A House Full of Fortunes!

“No problem. We’ve been checking out the reception area.” And the receptionist, who’d just bent over to reach into the lowest drawer of the filing cabinet.

Toby hadn’t noticed before, but Angie was wearing a short black skirt. Well, it hadn’t looked so short until she’d bent over and those long, tanned, shapely legs stretched out.

Wow.

Sawyer continued to talk, although Toby couldn’t quite wrap his mind around what he was saying. Still, he nodded as if he’d heard every word.

When Kylie, who must have gotten bored looking at the miniature planes with her brothers, wandered over to Angie, Toby was about to call the little girl over to him and tell her that Angie was busy. But without missing a beat, Angie set her up at the desk with a stamp pad and paper, then went back to stooping and bending and flashing those long, shapely legs.

“Aw, so that’s the way the wind is blowing,” Sawyer said, calling Toby out.

“The wind?”

Sawyer lowered his voice to a whisper. “It’s not the airplanes you’re interested in. It’s Little Miss Google. I’d wondered why you wanted to know if she was working today.”

Toby tore his gaze from Angie, ran his fingers through his closely cropped hair and focused on Sawyer. “What are you talking about? Who’s Little Miss Google?”

“Evangeline Edwards, our part-time receptionist and jack-of-all-trades.”

Toby never had been good at lying, so he zeroed in on the subject he’d rather discuss. “Why do you call her Little Miss Google?”

“Because she’s a walking version of the website. If you want any information about anything at all, there’s a pretty good chance she knows it.”

While Toby had never considered Angie to be dumb, she hadn’t struck him as being exceptionally knowledgeable, either.

Had he missed something?

“You don’t believe me? Watch this.” Sawyer called across the open reception room. “Hey, Angie, Captain Schroder called a few minutes ago. Laurel wasn’t around for me to ask, but he’s flying his client’s new Cessna Nav into Horseback Hollow. He wants to know how many feet per minute his descent should be.”

Angie didn’t look up from her work. “If his true airspeed is 75 knots, which is standard for most Cessna Navs on approach, our headwind component here is usually 15 knots. That would make his ground speed 60 knots, which you’d multiply by five for a rate of descent of 300 feet per minute.”

“Thanks. I’ll let him know.” Sawyer gave Toby a little jab with his elbow, then tilted his head and lifted a single eyebrow as if to ask, What’d I tell you?

Toby had no way of knowing if what Angie had recited was true or not, but he figured it must be. Pete the mechanic hadn’t argued the point. Of course, he still had his nose in the newspaper.

Moments later, Laurel Redmond Fortune came through the same back door Sawyer had entered. The lovely blonde greeted Toby with a hug, then gave her husband a kiss. “I’m going to grab a quick cup of coffee in the break room, then I’ll give you guys that tour we promised.”

“Take your time,” Toby said.

As Laurel left the room, Pete lowered the newspaper he’d been reading. “Did you guys know that Herb Walker got busted for drunk-and-disorderly conduct last night outside the Two Moon Saloon?”

Sawyer gave Toby another little elbow jab, then said, “I wonder what kind of bail his wife will have to post for him.”

“Normally, it would be twenty-five hundred dollars,” Angie said, “but seeing how today is Monday and Judge Hanson doesn’t approve of drinking on Sundays, drunk and disorderlies from the night before usually have to post four thousand.”

Angie’s position on her knees, as she placed the last of the papers in the very back of the lowest drawer, gave Toby an excellent view of the rear end Doris Edwards had criticized days earlier. But Toby was so busy picking up his jaw off the floor that he was having trouble concentrating on those lovely curves.

How did she know those random facts?

When Sawyer and Pete started to laugh, Angie finally looked up and clued in to what was happening. “Were you guys doing that Google thing again?”

“What’s a drunk and disorderly?” Kylie asked, reminding the adults that the kids were still hanging around.

“It’s what Aunt Barbara got arrested for,” Brian answered, displaying knowledge beyond his age.

The laughter suddenly ceased, and the adults sobered. Fortunately, Angie swooped in for the save. “Hey, Brian, Mr. Fortune said you could go sit in the cockpit of his brand-new Gulfstream. You can even touch every button and lever. And Mr. Nelson won’t mind a bit putting them all back into place after you guys mess with them to your heart’s content.”

As a whoop went up from the kids, Angie cheekily smiled at her boss and the mechanic.

About that time, Laurel came out of the break room with her coffee. “Let’s go, kids.”

“I call first on talking on the headset to the people in the control tower,” Justin said.

“I get to sit in the pilot’s chair first,” Brian countered, as he followed Laurel out the door.

“Wait for me,” Kylie yelled as she tried to keep up with her brothers, who were already headed toward the hangar with Laurel.

The mechanic and Sawyer both gave Angie a look that promised they’d get even with her. But as far as Toby could see, they’d messed with Angie first.

It was nice to see that she gave back as good as she got.

“Laurel’s going to need my help,” Sawyer said.

“Mine, too.” Pete set aside the newspaper, grabbed his disposable cup and followed Sawyer outside, leaving Toby and Angie alone.

Finally.

“How do you know so much?” he asked.

“I used to watch Jeopardy! a lot with my dad when he was sick, and trivial facts tend to stick in my brain. Plus, I did a lot of internet research when I was trying to decide upon a college major.” She glanced at the clock on the wall, noting that it was four.

She straightened her desk, then shut down her computer. As she reached for her purse, she added, “Learning various oddball things is also a perk to changing jobs frequently. So I ended up knowing a little something about everything. Obviously, the flight stuff, I learned here.”

As she pushed back her chair, he couldn’t help noticing those long, tanned legs emerging from the skirt that no longer seemed too short.

“What about the drunk and disorderly?” he asked. “Is that from a job or from firsthand experience?” Please don’t let her be a party girl, he found himself thinking.

“Do I look like the drunk-and-disorderly type?” She turned back to Toby. She must have noticed his gaze on her legs, because she crossed her arms and said, “Don’t answer that.”

“Sorry.”

She didn’t seem to be actually annoyed, though, because there was a spark of humor in her voice when she added, “Before that temp agency folded, they sent me to work at Señor Paco’s Bail Bonds for a few weeks.”

That was a relief. Not that he planned to actually date her.

Or did he?

“Aren’t you going out with the kids to see the new plane?” she asked.