Rerouted Obsession - A Sexy New Adult Contemporary Romance Novella Page 2

  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.

  “Hi, there,” it said.

  She twisted around in the direction of the voice. One of the men who had arrived earlier was just a few feet away.

  “Don’t be startled,” he went on. “Looks like a great job you’re doing there, man.”

  Of course he thinks I’m a man. Biting back irritation, she stood up and pulled the heavy helmet off. The look of shock on the pilot’s face was priceless.

  “So you’re one of those guys who doesn’t think a woman can work on a plane?” As she spoke, she ran he
r hand over her pixie-cut hair, hoping none of her locks were standing straight up as they happened to do sometimes. “Typical—”

  “Just wait a second.” He smiled, putting up both hands. “That’s not how I am, I promise. I’m just surprised to see that such a beautiful woman was underneath that helmet.”

  Now it was Abby’s turned to be surprised. He couldn’t be serious. Had he even noticed her sister? Everyone noticed her beautiful, blonde sister first. Not that it mattered too much to Abby.

  “How was your flight in?” she asked, hoping he could detect at least a modicum of interest in her voice.

  “Perfect. The skies were clear and smooth,” Jake told her.

  “That’s nice,” she said. Abby was pretty sure if it wasn’t the dead of winter, she would hear crickets chirping.

  “The name’s Jake, by the way. And you are. . . .” He waited.

  “Abby.” She shook the hand that was held out to her.She knew she should try to strike up a better conversation, but the words wouldn’t come out.

  “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Abby,” Jake replied.

  “Um, you too. I have to get going, Jake. Maybe I will see you around tomorrow,” she said.

  After she had grabbed her things from the office and started making her way across the darkened parking lot to her truck, it seemed to her that Scarlett hadn’t needed her help in the first place, as she saw no sign of Scarlett or the other man anywhere on the grounds.

  * * * *

  Jake was dumbstruck as the beautiful creature walked away. Her beauty was not like the obvious beauty of the blonde bombshell who had greeted them when they arrived. He was used to women fawning all over him, usually after someone informed them of his wealth, but this girl had seemed like she couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Jake decided he had to get to know this intriguing girl better. He would find her again tomorrow and try to strike up a more substantial conversation.

  Right now, he thought he had better check in with Will. There was no telling what wiles that vixen was currently throwing at him.

  He made his way back to Jim’s office. Jim was at his desk, wearing reading glasses and intently studying some paperwork.

  “Jim, I am taking off, but I will be back in the morning,” Jake said.

  “Sounds good, Mr. Penner. Have a good night” Jim replied.

  “Please call me Jake,” he reminded the older man before he left the office.

  On his way across the parking lot to his rented SUV, Jake pulled out his cell phone and called Will to see how he was doing.

  When Will answered, the background noise sounded like he was in some sort of bar.

  “Hey man, everything is going well on this end,” Will said loudly into the phone. Jake could hear a female, presumably Scarlett, laughing in the background.

  “So the blonde has trapped you with her feminine wiles?” Jake replied.

  “Pretty much,” Will laughed into the phone.

  “Be careful, Will. She seems as if she has another agenda, since she just whisked you away like that,” Jake warned.

  “Hold on a second. . . . Yeah, I am. She seems pretty harmless to me, Jake, but I do think she has wrongly assumed I am buying the airport, and I haven’t told her anything different,” Will said seriously. He must have stepped out of her earshot, Jake thought.

  “Okay, let’s keep it that way for now. We can clear everything up soon enough,” Jake said.

  “Gotcha. She is really fun to hang out with, Jake,” Will told him.

  “Well, have fun then. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Jake laughed.

  “So I won’t do anything at all except work? I definitely plan on doing things you wouldn’t do,” Will teased.

  “See ya later, man,” Jake said.

  He ended his call with Will, as he was pulling out of the airport. Since it had been hours since he had eaten, he decided he would go into town, grab a quick dinner and call it a night. He wanted to get back to the airport first thing in the morning, and between his super-early business meeting, the flight to Pinesville, and perusing the airport, he was beat.

  He pulled onto the well-lit main street of Pinesville. It was only about a five minute drive from the airport, and even though it was pretty dark outside, he appreciated the quaint, homey feel that exuded from the downtown area. He parked in front of a promising looking diner located on the main drag of older buildings.

  When he stepped inside, the aroma of homemade food greeted him. His stomach rumbled in anticipation. Sitting at a booth, Jake quickly scanned the menu, decided on the Salisbury steak special, and looked around while he waited for the waitress to come to his table. The diner was small and lined with hunter green booths, complete with vinyl tablecloths and plastic menus. What it lacked for in aesthetic, it made up for in welcoming warmth.

  The diner was fairly crowded for it to be nearing eight on a weeknight in such a small town. Jake was interrupted from his observations when a middle-aged woman came over to take his order. The tag on her apron informed him that her name was Glenda.

  “Hey there, hon. What can I get you?” Glenda asked with a kind smile.

  “Glenda, I would like the special and whatever dessert you recommend,” Jake told her.

  She walked away to put in his order, and the other waitresses flocked to her, hoping for a tidbit of gossip about the newcomer, but Jake didn’t mind. He knew that it was the norm in small towns like this.

  While he savored every bite of the steak followed by a blackberry cobbler topped with fresh whipped cream that Glenda had promptly brought over, Jake’s thoughts wandered to the intriguing woman he had startled earlier in the day. Abby was her name, he recalled.I wonder what she is doing now.

  Chapter Two

  Abby watched the fire hiss, crackle, and resettle, thinking her own thoughts as she ruffled Connor’s fur. What would she do if the sale went through and Scarlett did not succeed with her ridiculous plan? The thought wasn’t pleasant.

  Abby loved her job as a plane mechanic, but she had once assumed a husband and children would be in the picture, too. She had cast those dreams aside a couple of years ago after the third man to whom she had attempted to give her heart hopped on a plane after she revealed her feelings for him. She found that it was easier to put up a wall around her barely-mended heart than to contend with more men just looking for a little fun during their short time in Pinesville.

  There was too much heartbreak that accompanied finding a mate, and Abby had already had her fair share of it, in her opinion. If her drop-dead gorgeous sister could not keep a man from leaving, what chance did she have? She remembered helping Scarlett heal from the broken engagement that had shattered her heart four years ago. She felt as though Scarlett was still only a shell of the person she once was. That was probably one of the reasons she thought attempting to marry someone in a matter of days was a good idea: it didn’t give them a chance to run away, and it didn’t give her a chance to really feel.

  As for Abby, she firmly believed she was content in her small cabin with its lovely stone fireplace, a good cup of tea, and the unconditional love of Connor.

  “You are the only love I need,” she babbled to the fluffy dog as she ruffled his ears. He lovingly laid his head on her lap in response.

  Since she knew the next day would prove to be very trying, she decided to call it an early night. Rustling Connor from his favorite spot on her legs, she shuffled around in her fuzzy slippers, turning off lamps and making sure the fire was petering out. While she took care of her nightly tasks, she contemplated her snappy treatment of the man who had startled her that afternoon. As she moved around the kitchen, washing her tea cup and putting her lunch together, she resolved to put her best foot forward and treat the out-of-town guests with as much hospitality as she could muster. It wouldn’t be the easiest task for her. She wasn’t really a people person.

  As she was brushing her teeth, she heard her cell phone chirp in the bedroom, alerting her that she had received a te
xt. After rinsing out her mouth and washing her face, she padded over to her nightstand to see who had texted her. It was Scarlett, of course. No one else would be texting her this late.

  “I’m at Will’s (who is a totally hot by the way!) cabin with some friends and am making major headway. Chin up, little sis! All will work out!!” it read.

  Abby smiled at her sister’s optimistic outlook on life. It would not hurt her to take a few lessons from Scarlett in that department. She knew there were also a couple of departments from which Scarlett could take a few lessons from her as well, particularly the self-control department. Abby sent a reply, “Be careful Scar—youdon’t know this guy very well. Make smart choices!”

  She knew it probably came off as motherly, and that would probably annoy her older sister, but she hoped Scarlett would listen to her advice. Abby comforted herself in the knowledge that Scarlett was not alone with this man, Will, whom she hadn’t even known for eight hours.

  Feeling cozy in her antique bed with its down comforter and numerous quilts hand-stitched by her mother and grandmother, Abby fell into a restless sleep.With Connor at her feet, listening to the light patter of snow falling against her window, Abby worried about her older sister and the man that controlled their airport’s fate.

  * * * *

  About twenty-five miles away at his mansion-like cabin rental, Jake arrived to a very unexpected scene. After Jake had finished his meal of comfort food at the diner, he expected to arrive to a nice quiet cabin, since Will would still be busy with Scarlett. However, he was quite mistaken.

  When he pulled up the long graveled drive, it looked as though every light in the cabin was on, and several vehicles were parked haphazardly in front. Jake managed to pull his car into the garage without hitting anyone else’s, but it was a challenge.