Читать книгу Breaking Emily's Rules - Heatherly Bell - Страница 13

CHAPTER FOUR

“LET ME GET this straight. Your great-grandmother, your namesake, was a pilot.” Emily’s oldest friend, Rachel Harwood, leaned across the booth and touched the official pilot’s license, still wrapped in the plastic Julia had put it in.

Emily was still a bit surprised she’d been able to wrestle it out of Julia’s hands. “What do you think? Are you going to laugh, too?’

“Laugh? Why would I do that?” Rachel stirred her coffee. “Please. Let me just have a nice whiff of your leaded coffee. This decaf is killing me.”

Emily pushed her mug over and let Rachel take a nice long sniff. She obviously wanted Emily to feel sorry about the awful caffeine withdrawal, but she couldn’t dredge up even an ounce of pity. Rachel had switched to decaf because she was eight weeks pregnant.

It was Monday morning, and they were sitting in a booth at The Drip, one of Emily’s favorite places in town. Nothing could cheer her up like the strongest coffee in the Bay Area. “You don’t want to tell me that she doesn’t sound anything like me?”

“I didn’t expect you to have anything in common with a woman who lived in the first part of the last century,” Rachel said with a mini eye roll.

“Don’t you think she sounds wild and carefree?”

“Sweetie, women in that time were never wild and carefree. Get a clue.”

“But she was a maverick, for her time.”

“She sounds like she was bored,” Rachel said. “When you can’t vote, can’t work, can’t get birth control, I guess you get a little stir-crazy. Lesson learned.”

“I can’t believe you’re not impressed. I know I am. And from now on, I’m going to be a wild woman, too.”

Rachel froze and closed her eyes for a second. “You’re going to be a—what?”

“You heard me. I’m going to take chances and throw caution to the wind, and most of all, I’ll be the most impractical person you’ve ever met. Rachel, meet your new best friend. She’s going to be fun and carefree. Like a Rebel Without a Cause, but not so James Dean-y. I think you’re going to love me.”

“Where is my Emily and what have you done with her, you impostor?”

“I’m the new and improved Emily.”

Rachel put her hand on Emily’s arm. “Don’t let Greg do this to you.”

“This isn’t about him. This is all me.”

“Oh, the hell it is. You didn’t do anything wrong, so why change who you are?”

Emily sighed. “Because maybe I want to?”

“Only if you want to change for the right reasons. I’ve always said you can’t control everything. Sometimes the fun is in letting go and going for a ride.” Rachel rubbed her temple. “Okay. I get where you’re going with this. And I think I’m on board.”

“Thank you!”

“Why don’t we try this ‘new you’ on for size.” Rachel, who faced the entrance to the café from their booth, turned to point to a man who now stood in line behind her. “What about him?”

Emily glanced at the back of the man. Her back to the entrance, she hadn’t even noticed anyone come in. Still, she couldn’t see how a stranger had anything to do with this. “Him?”

“I’d like to see this new wild woman go up to that man and ask him out. Then I’ll believe you mean it. That will show me you’re willing to do this thing by relaxing Emily’s Dating Rules.”

“Can we start with something that doesn’t have anything to do with a guy? This new me doesn’t have anything to do with men.”

“Meh. I hear a lot of excuses. I don’t think you have it in you. It’s all right. Not everyone does.”

“I’m not afraid. There’s no point to it.” Besides, what if the man said yes? What then?

“Okay, okay, never mind.”

“What if he’s married?” That would be where she’d draw the line with this rebel thing. No married men. No thank you.

“Then he’ll say no.”

Emily raised an eyebrow. “Now who’s being naive?”

“I’ll have him checked out at the paper if he says yes. It’s one date, and it won’t kill you. And after that, you can go back to your dry spell.”

“Fine. I’ll do it. But if he says yes, you’ll have to find a way to get me out of it.” Emily planted her hands on the table, wrenched herself up and marched over to the man’s back.

It was a pretty good-looking back, as those went. Broad shoulders tapered down to long lean legs. Definitely fit, not that it mattered. Ask the man out. She could do that.

Rachel was worried about her, which was kind of sweet, actually. But even if Emily had stayed in bed for the better part of six months, she was back now and better than ever. Except, she wasn’t sure how she would ask this man out.

She’d watched Molly do this a bazillion times. Emily had to channel her inner Hoochie Mama. She was in there somewhere, under lock and key, and would now be released on an unsuspecting world. And this unsuspecting man. She’d probably come staggering out, waving cobwebs out of her way, but come out she would. Just for a minute.

Emily drew in a deep breath. In a voice as dripping with sex as she could conjure up, she said to the man’s back, “Hey, I think you and I should go out sometime. What do you say?”

The man had just paid for his drink and turned, coffee in hand, eyebrows up.

It was Stone.

Emily threw up her hand in surprise, and it accidently collided with his hot coffee. Like watching an accident unfold in slow motion, he tried to right the cup while her hand did the same. But when her hand slapped against his, disaster reigned supreme as coffee won the day and spilled all over Stone’s brown cargo pants.

“Here, let me help you.” Emily grabbed napkins, and the barista threw over a dishrag.

Emily blotted for a minute before she realized how close she was getting to his crotch. She turned in desperation to Rachel, only to see her doubled up in laughter, wiping her eyes.

Stone shook his head, scowling. “You’re dangerous, girl.”

Oh, epic fail. As if she was Cinderella at the crack of midnight, Emily turned, grabbed her purse from the booth and ran out of the café. She could barely hear the sound of Rachel behind her, calling out Emily’s name.

Maybe if she was lucky, really blessed, Emily would turn into a pumpkin.

She reached her truck and climbed in, ready to peal rubber out of the parking lot. Ask a man out? When will I listen to that inner little voice? A klutz should never ask a guy out in the vicinity of any kind of liquid.

Rachel banged on the passenger-side window, so Emily unlocked the door.

“Are you happy now?”

Rachel opened the door and let herself inside. “I’m sorry I laughed. That wasn’t fair. But, hey, you did it.”

“I made a fool out of myself.”

“Who cares? I’ve never known you to even approach a stranger, and there you were, doing it. So what if coffee and gravity won? I do think he would have said yes, had you not run out on him.”

Emily hit the steering wheel with her head. She’d run out on Stone. Again. No point in telling Rachel this was round two. “I did run out on him.”

“I don’t blame you,” Rachel continued. “With a man like that, you want to put your best foot forward. Maybe you should go back in there and try again.”

“No way, Rachel. I’m done listening to your bright ideas.”

Rachel elbowed Emily. “You know what? You’ve proved it. You’re a wild woman. Why don’t you do something really wild, like get your pilot’s license?”

“Are you nuts?”

“Why not? Your namesake did, so there’s some connection to the past there. It has nothing to do with men, right? And if you want to do something different, step outside your comfort zone. Does it get any more different for you than that?”

As a matter of fact, it didn’t. She’d always had her feet planted firmly on the ground, both literally and figuratively. But flying lessons? Emily thought about it while she peeled out of the parking lot. “It would make a nice human interest story for the alumni newsletter.”

“You bet it would.”

Pilot’s license. Crazy, yes, but wasn’t she courting crazy? “I’ll think about it.”

* * *

“ARE YOU OKAY?” The barista handed him another coffee, a sheepish look on her face. “This one’s on the house.”

His first visit to the establishment and he’d been bathed in the stuff. Damn Matt for getting him hooked on the coffee here. “Yeah. Thanks.” Now he’d have to turn around and go back home to change, and he could look forward to another encounter with Winston when he did.

“Emily’s always been a klutz. But I will say, I’ve never seen her ask a guy out before. This is one for the books,” the girl said as she came around to mop the floor.

And what the hell had that been about? Emily’s eyes had widened in shock when he’d turned to see who had asked him out in a voice that sounded like that of a phone sex operator. Hadn’t she told him she was not in the habit of going out with strangers? And why the hell was she constantly running out on him? He still hadn’t heard “sorry” come out of her mouth, but at least this time, the apology had been written all over her face.

“I’m guessing she comes in here a lot,” Stone said, dumping the napkins in the trash can.

“Emily? You could say that. Her family owns Fortune Ranch, if you’re interested in following up on that date request.”

A tempting thought, admittedly, but maybe best to stay away from the girl. First his jaw, then hot coffee spilled inches from his crotch. He couldn’t afford to lose a limb at this point. “Fortune Ranch?”

“It’s not a cattle ranch anymore. Mostly where we have the high school’s Sadie Hawkins dance, picnics and big company parties. She’s going to add weddings now.”

He looked out the storefront and saw Emily hit her head on the steering wheel of her truck. He recognized the woman who had run after her, since she’d come in a couple of weeks ago to talk to them about newspaper advertising.

Stone headed back to his truck, brand-new cup of fresh coffee in his hand. With no traffic, he was back home within minutes.

After wrestling Winston down again, changing and driving to the airport, by ten Monday morning Stone was back at the flight school. No one here to bother him but the planes. That he could handle.

Finally, a few moments of relative silence. Not common at airports, but there was a lull between landings and takeoffs at San Martin Airport in the afternoons. The airport and its strip were small and located out in the middle of the empty field, formerly zoned for agricultural use alone.

Stone stared out the window at the two Cessna planes, Magnum Flying School printed on the side of one of the planes. Dad’s dream had lasted a good ten years, but it threatened to fizzle out with Stone at the helm. He’d never claimed to be a damned businessman. He knew how to fly a plane. Happened to love flying a plane. Teaching and running a small business was another story.

He shut the window because he smelled shit again, or as his office manager, Cassie, explained, the fertilizer for the mushrooms. It was a fact of life here in Fortune, home of the mushroom, but only mattered depending on which way the wind blew. There were days when the wind shifted and Stone wanted to pack his bags. But then he’d see his father’s photo and be reminded he’d made a promise, and he intended to keep it.

Cassie stuck her head in the door. “Got a minute, boss?”

“Told you not to call me that.”

Cassie Helms was sixtysomething, and nearing retirement. By way of introduction a year ago, she’d told him exactly how old she was and announced she and her husband had a pleasant-sized nest egg and planned to retire to Mexico. In case he got any bright ideas about making any significant changes, he assumed. They’d already bought the hacienda, which made Stone wonder whether perhaps he paid Cassie too much. More than likely, the previous owner had, for many years. Come to think of it, that sounded just like Dad.

Then again, Dad hadn’t been any more of a businessman than Stone. Not when his biggest concern had been that both Cassie and Jedd keep their jobs.

Cassie walked in with a glazed donut, which she placed on his desk. This meant she had semi-bad news, since she often liked to present her news with food offerings. Candy meant good news, donuts semi-bad news. Stone expected in a few weeks he’d find a cake on his desk.

“What is it now?” Stone raked a hand through his hair.

“Mr. Burton wants a meeting,” Cassie said as she eased into the chair across from his desk.

“I should have seen that coming.” In Burton’s place, Stone would have done the same.

Burton, a wealthy retired CEO from Silicon Valley, had been the only one to express interest in buying the school as one of his investments. They’d been in the middle of working out salaries for keeping Cassie and Jedd on staff. Stone could almost smell his freedom, and then his sister had slammed into town. She’d been approached by a developer for almost twice the amount. But that would mean the loss of many local jobs, and likely another strip mall. “I doubt it’s good news.”

“You’ve done everything you could, and I know your father would say the same.”

“He was so proud of you. Had pictures of you and your unit all over the office. I used to like coming in here and seeing all those handsome soldiers. An old lady needs to get her thrills somewhere. But then you took them all down.”

He sure didn’t need any reminders of that time. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“I miss your dad more than I want to admit. The ol’ fart.”

Stone grinned. “I should have put that on his headstone.”

Dad’s presence was here in this office and everywhere Stone looked.

He had a meeting with Sarah and her attorney next week. Matt had talked Stone into it, do-gooder that he was. There should be a job waiting for Matt at the United Nations if he wanted it. Stone supposed it was his own fault for putting her off so long after that first contentious meeting. But on the other hand, she’d been the one to hire an attorney first, forcing him to hire one, too. Still, there was no point in avoiding the inevitable. Maybe with some luck Sarah’s attorney would help, though Stone doubted it. A meeting was all he’d agreed to.

Sarah might be his sister, but in name only. They didn’t know each other anymore, and the fact she only cared about money made him think he didn’t want to know her. She didn’t feel like family since only biology connected them, and he had no obligation to her. The one thing he knew without a doubt was that his obligation was to the only real family with which he’d had a real and lasting connection. The United States Air Force, and James Mcallister.