Page 75 of Summer Weddings
Christian sat down at his desk, but his gaze remained on Mariah. Sawyer watched Christian. And Mariah did her level best to ignore them both.
“Fact is, I could use a break,” Sawyer said. “Why don’t we let Ben treat us to a cup of coffee?”
“Okay,” Christian agreed reluctantly.
As Sawyer walked past Mariah’s desk, she mouthed a thank-you. He nodded and steered his irritable brother out the door.
“I wish you wouldn’t be so hard on her,” he said the minute they were alone. It annoyed him to see Christian treat Mariah as if she didn’t have a brain in her head.
“Hard on her?” Christian protested loudly. “The woman drives me insane. If it was up to me, she’d be out of here in a heartbeat. She’s trouble with a capitalT.”
“She’s a good secretary,” Sawyer argued. “The office has never been in better shape. The files are organized and neat, and the equipment’s been updated. Frankly I don’t know how we managed without her as long as we did.”
Christian opened his mouth, then closed it. He didn’t have an argument.
“Okay, so there was the one fiasco with that attorney,” Sawyer said, knowing that part of Christian’s anger stemmed from the confrontation with Tracy Santiago.
Christian’s mouth thinned and his eyes narrowed. “Mark my words, she’ll be back.”
“Who?”
His brother eyed him scornfully. “The attorney, of course. If for nothing more than pure spite. That woman’s vicious, Sawyer. Vicious. And as if that’s not bad enough, she took an instant dislike to all of us—especially Duke. She’s out for revenge.”
Sawyer didn’t believe that. True, Christian had been the one who’d actually talked to her, but his brother’s assessment of Tracy’s plans for revenge sounded a little far-fetched.
“It’s my understanding that everything was squared once Mariah talked to her. I don’t think there’s any real threat.”
“For now,” Christian said meaningfully. “But don’t think we’ve heard the end of this. Yup, you mark my words, Santiago’s gone for reinforcements.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Why would she do that if no one’s paying her fee? We’ve seen the last of her.”
“I doubt it,” Christian muttered.
Instead of going straight to Ben’s, they strolled toward the open hangar. John Henderson, who served as a sometime mechanic and a full-time pilot, was servicing the six-passenger Lockheed, the largest plane in their small fleet.
When he saw them approach, John grabbed an oil rag from his hip pocket and wiped his hands. “Morning,” he called out cheerfully.
Sawyer noticed that John had gotten his hair and beard trimmed. He wasn’t a bad-looking guy when he put some effort into his appearance. Of course, there hadn’t been much reason to do that until recently.
It occurred to him that Duke Porter might learn a thing or two from John. Duke might have fared better with the Santiago woman had he been a bit more gentlemanly. Sawyer had never seen any two people take such an instant dislike to each other.
“You’re looking good,” he commented, nodding at John, and to his surprise, the other man blushed.
“I was thinking of asking the new schoolteacher if she’d have dinner with me Friday evening,” he said. Sawyer noted that John was studying Christian as if he expected him to object.
“It’s Thursday, John,” Sawyer pointed out. “Just when do you plan to ask her?”
“That depends.” Again John studied Christian.
“What are you looking at me for?” Christian snapped, his mood as surly with John as it had been earlier with Mariah.
“I just wanted to be sure you weren’t planning on asking her yourself.”
“Why would I do that?” The glance Christian gave Sawyer said he had more than enough problems withonewoman.
John’s face broke into a wide grin of unspoken relief.
Christian grumbled something under his breath as he headed out the other side of the hangar. Sawyer followed him to the Hard Luck Café.
