe it took me so long to get myself to a place where I had the courage to leave.”
“I’m not judging you,” Heather said quickly.
“I know. I appreciate your concern. To be honest, I feel like that was a lifetime ago. Maybe it was. But one night, I figured I would rather leave and risk him coming after me with a shotgun than stay and take one more slap to the face or punch to the ribs.”
She pressed her full lips together. “Earlier, I said I couldn’t have children because there was something wrong with my plumbing. That’s only half the truth. I was fine before I got married. One night, he got it in his mind that I’d been flirting with one of my friends. I was pregnant at the time, about four months along. I’d barely talked to the man, of course, but my husband was too drunk or jealous or just looking for an excuse. He started screaming that the baby wasn’t his and he was going to make me pay for that. So he started in on me, this time kicking as well as hitting. He made me lose the baby and messed me up so bad inside that I couldn’t have any more children.”
Heather felt her throat tightening. “I’m so sorry,” she said, knowing the words were inadequate compared with her pain.
“Thank you.” Flo leaned back in her chair. “So I finally gathered up my courage and left. Turns out courage was all I got to take with me. He burned everything else of mine. There I was. Forty-eight years old. Never held a job. I didn’t even know how to fill out an application. I was beat up, and once I hit forty, it took a lot longer for the bruises to fade. But I was determined, and I kept going out on job interviews. As expected, I wasn’t successful. Until Jim Dyer gave me a chance.”
She smiled at the memory. “At the time I didn’t know a helicopter from a taxicab. He was patient and kind. He even found me a place to stay for a few months until I could save enough to move out on my own. Now I have a condo I bought myself, I’m halfway through college and I have Arnie, who’s a decent guy. It’s taken me a long time to get here, but I made the journey. I survived.”
“You did more than that,” Heather said. “You thrived.”
“Some days I would agree with you,” Flo admitted. She jerked her head toward the window. “But I’m sure you can understand why working with a bunch of good-looking guys doesn’t do much for me. I trust some of them. Jim, of course. He’s a wonderful man. One day, my ex showed up here. He was determined to bring me home. Jim took him out back and gave him a lesson in what it felt like to be worked over.” She smiled. “I never saw that sorry excuse for a man again.”
Heather remembered Jim’s offer to go after the father of her baby for abandoning her. “He has high standards for male behavior,” she said.
“That he does. Jim is about the best human being on the planet.” She shook her head, then sniffed. “Well, shoot. I hate starting the day on a down note. I think I need a few minutes of cuddling your beautiful baby to set my spirits to rights again. I’ll be back.”
Flo rose and headed for the nursery. Heather stared after her,
then found her gaze drifting toward the windows. She could see several men standing around one of the helicopters. Jim was easy to spot.
She thought about what Flo had said about him and what she knew to be true. Was he a real, live hero? Heather wanted to believe that, but she wasn’t sure heroes existed in real life. What was she supposed to think of a man who seemed too good to be true?
Chapter Six
Heather entered the information for the last invoice, then hit the print button. Next to her, the laser printer quietly hummed to life as three copies of the single-page document appeared in the tray. She fed in an envelope next, then collected the papers to process them.
It was late in the day, nearly six, and almost everyone had gone home. Jim still worked at his desk, but Flo had left at four-thirty as had most of the service crew outside. There weren’t any night charters and no whine of helicopter rotors broke the quiet of the early evening.
As much as Heather liked coming in early and getting her work done by midafternoon, there was something to be said for the peacefulness after nearly everyone had left for home. She glanced over at Jim, but he was reading a report and didn’t seem to notice her. His face was strong, his mouth firm—there wasn’t even a hint of his dimple tonight. She knew if she said his name, he would look up and smile. She almost did it just to have him look at her. But that would be silly.
She returned her attention to the stack of invoices in front of her that needed to be filed. She stretched before getting up. The past couple of nights had been difficult. Diane hadn’t been sleeping well and Heather couldn’t figure out the reason. They’d both been up pacing for several hours, and more than ever, Heather had appreciated her flexible hours. When Diane finally fell asleep at five in the morning, Heather had been able to climb back in bed, too, without having to worry about getting to her job first thing.
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