Chapter 17
As offices went, this one was very nice, Erin thought.
With its comfortable gathering spot around an adobe fireplace it had a homey, welcoming feel to it, as if all the people who worked here would get along.
Like a family. If she’d ever had the chance to work in a place like this, she might never have bailed on the corporate world.
She tried not to dwell on the fact that the only reason she’d been able to do that at all, able to pursue the one vocation she truly loved, had been Blaine.
She watched as Rafe went over to the nearest desk, sat and pulled out the computer keyboard that was in a tray beneath the desk surface.
She didn’t see an actual computer so assumed there was a central unit somewhere that powered all three of the workstations in the main room, and probably another in what looked like a more private office in the far corner, beyond what looked like a small meeting room with a large table and several chairs.
She walked over to watch, taking care to keep space between her and Blaine.
The screen in front of the Foxworth man lit up.
In the same moment she heard a faint musical chime that, she gathered from the way he reached for the phone in his pocket, signaled a call or a text.
He started to put the phone face down on the desk, clearly intending to silence it.
He glanced at the screen in the same motion, and suddenly stopped.
Erin watched his expression change, from all business to something different. Not softer, she doubted that word could ever be used about this man, but gentler. Even tender.
“I…have to take this,” he said, almost awkwardly, as if he were completely unused to having anything take priority over work.
And she knew who was on the other end of that call. The woman he’d put it back together with. The woman he’d been estranged from for years.
The woman he loved enough to put that look on his rugged face.
When Rafe got up and walked across the room for some privacy, she didn’t dare look at Blaine, for fear everything she was thinking and feeling would show in her face.
This was hardly the time to ask him if he thought they could ever do the same, put the pieces back together. Besides, why would he ever want to?
For a moment all she could do was stare at the screen showing what was apparently the Foxworth logo, simply the name in a stylized font. She would have given them something different.
“Erin?”
Blaine’s voice was quiet, but still made her pulse leap. But then, it always did. She realized she’d been standing there probably looking blank, so she went with the first thing that came to mind.
“I was just thinking I’d design them a different logo. Something with more…feeling. They should have that, if they always jump in to help people like this.”
“I think they do,” Blaine said. He glanced over at Rafe. “And Rafe’s a different guy because of it.”
And because the breach between him and the woman he loves is healed.
She didn’t say it, but she wanted to. She hated thinking of Blaine with everything in past tense. And hated herself for causing it, even though at the time it was the only path she could see.
Rafe was heading back toward them now, sliding the phone back in his pocket as he came, and a slight smile that warmed even though she barely knew the man. But now that she thought about it, the simple fact that he was here, and had called in his employer to help, told her all she needed to know.
“Your lady?” she asked when he reached them.
The smile widened. “Yes.” Then, with a glance at Blaine before meeting her gaze again, he added, “Thankfully.”
“I’m happy for you.”
“It wasn’t easy. But it was worth it.”
She wasn’t sure if that was aimed at her and Blaine, but it felt like it.
He didn’t wait for a response, but sat back down at the desk.
With a few clicks and keystrokes there was a program open, and a message alert flashing.
He gestured to them both to pull up chairs within camera range, then clicked on the alert.
A video window opened, showing a young man with a stubbled chin and rather spiky hair almost the same color as her own, and a smear of what looked like tomato sauce at the corner of his mouth.
“Sorry,” he said, “pizza. I was in the middle of dinner when your call came in.”
“You didn’t have to drop everything,” Rafe drawled.
“Are you kidding? You asking, for personal reasons? Everything gets dropped.” The guy grinned then. “Besides, I wouldn’t want Charlie mad at me. She’s one tough cookie.”
Rafe chuckled. “Can’t argue with you there.”
“I hear she doesn’t get mad all that much anymore, though.”
It was a moment before Rafe said quietly to the man on the screen, “I hope not.”
“Y’know, I kind of miss her. Not her hanging over my shoulder, mind you, but sometimes she made those mind leaps…”
“I’m well aware,” Rafe said, smiling now. Then he indicated both her and Blaine with a gesture. “Ty Hewitt, meet Erin and Blaine Everett.”
Erin saw the last name, Blaine’s name, register with the young man. “Blaine Everett? The pilot who—”
“Pulled me out of hell, yes,” Rafe said.
Ty’s gaze shifted to Blaine. “Then we owe you great thanks, Mr. Everett. Foxworth wouldn’t be what it is without Rafe.”
Erin couldn’t not notice that both Blaine and Rafe looked uncomfortable with the praise. She knew Blaine was proud of his service, and rightfully so, but after what he’d been through, she wasn’t sure all the thanks in the world would be enough. For her, anyway.
“Now,” Ty said, “let me send you that video. The file’s kind of big, so this’ll take a while. It wasn’t the greatest quality, kind of pixelated, but I got it smoothed out a bit and I think they’re recognizable now.”
She saw a circular gauge in the corner of the screen gradually filling as the file downloaded.
“Any questions or anything else I can do, just holler. I’m here,” Ty said.
“Finish your pizza,” Rafe said.
Ty laughed, and then that window vanished. The gauge continued to slowly fill. Erin felt tension building anew inside her as they waited. She grasped at the first thing she could think of for distraction.
“That photo over there,” she said to Rafe, “with the two men shaking hands. Is that… Gavin de Marco?”
“It is,” Rafe confirmed the identity of the world-famous lawyer who had dropped out of sight. “He works out of our northwest headquarters.”
“With you?” Blaine asked, and by his tone she was guessing he, too, had heard of the man.
Rafe nodded, then gestured toward the photograph on the wall. “The other guy is Marcus Rockwell.”
“The attorney your guy’s wife works for?” Blaine asked.
“Yes. He wasn’t real sure about Amy getting tangled up with us, so Gavin flew down here to reassure him.”
Erin blinked. “He came all the way here just for that?”
Rafe leaned back in his chair and gave her a steady look. “Welcome to Foxworth.”
“No wonder you sound happier now than you ever did in uniform,” Blaine said.
“Let’s just say the guidance at the command level of Foxworth sees a lot clearer.”
Blaine’s mouth quirked in that wry way of his. “Not,” he said, “that that would take a lot these days.”
“Truer words,” Rafe murmured, but he was turning back to the screen now, and she saw the file had finished downloading. He hovered the mouse over the file name, then looked at both of them. “You ready for this? You might not like what you see.”
“If it’s Ethan and he’s alive, I’ll deal with the rest.”
Blaine’s head turned rather sharply, and she could almost feel the look he gave her before he went back to looking at the screen. And belatedly it hit her that if she’d been that certain a couple of years or so ago, this man she’d never stopped loving would still be her husband.
And Ethan would still have a loving, full-time father, and they probably would never have ended up sitting here like this, waiting to see just how much trouble their boy was in.