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“Trevor, I’m glad you’re back in one piece.”
“Thanks, Alice.”
“Did you scorn a woman before you left?” she asked with a hiked brown brow.
I laughed. “No, why?”
She rolled her eyes like she didn’t believe a word I said. “Because a woman has called here every day for the last week asking for you.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t leave her name or a number, but she said it was important to talk to you once you were back.”
“Okay.” I laughed, thinking about the call I’d received on my cellphone for the last ten days. “Must not be too important if she hasn’t left a number for me to return her call.”
“I’m sure she will call back today; I did tell her you’d be in the office sometime this morning.”
“Let me know when she does.”
Alice nodded and slipped back out the door, but not before she sent Gregory a nervous smile. We all glanced at Gregory, who was grinning at the door as it closed.
“You tapping that?” Jake asked gruffly.
“What?” Gregory said quickly and shook his head. “No!”
“Yeah, well, make sure you don’t,” Jake muttered. “I can’t afford to lose Alice if you piss her off.”
Everyone laughed, and then the conversation veered away from women and on to my trip, where I gave them all the details. I shared the things that worked, what didn’t, and what I thought we should add to our classes to help the future civilian contractors that were tasked with going overseas to rebuild the areas.
The storm continued to vibrate the office building angrily, and once the lights flickered as if they were going to go out, but they stayed on. We were sequestered to the conference room for over two hours before Alice poked her head in again. “Trevor, you have a visitor.”
“Tell them we are going to be a few more minutes,” Jake growled while I asked a question at the same time.
“Who is it?”
“I think it’s the same woman who had been calling you. She said her name was Davina Daniels.”
I flipped through my mind and couldn’t ever recall meeting anyone by that name. I shrugged. “Okay, well, tell her it will be a few minutes.”
“You got it.” Alice pulled the door closed.
We were discussing the upcoming class that was starting next week, and I learned that Harvey and Gregory were going to be helping me, as Alex would be focused on finishing things out around the office before he went on his honeymoon, when a loud crack of thunder sounded, and we all tensed. Memories of bombs and heavy artillery going off flashed through my mind and I’m sure everyone else’s in the room. A sound outside the door grabbed our attention.
“What the hell is that?” Jake growled.
Alex peered over his shoulder toward the door. “Sounds like a baby.”
“Who the hell would bring a baby in here, especially on a day like today?” Mike Johnson, one of our technical advisors, asked.
Jake shook his head as the baby’s cries continued. “Okay, let’s take a break, find out what’s going on, and then we can get back together this afternoon or tomorrow morning to finish.” He glanced at his watch. “Shit, I have to head out to a meeting now anyway.”
We gathered our papers, and Alex opened the door; the shrill sound of the baby invaded our space and made me wince. We all filed out, and I was the last one to exit. When I did, I found several of the guys standing in the front welcome area staring down at something. The sounds of the baby crying were replaced with cooing noises from Alex and, I think, Harvey as they talked to the infant. I rolled my eyes as I tried to get past them.
“Trevor!” Alice shouted my name, and I turned back. “This is Davina; she said she needs to speak with you.”
I let my gaze slide from Alice past my co-workers to land on a little pixy of a woman with a mop of wildly frizzy brown hair thrown haphazardly up on top of her head and a baby in her arms. I studied her and again had no idea who this woman was or why she would want to speak with me.
The baby had stopped crying as she bounced it in her arms, looking at me nervously. Alex chuckled as he stepped back from the child and glanced my way, a weird smile on his lips that I completely ignored. What the fuck was he grinning about?
