Knox raised a hand. “It’s good to see you, but I thought you’d retired.”
“I did, but I couldn’t stay away from the pilot’s seat. The wife told me to go to back to work or find a new place to live. I like her cooking too well for the latter,” he said as he headed toward them. “I’ll help you get that luggage onboard. Just you and this lovely lady?”
“Yes, sir,” Knox answered and slung the handles of a tote bag over his shoulder. “This is my girlfriend and partner in the construction business, Lottie Johnston.”
Lester rolled two suitcases toward the plane. “Pleased to meet you, Miz Lottie. You got your job cut out for you with this one.”
“Don’t I know it,” Lottie said, “and the pleasure is all mine. How long have you been flying?”
“About fifty years, but only thirty for the Callahans After Tripp got his pilot’s license, he flew some of the trips, but when he had to stay home, I was drafted,” Lester answered. “I’ll be taking y’all to Louisiana and then coming right backto fly Tripp up to Wyoming to an auction for some prime leather goods. Then I’ll come back to get you on Sunday at noon. I’ve planned to have a car waiting for you at the airport. It’ll be a busy weekend, but I’ll get to see two of the brothers. Haven’t seen Brodie in a while. How’s he doing?”
“I’ll catch you up on the flight,” Knox said as he motioned for Lottie to go up the steps ahead of him.
In his bibbed overalls and with a long, gray braid down his back, Lester looked like he belonged on a tractor rather than in the pilot’s seat. “I’d love to hear all about him and Tripp both,” he said as he settled into the seat. “Buckle up. We’ll be taking off in a minute. When me and Mr. Callahan flew alone, he always sat up here in the copilot’s seat beside me. We had some roustin’ good talks on those flights. He’d tell me how proud he was of all you boys. He didn’t know all the particulars about Brodie, but we’d sure get a good laugh when he’d say that old line.” Lester lowered his voice to a growl and said, “‘I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.’”
“Then we’d go on down the line and visit about Tripp and how he was going to take over Callahan Oil Company someday, and then he’d tell me all about whatever project you were working on at the time. Three different kids all raised in the same house and following different dreams.”
The plane taxied down the runway and was in the air, and Lester kept right on talking. “I appreciated your folks lettin’ you boys each go down your own path…” He paused for a breath. “All but Tripp. I always thought he was pleasing his folks by taking that job as CEO of the company insteadof what his heart wanted him to do. I’m glad to see that he’s settled down into his leather shop. Is he doing well?”
“Yes, he is,” Knox answered. “We all are, and we really like living in Spanish Fort.”
“That’s great,” Lester said and told stories about the Callahan family the rest of the way to the airport in Lafayette.
When they deplaned, Lester helped unload the baggage and put it into the rental car. “You kids have a great weekend. I’ll be here to pick you up at noon on Sunday.”
Knox gave him a sideways hug. “Thanks for everything, Lester. We’ll see you in a couple of days.”
“You keep him in line, Miz Lottie,” Lester teased and waved over his shoulder as he walked away.
Lottie raised her voice. “I’ll do my best.”
Knox opened the door for her. “I probably owe you an apology. We didn’t get to say two sentences to each other on the whole flight.”
She laid a hand on his cheek. “No problem. I learned more about your family in a little more than an hour than you’ve told me in all these weeks.”
“Lester does like to talk.” Knox grinned and then bent forward and kissed her on the cheek.
* * *
Lottie sat beside Knox in the conference room of the hotel that evening and watched him sign his name dozens of times to the papers that Geneva’s lawyer kept pushing across thetable. When Knox had a question, he talked to his own representative that he had on speaker.
When everything had been signed, sealed, and finished, Lottie glanced at the clock. The entire process had taken five minutes less time than it had taken for her and Knox to fly to Lafayette and drive the short distance to New Iberia and bordered on being both boring and anticlimactic.
There’s that word you hate again, although you need to grow up and get over it, the voice in her head said.
Some things you don’t get over. You just live with them, she protested.
“Thank you for coming all this way, and most of all for taking the whole acreage off my hands. It sure simplified everything,” Geneva said as she shoved all her copies and proof that the payment had been transferred into her bank account into an expandable folder. “And I’m glad to get to meet you, Lottie. Has anyone ever offered you a job as a model?”
“No, ma’am.” Lottie blushed. “I like food too well to do that.”
“Well, you would be stellar at it. Y’all have a safe trip home,” Geneva said.
“Thank you, and it was nice meeting you,” Lottie said.
“If you are ever up north again, stop by and see us.” Knox snapped his briefcase shut. “I already feel at home on the place. Are you sure you’ve gotten everything you need out of the house and barn?”
“Absolutely,” Geneva said. “I’m glad you are the one whobought the place. Good luck to you and Lottie. I hope y’all find as much happiness there as my grandparents did.”
