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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?

Chapter Six

Heather entered the information for the last invoice, then hit the print button. Next to her, the laser printer quietly hummed to life as three copies of the single-page document appeared in the tray. She fed in an envelope next, then collected the papers to process them.

It was late in the day, nearly six, and almost everyone had gone home. Jim still worked at his desk, but Flo had left at four-thirty as had most of the service crew outside. There weren’t any night charters and no whine of helicopter rotors broke the quiet of the early evening.

As much as Heather liked coming in early and getting her work done by midafternoon, there was something to be said for the peacefulness after nearly everyone had left for home. She glanced over at Jim, but he was reading a report and didn’t seem to notice her. His face was strong, his mouth firm—there wasn’t even a hint of his dimple tonight. She knew if she said his name, he would look up and smile. She almost did it just to have him look at her. But that would be silly.

She returned her attention to the stack of invoices in front of her that needed to be filed. She stretched before getting up. The past couple of nights had been difficult. Diane hadn’t been sleeping well and Heather couldn’t figure out the reason. They’d both been up pacing for several hours, and more than ever, Heather had appreciated her flexible hours. When Diane finally fell asleep at five in the morning, Heather had been able to climb back in bed, too, without having to worry about getting to her job first thing.

“Where’s the book on number twenty-seven?” Jim asked without removing his gaze from the report.

Heather stood up, collected the three-ring binder containing all the service records for that particular helicopter and handed it to him.

“Thanks,” he said.

She returned to her desk, picked up the pile of invoices and walked over to the filing cabinets. Moving around eased some of the cricks out of her back. She still wasn’t used to long hours at a computer or being tired all the time. Even with her flexible schedule, she was at the mercy of a baby who didn’t understand that Mommy was dying for eight uninterrupted hours of sleep.

Heather opened the file drawer and organized the invoices by number. She found it hard to concentrate, and while she wanted to explain the phenomenon away as latent hormones or sleep deprivation, she knew it had a lot more to do with the man sitting at the other end of the office.

Just thinking about him made her stomach flutter. She had to force herself not to make excuses to talk to him during the day, and when they were together, she wanted to beg him to touch her. Nothing wild or sexual, just a little pat on the arm or the shoulder or the rear.