Rerouted Obsession - A Sexy New Adult Contemporary Romance Novella (2 page)

The rest of the morning, Abby plunged herself tirelessly into her work, trying to block out the events that were about to take place that afternoon. In her refusal to look at the clock, she worked right through lunch and only stopped to clean herself up so she could grab a snack and attempt to find out about the buyer when he arrived. She hoped she wouldn’t have to actually meet him, but if she absolutely had to, she wanted to be at least somewhat presentable.

After getting most of the grease off of her hands, she grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl in the break room and headed to the office to find out what the deal was.

“The buyer is due to arrive in twenty minutes. He should’ve been here an hour ago, but their departure from Seattle was delayed,” Scarlett told her as soon as she entered the room. She seemed pretty calm for someone who was about to attempt to ensnare a man in marriage.

Abby felt a raft of butterflies in her stomach. “I’ll wait in here and see if we can get a peek at him when he gets off the plane.”

Fortunately, she could get a look at her sister’s intended target without being obvious; the runway was visible from the windows on the left side of the office. 

As she ate her apple, Abby knew she had to give Scarlett credit—she looked downright stunning. Thanks to the tanning bed in the hair salon located downtown, her sister looked like she’d just gotten back from a vacation in the tropics. Abby had no use for tanning beds, but they sure made Scarlett look healthy and glowing compared to most of the winter-pale residents in town.

Scarlett grabbed a tin of mints from her top desk drawer and popped one in her mouth as she touched up her hair and makeup. Watching her, Abby was amazed—Scarlettseemed no more concerned than if she were getting ready for lunch with her girlfriends.

“This is crazy.” Abby tossed the magazine on a desk and began to pace back and forth, as was her habit when she was nervous.

“You know this is crazy, right? Putting our fate—and your life—in the hands of a complete stranger?”

“Take a chill pill, Abby. Everything’s going to be fine.” Scarlett grinned as she looked into her compact. “It’ll be worth it in the end. You’ll see.”

Her confidence left Abby dumbfounded. Scarlett was giving her more evidence that she must, in fact, be borderline insane.

Moments later, the familiar sounds of a plane landing had both girls scurrying to look out the window. Peering through the blinds, Abby couldn’t help but admire the sleek lines of the plane that had just landed.

“At least he has good taste in airplanes,” she murmured begrudgingly.

Abby was pretty sure Scarlett wasn’t paying one bit of attention to anything that she was saying, because she was peering so intently out the window, waiting for a glimpse of the man she intended to make her husband.

Seconds passed and the plane door opened. When two men stepped out, Scarlett grabbed Abby’s arm and shrieked with excitement.

“He’s hot, and so is his pilot!”

Abby could literally hear the relief in Scarlett’s voice, and she thought she might get scooped up to dance around the room as Scarlett hummed with happiness.

“If he’s that hot, he’s probably taken,” Abby pointed out, trying to keep a lid on Scarlett’s over-the-top reaction.

Wanting to see the men for herself, Abby peered out once again and saw the two guys, one carrying the navigation binder and wearing aviators, and the other stretching and yawning. From what she could make out, they both looked like they could be handsome, but they were too far away to really be able to tell.

“Well, I won’t be able to get anywhere with him if that pilot is hanging right underneath him all the time,” Scarlett grumbled.

As they watched, their father went out to greet the pair, shaking hands. Scarlett turned to Abby with a comically desperate look on her face.

“Abby, you have got to keep that pilot busy,” she pleaded as she grabbed Abby’s arms.

“What?” Abby recoiled from her theatrics. “There is no way I am getting that involved in this crazy scheme. This is more your speed.”

“Abby! You said you would help me, and I need your help! If the pilot just thinks I am after his boss’s money, he won’t let me get near the only hope we have to save the airport.”

“But what am I supposed to do with him?” Abby knew there was merit to the point Scarlett was making, but since she didn’t believe this plan would work in any way, shape, or form, she hated the idea of having to waste her time hanging around some guy she didn’t know all day instead of working.

“Show him around the airport and the town, or let him check out some of the planes you are working on right now,” Scarlett suggested with a spark of hope.

Abby sighed, knowing she had been defeated and that there was no stopping this plan now.

“Well, okay. I promise I will show him around later. But right now, I have got to get back to work.” She gave her sister an admonishing look. “You don’t need to come on too strong right away, anyway.”

With those final words, she headed back to tackle the safety checks on two planes with flights scheduled for later in the day. The work would prove to be a much-needed distraction for her.

* * * *

After Abby left, Scarlett sprang into action. The chilly temperature nearly took her breath away when she stepped out into the cold, but she squared her shoulders and pressed on. She strode confidently over to where her father, the pilot, and the buyer were still talking on the runway.
Hurry up and get indoors to shoot the breeze,
she thought as she involuntarily shivered.
No one’s going to think goose bumps are sexy.

Scarlett had decided to greet them sans coat to get a bigger and more appreciative reaction to her crimson dress and sky-high heels. She had not factored, in her quest for the sexiest office attire possible, that the runway in the middle of the frigid Montana winter would be the setting for her first meeting with her future husband.

When she came close enough to better make out the appearances of the men, she was elated. No frumpy old-man husband for her, thank goodness. Both of the men were in their mid-to-late thirties, dressed in jackets, flannel shirts, and jeans. They both exuded a rugged handsomeness balanced with a certain polish you didn’t get from most Montana natives. Scarlett took note of the darker haired man, who she was sure was the pilot, as he was carrying the telltale navigation binder every pilot carried, as he stood beside the buyer, whose carefree smile gave him an almost boyish air.

She sidled up beside her father and, before he could get another word out of his mouth, fixed her attention solely on the smiling man.

Extending her perfectly manicured hand in greeting, she introduced herself. “Hi there, I am Scarlett, Jim’s daughter. I’m the office manager and schedule coordinator here.” She flashed him what she hoped was her most seductive smile. “I would love to give you a rundown of how things operate around here and show you some of the town so that you can get a feel for the area.”

“Now, Scarlett. Give the boy some breathing room,” Jim said with a chuckle.

“That’s okay, Jim. I would love to see the area,” the man replied, giving Scarlett his full attention.

She could tell, from years of experience, that he was attracted to her. In this small town, she had received a lot of male attention over the years, and she knew the telltale signs.

“My name is Will,” he replied. “And this is my friend, Jake, by the way.” The guy with the binder was looking at her awkwardly.

Scarlett nodded politely to Jake and her father and hooked her arm in Will’s, under the guise of guiding him back into the office.

This is almost too easy
, she thought as they made their way back inside to the warm office.

* * * *

Jim turned back to the man he had been addressing before his eldest daughter had burst onto the scene, carting off Jake Penner’s friend and personal pilot with her peculiar behavior.

“That sure was passing strange, but after raising two daughters, I never put anything past them,” Jim joked.

“It’s all right. I never put anything past a woman, either.” In his past experiences with women, he could tell when a woman was attempting to woo a man. He had a feeling that, based on her attire and the googly eyes she was making at Will, Scarlett Seymour was probably up to something along those lines. Jake figured she had assumed his lifelong friend and personal pilot, Will, was the wealthy buyer that had come to purchase her father’s airport. Why else would a beautiful woman shower a man she had known for three seconds with so much attention? He silently thanked his lucky stars he had decided to stretch his flying wings today and give Will a much-needed break. It wasn’t his fault Scarlett had seemingly jumped to the wrong conclusion.

It’s better this way
, he thought,
I don’t need to spend the whole time I’m here swatting her away.

As they made their way inside to his smaller, private office, Jim asked him, “So what intrigues you about my little ole airport in this out-of-the-way pocket of Montana?”

“I am trying to gain more holdings for my company, Penner Enterprises. I’ve spent the last five years building the company from the ground up and have acquired four other small airports that are now running smoothly and producing a pretty high profit. From what I have learned from our talks, Mr. Seymour, I think your airport will be the perfect addition to the roster,” Jake explained, settling into the chair in front of Jim’s desk.

“Call me Jim. You were a pilot before starting your company, right?” Jim questioned, looking over papers that Jake was pretty sure were his notes on Jake and Penner Enterprises.

“Yes, I flew commercially for ten years. I love to fly, and I know how important small airports, like yours, are to the flight industry. They connect many rural towns to the larger airports,” Jake continued looking around Jim’s office, which was across the small hall from the main office that he assumed was flight scheduler Scarlett’s domain. Jim’s office reminded Jake of a masculine library, and was complete with a model airplane collection along one wall. All that was needed was a decanter full of scotch.

“These are so intricate,” Jake said, admiring the model airplane collection.

“Thanks. I took up the hobby to keep my mind busy after my wife died,” Jim said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear about your wife,” Jake said sincerely.

“She passed many years ago, but some days, it still feels as if it just happened.”The older man looked wistful for a moment.

“Well, Jim, from what little I have seen, it seems like things run real smoothly around here. I am going to spend the next few days checking everything out. I’ve decided that if I like what I see, I’ll plan on keeping the staff you already have here. I want you to stay at the helm of operations, if you will,” Jake briefly explained.

“I have to be honest with you, Jake. I am getting on up in years, and I think it would be wise for you to bring in someone else to run things. I’ll stay on and help the new manager out as much as they need, but I am ready to retire,” Jim replied.“I don’t want to burden my girls with this place. When you contacted me, I knew selling was the right thing to do.”

“All right. I appreciate your honesty. I will have to rearrange my schedule and spend more time here than I originally planned. Hiring an operator is going to be pretty time consuming,” Jake replied.

During the hours that followed, while discussing several terms and proposals so the sale contract could be drawn up by Jim’s attorney, Jake realized that he and Jim had a lot in common. They developed a friendly rapport, and when it was nearing time for the airport to close, Jake wasn’t ready to head back to the cabin where he and Will were staying while in Pinesville.

“Do you mind if I have a look around the property?” Jake asked Jim as he got up to stretch his legs.

“Feel free to roam about as you would like, Jake. I will be here for a couple more hours, anyhow,” Jim told him as he looked over his reading glasses.

Jake left Jim’s office and wandered around the hangers, checking out the condition of the property. Everything was in impeccable shape and well organized. Jim really knew how to run an airport, Jake thought. While inspecting a storage closet neatly housing spare parts and dials, Jake heard the familiar sound of a welder hard at work. He wanted to meet some of the employees, so he set out in the direction of the noise. He was surprised to find out that someone was still here because most employees would have packed up and headed out over an hour ago when the airport had officially closed.

When he neared the small plane with jump-suited legs and work boots sticking out from underneath, he paused and waited a moment for the worker to reach a stopping point.

* * * *

Beneath the Cessna, as she reinforced a mechanism, Abby wondered how Scarlett had fared with her foolish plan. When she reached a place where she felt comfortable stopping, she decided to go ahead and call it a day. She could only wear a welding helmet for so long, anyway.

She’d just scooted out from her work space beneath the small plane when a male voice made her start.