Chapter Five #3
Heather laughed. “Go on and have your fun. I’ll take Diane back to her room.”
Her baby had been up since five so she was content to relax in the now familiar crib. Heather wound up a music box, pulled up the blanket and patted Diane’s tummy.
“Just squawk if you need anything, sweetie,” she said as she turned on the baby monitor. “Auntie Flo will be in here before you can draw a second breath.”
“I can hear you, you know,” Flo called from the other room.
“I thought you were busy ingesting sugar.”
“I am. Grab a cup of coffee on your way out and join me.”
Heather did as she suggested and took the chair next to Flo’s desk and sipped her coffee. Flo was still in raptures over the doughnuts.
“I’m only going to eat two,” she promised. “If you see me lurking near the box, you have permission to drag me away, by the hair if necessary. You’ll have to protect me from myself.”
“Why are you on a diet?” Heather asked. “You look terrific.”
Flo rolled her eyes. “This from a perfect size two.”
“I’m not a size two.” But she was a size four, which she figured Flo didn’t want to know.
“You do look great,” she insisted. “I wish I were more like you and had some curves. I’ve been skinny my whole life.
I have no muscle tone, my arms and legs look like sticks.
I hate wearing a bathing suit because I don’t have much on top.
What I have now is because I’m breast-feeding, and that’ll be gone before I know it. ”
Flo wore her usual tight clothing. Today it was a magenta blouse tucked into black slacks. She licked the sugar off her fingers. “I’m not feeling the least bit sympathetic, but it does my heart good to hear you complain about your body. The same body I consider amazing.”
“Do you know what it’s like to have trouble filling an A-cup bra, let alone spilling out of it?”
“That’s nothing.” Flo dismissed her with a wave. “I can gain ten pounds in less than two weeks. I’ve never had a flat stomach in my life, and if my breasts were any bigger, they would start showing up on county maps.”
Heather laughed. “I once slept with a man who told me my hip bones were so sharp he was afraid I might impale him.”
“Really?” Flo leaned toward her. “I could beat that one a hundred times over, but it would make me feel good to have you win this little contest of ours, so that’s just what I’m going to do.”
Heather looked at the woman who was quickly becoming her friend. “Thank you, Flo.”
“For what?”
“Everything. You’ve been very kind to me.”
“I like having you around. It’s been lonely being the only girl in the place.”
Heather thought about all the men who worked on the helicopters and the pilots who were in and out of the office. “But there are so many cute guys around here. Don’t you like that?”
Flo’s smile faded and her brown eyes darkened with shadows. “I’m not a huge fan of the male species. I adore Jim and would do just about anything for him. And I have a great man in my life now, but it wasn’t always like that.”
She paused, and Heather didn’t know what to say. They had clearly steered close to a very personal topic. While she was curious about her new friend, she didn’t want to pry or intrude.
Flo must have read the uncertainty on her face because the older woman leaned over and touched her arm. “Don’t worry about it. You couldn’t have known about my past because we’ve never talked about it. I don’t blurt it out to everyone, but I don’t keep secrets, either.”
She paused and took a sip of her coffee. “I was a battered wife,” she said matter-of-factly. “My ex-husband beat me from the first night of our honeymoon until I left him nearly twenty-five years later.”
Heather gave an involuntary start of surprise.
Flo looked at her and smiled sadly. “I know what you’re thinking.
Why on earth did I stay with him for twenty-five years?
” She shrugged. “At the time, I could’ve given you a list of reasons.
I didn’t have any skills. He hadn’t let me get a job or even have friends.
I was very isolated and lived in fear for my life.
But now, when I look at how horrible things were then and how far I’ve come, I can’t believe it took me so long to get myself to a place where I had the courage to leave. ”
“I’m not judging you,” Heather said quickly.
“I know. I appreciate your concern. To be honest, I feel like that was a lifetime ago. Maybe it was. But one night, I figured I would rather leave and risk him coming after me with a shotgun than stay and take one more slap to the face or punch to the ribs.”
She pressed her full lips together. “Earlier, I said I couldn’t have children because there was something wrong with my plumbing.
That’s only half the truth. I was fine before I got married.
One night, he got it in his mind that I’d been flirting with one of my friends.
I was pregnant at the time, about four months along.
I’d barely talked to the man, of course, but my husband was too drunk or jealous or just looking for an excuse.
He started screaming that the baby wasn’t his and he was going to make me pay for that.
So he started in on me, this time kicking as well as hitting.
He made me lose the baby and messed me up so bad inside that I couldn’t have any more children. ”
Heather felt her throat tightening. “I’m so sorry,” she said, knowing the words were inadequate compared with her pain.
“Thank you.” Flo leaned back in her chair.
“So I finally gathered up my courage and left. Turns out courage was all I got to take with me. He burned everything else of mine. There I was. Forty-eight years old. Never held a job. I didn’t even know how to fill out an application.
I was beat up, and once I hit forty, it took a lot longer for the bruises to fade.
But I was determined, and I kept going out on job interviews.
As expected, I wasn’t successful. Until Jim Dyer gave me a chance. ”
She smiled at the memory. “At the time I didn’t know a helicopter from a taxicab.
He was patient and kind. He even found me a place to stay for a few months until I could save enough to move out on my own.
Now I have a condo I bought myself, I’m halfway through college and I have Arnie, who’s a decent guy.
It’s taken me a long time to get here, but I made the journey. I survived.”
“You did more than that,” Heather said. “You thrived.”
“Some days I would agree with you,” Flo admitted.
She jerked her head toward the window. “But I’m sure you can understand why working with a bunch of good-looking guys doesn’t do much for me.
I trust some of them. Jim, of course. He’s a wonderful man.
One day, my ex showed up here. He was determined to bring me home.
Jim took him out back and gave him a lesson in what it felt like to be worked over.
” She smiled. “I never saw that sorry excuse for a man again.”
Heather remembered Jim’s offer to go after the father of her baby for abandoning her. “He has high standards for male behavior,” she said.
“That he does. Jim is about the best human being on the planet.” She shook her head, then sniffed. “Well, shoot. I hate starting the day on a down note. I think I need a few minutes of cuddling your beautiful baby to set my spirits to rights again. I’ll be back.”
Flo rose and headed for the nursery. Heather stared after her, then found her gaze drifting toward the windows. She could see several men standing around one of the helicopters. Jim was easy to spot.
She thought about what Flo had said about him and what she knew to be true. Was he a real, live hero? Heather wanted to believe that, but she wasn’t sure heroes existed in real life. What was she supposed to think of a man who seemed too good to be true?