“Where’s the book on number twenty-seven?” Jim asked without removing his gaze from the report.
Heather stood up, collected the three-ring binder containing all the service records for that particular helicopter and handed it to him.
“Thanks,” he said.
She returned to her desk, picked up the pile of invoices and walked over to the filing cabinets. Moving around eased some of the cricks out of her back. She still wasn’t used to long hours at a computer or being tired all the time. Even with her flexible schedule, she was at the mercy of a baby who didn’t understand that Mommy was dying for eight uninterrupted hours of sleep.
Heather opened the file drawer and organized the invoices by number. She found it hard to concentrate, and while she wanted to explain the phenomenon away as latent hormones or sleep deprivation, she knew it had a lot more to do with the man sitting at the other end of the office.
Just thinking about him made her stomach flutter. She had to force herself not to make excuses to talk to him during the day, and when they were together, she wanted to beg him to touch her. Nothing wild or sexual, just a little pat on the arm or the shoulder or the rear.
That last image made her grin. She was a bad girl and she had it for him in a bad way. The excuse that it was just hormones was wearing thin. Diane was nearly two months old. Surely Heather’s body was well on the mend and her glands were easing their pregnancy vigil. Maybe it was—
The front door of the office opened and an attractive young couple stepped into the waiting area. The man was of medium height with black hair and brown eyes, in his mid-to late-twenties. The woman was petite and shared his warm coloring. Jim glanced up and grinned. “Rick! What are you doing here?” He rose to his feet and headed over to the couple.
“I wanted to see you,” Rick said as he and his companion stepped through the swinging gate. The two men shook hands warmly, then Rick nodded at the young woman beside him. “You remember Lupe, don’t you?” His smile broadened. “She’s my woman.”
“Rick!” Lupe blushed. “I’m very happy to see you again, Mr. Dyer.”
“Call me Jim,” he said. “It’s good to see you, too.” His gaze dropped to her left hand. “Nice ring. I see you finally let Rick convince you to take a chance on him. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. He’s a good man.” He slapped Rick on the back. “A bit of a slow learner at times, but he finally figured out what was right.”
“Thanks to you,” Lupe said.
Jim shrugged off the compliment. “He did all the hard work. I just showed him a couple of unpleasant alternatives if he kept messing up. But that’s all in the past. Rick, Lupe, I want you to meet my new bookkeeper and very good friend.”
Heather had been filing invoices, and although she was trying not to listen, it was difficult when they were standing only a few feet behind her. Now she turned toward the group.
“Heather, this is Rick Martinez. He worked for me until about six months ago. And this is his fiancée, Lupe.”
“Nice to meet you both,” Heather said.
“Have a seat,” Jim told them. “Tell me what’s going on.”
Heather dropped the last invoice in the filing cabinet. “This is a private conversation,” she said. “I don’t want to interrupt. I’ll just get my stuff and head on home.”
“Don’t go,” Jim insisted, herding her back to his desk. He motioned for Rick to pull up a couple more chairs, then grabbed one for Heather. “We’re all friends here.”
Heather stared at him helplessly. She wasn’t completely comfortable joining people who had obviously known each other a long time, but she also didn’t want to appear rude by leaving. She decided she would stay for a few minutes, then make her excuses and go.
Jim settled into his seat behind his desk. “Tell me how you’re doing, Rick. How’s the new job working out?”
“Great.” Rick moved his chair closer to Lupe, then took her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. “I’m getting advanced training with the helicopters and they’re sending me to a management seminar in the fall. It’s two nights a week and everyone says it’s tough, but I think I’ll be okay.”
He sounded modest, but Heather saw the pride and pleasure glowing in his large, dark eyes.
“If I get through the class and do well, they want to promote me.” He grinned. “I never saw myself as one of the suits.”
Jim motioned to his own casual long-sleeved shirt and khakis. “This is hardly a suit, but I think you’ll do great in management. You have a lot of the traits needed. I’m sure you’ll find the class interesting but not as hard as you think.”
Lupe turned her shy gaze on Jim. “We’re getting married next month.”
“Yeah, man,” Rick said. “How come you didn’t accept the invitation?”
Jim frowned. “I thought I sent my reply.” He dug around in a couple of stacks of paper on his desk, then withdrew an ivory envelope and handed it to Rick. “Here, take it with you and use the postage for something else.”
Rick’s gaze was direct. “You’re really going to come?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Rick glanced at Heather. “You can bring a date if you want.”
“I just might do that.”
Rick turned his full attention on her. “How long have you worked for this guy?” he asked.
Heather’s mind was still on the “bring a date” comment and she wondered who Jim might bring. From what she’d heard, he didn’t have a girlfriend, but maybe there was someone he saw now and then. The thought didn’t set well with her.
“About three weeks,” Heather said after a pause.
Rick nodded. “He’s the best.” He ran his fingers through his dark hair. “You probably can’t tell to look at me now, but not too long ago, I was a real loser. I graduated from my technical training, but barely. I didn’t care much about working. I wanted to party with my friends. Jim gave me a job, then I gave him hell for months.” He looked at his former boss. “Remember?”
“You were a real pain in the butt.”
Rick laughed. “I was late. I came to work drunk.” He squeezed Lupe’s hand. His humor faded. “She left me and Jim fired me, all on the same day. About a week later, Jim came to see me and took me on a little field trip.”
“To the county jail,” Jim said softly.
Heather stiffened in her seat. “Why?”
“To show me where I was headed,” Rick answered. “Guys from the neighborhood had been to jail and they said it was no big deal. They came back with tattoos and stories about how all their friends were there. They made it sound like a party. Jim showed me differently. Then he got me into AA and gave me back my job. Only I always had to work with one of the other guys. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom by myself.”
“Whatever works,” Jim said.
“I nearly quit a couple of times, but pretty soon I found out that when I got some sleep and didn’t come to work drunk, I liked what I was doing and I was good at it. Lupe saw the change in me and agreed to give me another chance. After two years, Jim helped me find the job where I am now.” He looked at his former boss. “I owe you. Anything I can ever do for you, let me know.”
Jim waved off the offer. “All I want is for you to be happy and successful.”
Conversation continued to flow around her, but Heather only listened. She was too surprised by all she’d already learned to try to participate. She knew that Jim liked to help people, but she hadn’t realized how directly he’d been involved in his employees’ lives. If he hadn’t intervened with Rick, there was no telling where the young man might have ended up. By all accounts, he’d made a complete turnaround. Somehow Jim must have known that the young man would respond to his attempts to save him.
She heard a cry from the other room and excused herself. She was in the middle of changing Diane when there was a knock on the open door. Lupe stood there with a shy smile.
“May I see her?” the young woman as
ked. She was incredibly beautiful, with huge eyes and blue-black hair that hung halfway down her back.
“Sure. This little girl has learned to thrive on attention, haven’t you, sweet cheeks?” Heather smiled when she realized that she’d started using Jim’s endearment for the child. She finished securing the diaper, then snapped Diane’s sleeper into place. She picked up the baby and turned her to face their visitor. “Diane, this is Lupe.”
Lupe giggled and took a tentative step forward. “May I hold her?”
“Sure.”
Heather settled the baby into the young woman’s arms and was instantly aware that Lupe must have been around babies before.
“I have several younger brothers and sisters,” Lupe said, confirming her guess. “My friends who come from large families swear they don’t want many children themselves, but I do.” She smiled sweetly at the baby. “You’re lucky you can bring her to work with you.”
“I know. Jim’s a good boss.”
“Oh, yes.” Lupe’s expression turned almost reverent. “He’s done many wonderful things for Rick. We both admire him very much. He is so kind and giving.”
Jim was darned wonderful. But while Heather wanted to believe that reality was just what it seemed, she couldn’t help thinking there had to be some deep, dark secret he was hiding. No one was that good…were they?
“I think Jim is lonely,” Lupe said. “He doesn’t have a woman.”
“Not one that we know about,” Heather agreed. “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a private life. Maybe he wants to keep work and his personal world separate.”
Lupe looked doubtful. “I’m not sure. I don’t think he’s been married.”
That surprised Heather. She hadn’t really thought about Jim’s past, but if she had, she would have assumed that some lucky girl had snapped him up years ago. She would have guessed that the bride in question had died or something. Jim didn’t seem like the kind of man a woman would easily let go. Unless the deep, dark secret was really bad. If there was a secret at all. Maybe he was exactly as wonderful as he appeared.
Lupe cooed over Diane. “She’s so pretty and sweet. Rick and I want to wait a while before we start our family. He says he’s making enough money so that when we get married next month, I won’t have to work.” She gave a little giggle of excitement. “I’m going to college. I never thought I could afford it, but Rick says we can. He’s proud that I was accepted and even got a partial scholarship to the local state university. It won’t be easy, but I’ve always wanted to get my degree.”
“Sounds like the two of you have some wonderful plans. I’m sure they’re all going to happen exactly as you want.”
“Thank you. I hope so.”
Heather had to quell a flash of envy. There had been a time when she’d been young and naive, facing a future she’d been sure was full of promise. Everything had changed, of course. But could she lay all the blame at Peter’s door? Hadn’t some of the fault been hers?
“Rick has proved himself to be a good man,” Heather said. “When the going got tough, he didn’t run away. He worked through his problems. When you two have difficulties, he’ll do the same. That’s what’ll matter. If you are both willing to try, then you can survive anything.”
Lupe smiled, then held out her arms. “She’s fallen asleep.”
Heather laughed. “Of course she has. It’s daytime. She likes to be up at night, the little stinker.” She took her daughter and placed her back in the crib, then smoothed the blanket over her.
Not long after the two women returned to the office, Rick and Lupe were saying goodbye. They made Jim promise to stay in touch and then they were gone. Jim looked uncomfortable as he shifted his weight from foot to foot, then cleared his throat.
“I didn’t really do all that much for Rick,” he said. “He was basically a good kid who lost his way.”
“It sounded a little bit more than that to me,” Heather countered.
The sun was low in the sky and light poured through the west-facing windows. Jim stood a little hunched over, with his hands in his pockets. His hair needed cutting and a five o’clock shadow darkened his jaw. He should have looked a mess. Instead, he was so good-looking, her thighs trembled.
“So am I supposed to bow when I come into the room?” she asked teasingly. “I’ve never been around a real, live hero before.”
“I’m not a hero.”
“Rick and Lupe would disagree.”
“They’re just kids.”
“Out of the mouths of babes and all that,” she persisted.
She wasn’t sure why she was pushing him. It’s not as if she wanted to know that he was incredibly special. If anything, that information would make him harder to resist. But she was getting a lot of messages from different people and they all said the same thing—that Jim Dyer wasn’t like every other guy around and that she was lucky to have him in her life. Even if they were just friends.
She went to her desk and began tidying up. It was getting late and she should be heading home. But she couldn’t forget what she and Lupe had talked about or what the younger woman had said about Jim’s being lonely.
“Have you ever been married?” she asked suddenly.
Jim walked over to his desk and settled on a corner. Heather’s question had caught him off guard. He’d expected her to ask about Rick or the other kids who worked for him, but not about his own past.
“Married?” Who would have wanted him? “No. You?”
He asked the question automatically; it was one of those social responses that seemed required. When someone asked about your weekend, you asked about his. He expected her to say she hadn’t been.
“Once,” she said, “a long time ago.”
“You were married?” he asked without thinking.
She looked up from the papers she’d been sorting and smiled. “Don’t sound so surprised. When I’m not nine months pregnant or recovering from giving birth, I clean up pretty good.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he told her. “You’re very attractive. I was expressing surprise because I didn’t think any man would let you go once he’d found you.”
Her gaze narrowed. “And here I was thinking the same thing about you,” she said cryptically but didn’t explain her remark. “I was very young and even more foolish.” She lowered herself into her chair. “You sure you want to hear the story?”
“If you want to tell it.” For him, it didn’t matter what Heather talked about; he just liked listening to the sound of her voice.
“I met Peter in high school. He was a year older than me, very cute, athletic, but not much of a scholar. He was also the first guy who ever paid attention to me.” She leaned back in her chair and smiled. “I was not the ideal body type back then as you can imagine. I was even thinner and a little too studious to be popular.”
“I bet you had your share of guys with crushes on you,” Jim said. If he’d known her then, he knew he would have been one of them.
She raised her eyebrows. “If they existed, they were a very quiet and subtle group. Anyway, I fell madly in love with Peter, and when I finally graduated from high school and he wanted to get married, I said yes. I also had a partial scholarship to a state college, but it was out of town, so I had to choose.”
“You picked Peter.”
She nodded. “My mother was heartbroken, but she didn’t judge me. I can only hope I’ll be as good a parent to Diane.” She toyed with the collar of her loose-fitting white blouse. “A few months after Peter and I got married, my mother met the man she’s married to now. It was a whirlwind courtship, and before I knew what happened, she’d moved to Florida and I was all alone. Or so it seemed.”
He didn’t like listening to the story. Even though it had been years ago and had obviously ended badly, he didn’t want to know that Heather had given her heart to a foolish young man. He wanted her to have always been happy.
“You had Peter.”
“Sort of,” she agreed. �
�But he wasn’t ready to grow up. So while I worked two jobs to support us, Peter partied with his friends and dreamed about playing football for the local community college. He didn’t want to take classes. He just wanted to play ball.” She drew in a deep breath as if preparing herself for what happened next.
“One day, when we’d been married for about three years, I came home early from work and found Peter in bed with a high school cheerleader. I packed my bags and vowed that I would learn from the experience.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thanks, but as I said, it was a long time ago and I’m fine with it. I’m not bitter about Peter. He was too young to make a marriage work. I probably was, too.”
“At least you wanted to try.”
“Trying wasn’t enough. Maybe I wanted too much. Maybe all I could see was that someone other than my mother finally loved me. Or so it seemed.”
“You’d been lonely,” he said.
“A little. Maybe more than a little.”
He’d been lonely, too, he thought. He knew what it was like to fall in love in high school, to be willing to give up anything for that love, then have the gift thrown back in his face.
“So I’ve learned my lesson about love,” she said.
“What’s the lesson?”
“I don’t go there anymore. While love seems to work out for other people, it’s not in the cards for me.”
“You’re being a little hasty making that decision after one failure.”
She shook her head. “You’re forgetting the ever gracious Luke, who abandoned both me and his child.”
“You’re right.” He clenched his hands into fists. “Okay, two lessons.”
She held up three fingers. “Three lessons. In between Peter and Luke, I fell for another guy. Once again, I was working two jobs, and I met a great guy who seemed to be everything Peter hadn’t been—mature, motivated, a hard worker.”
“He sounds perfect,” Jim grumbled.
“Yes, he does. After two years of dating, he still couldn’t bring himself to commit to anything permanent. We were stuck in the dating mode. So I gave him an ultimatum. Propose or it’s over.”
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