“How long can you stay?”
“I managed a month off. I’ll be staying at our home, helping out and doing some wrangling. I really miss throwing a leg over a good horse and riding fence line.” She gave Andy an evil smile, seeing her sister nod and then laugh with her.
“Hey,” Andy said, pointing at her legs, “I feel like a dude. One day of fence repair and Dev and I are walking bowlegged!”
“He’s easy on the eyes, Andy. Lucky you. He’s your boss, right?”
“Yes. He’s as nice as he looks, Sky. Come on, let me introduce him to you.”
Sky saw the man slide out of the booth and stand. It was the Old West at its best. She liked that cowboys held some respect for women, standing when they were introduced, opening doors, tipping their hats in respect. All good in her book.
“Dev, this is my sister, Sky Whitcomb. She’s a year younger than me. Sky, meet Dev Mitchell.”
“Nice to meet you, Sky,” he said, holding out his hand to her.
Sky shook his large, warm hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Mitchell.”
“Call me Dev, will you?”
Andy tugged at her hand, motioning for her to slide into the booth on the side she was sitting on. Her sister slid in, too, giving her a happy look. This was easy, Sky thought, giving her plenty of room so Andy could sit exactly opposite Dev. She saw something in his eyes, sensing he really liked her sister. Neither of them were any good at relationships, and Sky often wondered if it was because they had been abandoned. Trust was hard to come by in their world; she’d seen it play out over and over again in all four of them. She’d often discussed it with her sister when they were in the military and managed to get thirty days’ leave to come home and be together with their parents.
A waitress came over, giving Sky a glass of water and a menu.
“Have you guys ordered yet?” she asked them.
“Yes,” Andy said.
“We’re having hamburgers and fries,” Dev offered.
Sky nodded, handing the menu back to the waitress. “I’ll have the same, but I’d like a large, thick chocolate milkshake, please?”
The waitress smiled and wrote it down. “You got it. Any coffee?”
“Oh, definitely,” Sky murmured.
“She likes cream and sugar,” Andy volunteered, pulling over a container filled with different types of sugar packets. At Kassie’s, they always brought over a fresh pitcher of milk or cream to each table, but this one was empty.
“I’ll make it happen,” the waitress promised, tucking the menu beneath her arm and leaving.
Happily, Andy turned toward her. “So, you can stay here a whole month?”
“Yep. I got my boss to give me the time off because last year I was due two weeks of vacay, but he needed me and the other wildfire pilots to move on to Southern California.”
“This is so wonderful!” Andy whispered, suddenly emotional. She turned her gaze to Dev. “Sky and I are thick as thieves. We’ve loved each other since I can remember.”
“That’s good,” Dev said. “I can tell you two spell trouble with a capital ‘T.’”
Both of them giggled and nodded.
“You’re pretty astute, Dev,” Sky congratulated him.
“I’d like to think good managers develop an awareness of their employees.”
Snorting, Sky muttered, “That’s all well and good, but it isn’t always the case. When I got out of the Army, I went through two wildfire companies, trying to find just that.”
Groaning, Andy said, “She went through two really bad bosses. The first was a womanizer and the second one told her if she didn’t sleep with him, she’d never get a raise.”
Dev’s mouth tightened and he met and held Sky’s gaze. “It’s a story that happens too often to women.”
“Not any more, not after #metoo and #timesup,” she parried.
“A long time coming,” Dev agreed. “Far too long.”
Giving him a one-eyebrow raised look, Sky said wryly, “What? Are you the figment of women’s imagination? The twenty-first-century man? The dude who respects women?”
Andy cut her a pleading glance.
“Okay, okay,” Sky muttered, “I’m sorry, Dev.”
“No, don’t be. I’ve seen my mother taken advantage of by men. I’ve seen what it’s done to her, so no need for apologies.”
Andy patted her forearm. “Don’t go off on him, Sky. You can’t put Dev in the same box that Neanderthal-trained men live in.”
“So?” Sky challenged, “What happened to you?” and she drilled a hard look into Dev’s gaze.
“I was raised by a set of parents who respected each other,” he offered. “My dad always treated my mother like an equal, because she was just as smart and usually smarter than he was. I grew up in that household believing women were human beings.”
A grudging corner of her mouth lifted. “I like what I’m hearing. We need billions of parents to teach their children just like you were. Women are sick and tired of being seen as something to be used and not respected.”
“Hey,” Andy begged her, “can we table this, Sky? Dev is one of us. Not them.”
Her nostrils flared. “I’m sick to death of them.”
Andy laughed and looked at Dev. “Which probably explains why the two of us never married, never wanted to get into relationships. All the men we run into are Neanderthals.”
“I don’t blame you,” Dev said, remaining serious. “If you don’t have equality, the relationship is one-sided, not fair.”
Sky sat back, a sudden grin blossoming across her mouth. She slanted a gaze at her sister. “Is there a clone of him somewhere? Maybe we can make a 3D out of him?” She saw pink touch Andy’s cheeks and realized there was something between those two. Not meaning to make her uncomfortable, Sky said, “Just teasing, sis.”
“I wish I could clone Dev,” Andy admitted.
The waitress brought Sky’s coffee and a pitcher of cream. Sky thanked her.
“So, Dev Mitchell, I understand from Mom that you were working at becoming a wrangler out there riding fence today. How did you like it?”
Dev’s mouth twitched. “Let’s just say it feels good to sit still for a while.”
Laughing, Sky gave them an amused look. “Well, for the next month I’m going to go through the pain of getting my horse legs back, just like you’re doing.”
“Sky used to come home for five months out of every year, starting in November through April, and stay at the family ranch. She’s a wrangler like I am.”
“You traded in your pilot hat for a cowgirl’s hat?” Dev teased Sky.
“Yep, and after piloting in bumpy-as-hell water tankers, getting my teeth jarred out of my head, dealing with updrafts and downdrafts large enough to throw my plane into a nosedive flat spin or ripping a wing off the fuselage, I was more than ready to do hands-on work. At least moving hay bales, and cleaning and repairing leather, won’t do that to you. Feet on the ground. I always loved coming home for those months, but the last two years I haven’t been able to do it.”
“And before that? Andy said you were in the military. What branch?” Dev asked, sipping his coffee.
After stirring in cream to her coffee, Sky took a quick sip and said, “The Army. I flew Apache combat helos over in Afghanistan.” She saw admiration and respect instantly come to his face. “How about you? Were you in the military, too?”
“I was in the Army, like you. Went in as an officer, took flight training and ended up with Black Hawk helicopters. Later, I flew MH-60L DAPs (Defensive Armed Penetrators) and then was invited to fly with the Night Stalkers.”
“Oh, you flew those hot and lethal DAPs. You’re a black ops pilot.”
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I did. Now? I like flying medevac. That’s enough excitement for me today.”
“Andy was a combat Warthog pilot. And you’re the guy who helped rescue her?”
“Well,” Dev hedged, “we saved one another. Both our craft crashed.�
��
Andy became serious and told her, “He did most of the saving.”
Sky saw their food coming. “Hey, chow’s here. Tell me about how you two met here in Wind River while we eat, okay?”
“Sure,” she said.
“It wasn’t exactly boy meets girl,” Dev teased, giving Andy a smile.
Sky didn’t miss the look that passed between them, now convinced that Andy wasn’t “just an employee” and he wasn’t “just her boss.” Nope. She sensed a positive and yearning energy between them, and that made her feel good. “I’m all ears, Andy. Tell me.”
* * *
“Are you sure you won’t join us over at the condo hot tub?” Andy pleaded with Sky as they emerged from Kassie’s Café an hour later. The sun was heading toward the west, the heat of the day over.
“Nah,” she said. “I’m really tired and I want to get a good night’s sleep. Mom needs help with all the airport celebration details and I told her I’d be her gofer until this shindig kicks off on the Fourth of July.”
“I’ve got forty-eight hours on and off duty,” Andy explained as they walked toward the parking lot in back of Kassie’s. “On my days off, I’ll be helping, too.”
“Good,” Sky murmured, walking with them across the gravel between the buildings.
“And Dev, plus some of the other employees, are going to be getting their stuff ready for the celebration. He gave me the time off to help Mom and her team.”
Giving Dev a pleased look, she could see why Andy liked him. Not wanting to further embarrass her sister, she decided to hold her questions until they were alone. Just how far were they in to their relationship? Andy was smart enough not to have an office romance. She knew better. But then, Dev Mitchell wasn’t the average guy either. Throughout their meal, she was pleased with his sensitivity and ability to read people, as well as to ask good, insightful questions of each of them. Sure that Dev knew all of Maud and Steve’s children were adopted, Sky didn’t want to bring it up at the table. Did Dev know Andy was adopted? Unsure, Sky wasn’t going to cause a stir between them by asking questions. She knew when to keep her mouth shut. That, and she realized timing was everything.
* * *
“This hot tub is doing wonders for my sore backside,” Andy groaned to Dev. They were in the spa room, which was empty at this time of day. There was a large swimming pool that took up most of the room, the hot tub off to one side in the corner of the facility. She sat across from him, the warm water up to her shoulders, bubbling and working its miracle of easing her tight leg muscles. She tried not to stare at Dev, who wore a pair of black trunks that fell halfway down his thick, curved and hairy thighs. The man was in very good shape. Drooling inwardly, she tried to pretend not to be attracted to him. The carpet of dark chest hair only emphasized his masculinity. The five o’clock shadow on his face gave him a look of someone not to tangle with in a gun or knife fight. From her perspective, though, it only made him look like a risk worth taking.
She cautioned herself that the biggest hurdle was that he was her boss. And she wanted this job more than anything else. Being home, making a quieter life for herself, was her number-one priority. That, and being with her family. Still, the way a lock of brown hair glinting with strands of red beneath the lights made her want to go over and use her fingers to gently move them off his brow. Andy knew that was a nonverbal signal of the strongest kind, letting Dev know in no uncertain terms that she wanted more, much more from him.
“It feels so damned good,” he muttered, closing his eyes, sinking his naked back against the smooth blue tiles in the tub. “I think I’ll sleep in here tonight.”
Laughing, Andy understood. “You were in the saddle off and on for seven hours today. That’s a lot to ask of your legs when they aren’t used to being wrapped around a horse.”
He pried one eye open, a loose grin coming to his mouth. “I was thinking that very same thing. Are you a mind reader, too?”
“Naw,” she said, “I’m experiencing the same thing. I lost my riding legs when I left home at eighteen.”
“How long?”
“How long, what?”
He pointed to his legs sprawled out in front of him. “Until I get riding legs?”
“Oh,” she said, shrugging. “Depends upon whether you want to learn how to be a wrangler. Wrangling is hard, physical work, with brawn mixed into it.”
“And,” he said, studying the redwood rafters of the ceiling, “all my romantic ideas that cowboys were an iconic symbol of the wild, untamed West and such.”
“I’m curious. Did you have an interest in being one when you were a kid?” She liked the amusement glimmering in his green eyes. Truly, he was Irish. The way his sculpted lips shaped into that teasing grin made her yearn for him even more.
“Yeah, growing up I wanted books on cowboys, on Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers and stories about flying in general. I remember when I was seven telling my mom one day that I knew I’d be a cowboy when I grew up.”
Brows raising, Andy sat up. “Really?”
“It almost makes me look clairvoyant about my future, doesn’t it?” He gave her a wry look. “Now don’t be too impressed, okay? The Irish are well known to have the sight, the ability to see, hear or know things before they happen.”
“Wow.”
He held up his hand. “My mother really does have the sight.”
“So maybe you inherited it from her?”
Giving her a mirthless grin, he said, “My grandmother Betha was an astrologer, and everyone in Barna, and the rich folks from Galway, came to her for readings. She was rarely wrong and was a very well-known, loved and revered woman. Everyone said she was half fairy because so many of our tales are about the magical fairies of Ireland.”
“I love myths, legends and stories. Growing up, I read every Harry Potter book I could get my hands on. And another children’s author, Darcy Deming, who wrote a fabulous Native American series about a set of twins, Sage Stone and his sister, Rachel, just inspired me so much. To this day, some of the books I read as a young girl and teen influenced me far more than I realized. And look at you! You read cowboy books!”
“My dad is a huge fan of William W. Johnstone. He’s a prolific writer, nearly a hundred books so far. For his birthday, every year, I’d go to his publisher’s website and order the latest books he’s written and send them to him. And he saves them in a special bookcase, and when I’d come home, I’d read them and we’d have some great discussions about the West.”
“Imagine, your dad loved cowboy books,” Andy said, giving him an awed look. “I don’t suppose they have anything in Ireland that’s an equivalent to a cowboy?”
Laughing, he said, “No, not even close.”
“So, you got your cowboy leanings through your dad and his love of cowboy books. That was a great influence. Have you told him yet that you’re studying to become a wrangler?”
“Not yet,” he deadpanned. “I wanted to see if I could survive today.”
The laughter between them floated throughout the empty facility.
“Well, since you have, Dev, are you going to share with him your little secret?” she teased him. Andy had never seen him as relaxed as right now. It served to tell her that when his face was unreadable, he was tense and focused on something. Right now? He smiled often, the glint in his evergreen-colored eyes truly reminding her of him being a genuine Irishman. As if there wasn’t enough to like about him, she realized the tension he carried on his shoulders was gone, too. Feeling that he was like a delicious box of chocolates she could never have, it tempered her need to dig more deeply into his fascinating Irish background. Surely he had a woman in his life? He had to have! This man was so many cuts above the usual men out there that it left her wanting him all over again. Dev was a one-of-a-kind type of man. Her type.
Panning the bubbling water in front of him with his large hand, he said, “I try to call them on the weekends. When I get back to my condo, I intend to chat with th
em.”
“I wish I could eavesdrop,” she said.
“When we can get together again, I’ll fill you in.”
“I imagine your dad will be surprised and excited.”
“He’ll blame it on the Johnstone books I’ve read over the years.”
“I wonder if writers know how much influence they wield on us.”
“Good question. My dad has always wanted to write.”
“Well, aren’t the Irish storytellers?”
“We do have a gene for storytelling, that’s true.”
“Have you ever wanted to write?” she wondered.
“Not really, but I do like reading books. It’s downtime for me. It destresses me. Are you an avid reader?”
She shook her head. “No, I’ve always been a risk-taker, a Type A personality and restless. I had to be doing something all the time. That’s how I got into wrangling at the ranch: because I was bored out of my skull. Sky was a lot like me. My two brothers were geeky. They liked playing computer games by the hour, but Mom laid down the law to them, told them one hour a day. And that was after they got their homework finished. And on weekends, like Sky and me, from age twelve onward, we learned the art of wrangling.”
“Did all of you want to do it?”
“Yes. We all loved horseback riding, loved working with the men and women who were real wranglers on the ranch. Face it, Dev, when you wrangle there’s something new every day. You just don’t get bored.”
He gave her a thoughtful look. “You and Sky are pilots. Tell me about your two brothers.”
She gave him a wistful smile. “Luke will be here tomorrow but he said he might be coming in late. He’s number three out of four. My father was in Boise, Idaho, on some architectural business when he found out Luke, who was two at the time, was up for adoption. Our mother wanted four kids, and Luke seemed like a good fit. She’d dreamed of having two girls and two boys.”
“And what kind of work is he in? Married? Kids of his own?”
“Luke is like me: a risk-taker, easily bored and a Type A. We were really close growing up because he was just as bold as I was about taking challenges. It drove my poor mother crazy. He did two years at the community college in Boise, and then became a Hotshot. When it was spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere, he would be working wildfires in Canada and here in the US. In our wintertime, he was hired by the Australian government and spent six months fighting wildfires in the Southern Hemisphere.”
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