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“Yeah, well, my life is kind of crazy right now.”
“All the more reason for you to join me on a little field trip today. Guaranteed to perk you up.”
A field trip?
“I can’t.”
“Sure you can. Since you’re new to the company, I thought I’d take you on a tour of our facilities.”
She didn’t trust the look on his face, nor the gleam in his eyes. “Mr. Baron—”
“Jet,” he corrected again.
“Jet,” she said with what she hoped was a gracious smile. “I’m really busy today. I’m sorry, but it’s just not going to work.”
“Sure it is, and since I’m supposed to be taking over as boss, I insist.”
She blinked a few times as she tried to gather her thoughts. “And since I’m an employee of Baron Energies, it’s my duty to tell you that if you take me away from my desk today, it will put me behind.”
“You can catch up later.” He stood.
She felt her mouth drop open. The man really didn’t know how to take no for an answer. “Your sister asked for my opinion on another upcoming project.”
“My sister can wait.” He smiled. The man was like a handsome male feline, one with gorgeous black-and-gold coloring and emerald-green eyes and who looked upon the world as if he owned it, tomcat tail straight in the air. “As our newest engineer, you need to familiarize yourself with our assets, unless, of course, you’ve already had a tour.”
She didn’t answer.
“Didn’t think so.” He glanced at his cell phone. “Meet me out in front in an hour. I’ll change the numbers and forward this to my sister.”
“Wait!” she called as he moved to leave her office. “I can change the numbers.”
“No need. I’ll do it. It’s my job.”
“Where did you want to take me?”
He smiled. “I’m a helicopter pilot and twice a year I do an aerial check for HCFs. I’m sure you know the drill.”
She did, indeed, know the drill. An aerial survey of hydrocarbon fallout. The EPA mandated such inspections. She was just surprised he was the one that did them. Sure, she’d known he was a pilot, but she assumed that meant he flitted from this rodeo to that.
“How often do you fly?”
The smile grew, catlike green eyes glowing. “Any chance I get.” He bounced up on his toes like a teenage boy. “See you in an hour.”
And he was gone. She sank down in her chair and covered her face with her hands. Working with Jet Baron wouldn’t be easy. Not only did she doubt his commitment to Baron Energies, at least judging by the corporate rumor mill, but there was one other little problem.
She was having a hard time focusing, and not because she was tired, but because his sparkling eyes made her toes curl and because his boyish smile had made her wish, for the briefest of moments, that a man like Jet might find a single mother of twins attractive.
That was the biggest problem of all.
Chapter Three (#ulink_226134fb-b3e0-528f-ac68-ac1191734c29)
Jet felt like a kid on Christmas day....
Right up until the moment his dad strolled into the office. Okay, more like hobbled.
“There you are.” The tone of his dad’s voice was one he recognized from his youth when he’d been off riding one of his horses instead of taking out the trash. “Been looking for you.”
Jet leaned back in his chair. The thing about his dad was that you couldn’t let him see you sweat. If you did, he’d pounce. “So I heard.”
His dad clutched both his crutches in one hand before moving a chair out so he could sit.
“Here.” Jet shot up. “Let me help you.”
“I don’t need your help.” Brock gave him what Jet called the Look. He could stop a kid in his tracks with a single glance. “I’m injured, not old.”
“No one’s calling you old.” Jet slowly sank into one of the conference room chairs he’d pilfered last night. He’d discovered he had an office when he’d come back to Baron Energies after his meeting with J.C. Two side chairs and a desk had greeted him. Jet had no idea where the desk chair had gone. He’d wondered if Elizabeth had hidden it on purpose. Probably not, though. She’d turned into a regular professional businesswoman. Frankly he didn’t know if he should feel pride or pity. Lizzie had always liked to be in control. The fact that she could do so while winning Daddy’s approval was just the icing on the cake, or so he surmised.
“Where were you?”
The third degree. He should have expected that. And he should have expected a visit from his old man this morning, too. Checking up on him. “I was in a meeting.”
“With who?” Blue eyes clearly doubted his words.
“With our new engineer.” He glanced at his laptop when his email binged. Lizzie. She was warning him their dad was on the prowl. He quickly typed the words Too late before turning his attention back to his dad. “We were going over the numbers for the project.”
“Oh, yeah?”
Something about the way his dad said the words put Jet on alert. “I was.”
Silence. Brock adjusted his crutches again. Jet waited.
“She’s good-looking.”
Oh, crap. He should have expected this, too. “She’s an exceptional engineer.”
He didn’t know that for sure, not really, but he’d studied the report she’d sent him and from what he could tell, she’d covered all the bases, despite her errors. He could tell he’d surprised her with his knowledge of the industry. The fact was, he’d grown up around wells and drilling. He might not have a masters degree on paper, but he sure as heck did in experience. His father knew that. It was why he was being groomed to take over for Lizzie. The thing was, he liked his life just fine. He helped out at Baron Energies when he could, but this full-time stuff wasn’t really his thing.
“She’s going to be a distraction to the men on-site.”
Jet kept his expression neutral, but he was surprised. For someone who professed to be a man with vision, Brock sure seemed stuck in the past.
“Believe me, she’ll keep them at arm’s length.”
“Sounds like you speak from experience.”
Jet glanced at the time. He was supposed to meet J.C. in fifteen minutes but he suspected if he mentioned that to his dad, he’d be treated to another lecture.
“She’s a professional, Dad. Even if I was interested in her, which I’m not, she wouldn’t give a man like me the time of day.”
She’d made her disdain for him obvious. That might have something to do with them getting off on the wrong foot, but that wasn’t the only thing he saw in her eyes. She was wary of him. Wary of men in general, and he couldn’t help but wonder why.
“Did you know she’s the daughter of Jimmy Marks?”
No. He hadn’t known that. “She mentioned growing up in the oil fields.”
“Best wildcatter I knew. Crazy son of a bitch. Can’t believe he had such a pretty daughter. Then again, the girl’s mother was a looker.”
“She’s not my type.”
“Just keep your Johnson in your pants.”
“Dad!”
“I mean it, Jet. You need to focus. The company needs you now more than ever.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Just as long as you stay here.”
“Is that it? Is that all you wanted to say to me?”
His dad’s eyes narrowed. “No.”
Whatever was on his dad’s mind, Jet could see it bothered him. He wondered what it could be. His heart jumped. Was it his health?
“What is it, Dad?”
He saw his dad take a deep breath. “I need your opinion on something.”
Well, stop the press. Pigs must surely be flying. Snowballs were being hurled from hell. Rain fell upside down. His dad never asked for his thoughts. Never.
“Your sister Carly came to me a few weeks back asking about your mother.”
“Which one?” It wasn’t a sarcastic question. Brock had married three times. Once to his birth mom, a woman named Delia, then to Peggy, who’d died when he was fifteen and then to his current wife, Julieta. Frankly, it was Peggy that he mostly thought of as Mom. Julieta was a wonderful woman, but she was more like a friend.
“The one who gave birth to you.”
Jet leaned even farther back, placing his hands behind his head as he did so. “What’d she want to know?”
“She’s trying to find her.”
Jet’s hands dropped. “What? Why?”
“I think it has to do with Lizzie being pregnant. Or maybe it’s the whole engagement thing. It’s got the girls thinking about motherhood and having babies or something. I don’t know.”
But it bothered his old man, Jet could tell, enough that he was coming to his son and asking for...something.
“What do you want me to do?”
His dad didn’t answer for a moment, but what Jet found most telling was the way Brock’s gaze never met his own.
“Dad?” he prompted.
“Just keep an eye on the situation for me. See if you can find out what’s going on and what they know.”
“You want me to spy.”
That got his dad’s attention. “No. Nothing like that.” He reached for his crutches. “I just want to know what they know, that’s all.”
“Why don’t you just ask Carly?”
“Because you know what she’s like. Once she gets the bit between her teeth, she’s a runaway horse. If she thinks it bothers me that she’s looking for Delia, she’ll wonder why. That’ll get her dander up and, more important, her curiosity rolling. She won’t let it rest.”
“What’s wrong with her being curious?”
Was that a momentary glint of guilt he saw in his dad’s eyes? What did the old man have to feel guilty about?
“Nothing wrong with it. I just don’t want her getting hurt. That woman did enough damage to our family.”
That wasn’t it. Jet could tell there was far more to the story than that.
His father stood up. Jet watched, wondered, pondered a bit, but in the end, he admitted now he was curious. “I’ll see what I can find out.”
“Thank you. I’d appreciate that.”
And now gratitude. Would wonders never cease?
His dad put his crutches beneath his arm. “And stay away from that J.C. woman.”
“Her name’s Jasmine and she’s the engineer on the project I’m managing. I can’t exactly ignore her.”
His dad paused by the door to his office, his reflection projected back to Jet thanks to the glass wall along the front of his office. “You know what I mean.”
He did, indeed, know what he meant. Didn’t mean he would listen to him, but he knew.
* * *
TEN MINUTES LATER, Jet couldn’t keep the smile from his face as he exited the elevator amid a crowd of fellow office dwellers. It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and if he were honest with himself, he itched to get on a horse.
Those days are over.
No, he silently promised himself. He wasn’t going to give up rodeo. And he was getting to do something he loved today. Fly.
But as Jet waited for Jasmine to arrive in front of Baron Energies’ corporate offices, he knew he kidded himself. It wasn’t just the thought of flying, it was the thought of spending time with Jasmine.
Showing off.
Well, yes, there was that, too.
