“Thank you, Ethan.”
He placed his hand over his heart. “God’s truth, Annabelle, I’m not sure I can take much more of you thanking me, when in the normal course of a day you would have abused me at least twice by now.”
She snorted. “It’s not like I don’t want to. It’s just that now that you’ve done something nice for me, I need to hold off a bit.”
“It’s unsettling, is what it is.”
She opened her bag and he noticed it didn’t contain the normal clutter that he’d seen inside other women’s purses. Like her car, it was neat and tidy.
“You a neat freak or something?”
“I like things orderly, Gelderman. There’s no crime in that.”
“You want me to take you to the bank so you can deposit that?”
“No…thanks.”
“It’s a lot of money to have lying around, Annabelle.”
“I know that.”
So she didn’t want to put it in the bank, which just confused him even more. Did she owe it to someone?
“Something in your bag is buzzing, Annabelle.”
He watched as she pulled out her cell and turned it off. Her face didn’t invite him to ask why, so he left it alone…for now.
Twenty minutes later Ethan drove through the gates of the small airfield where he kept his bird. He had phoned ahead and they had it readied for him, so it was sitting outside the hanger when he arrived. He pulled the Bronco inside, then got out, and Annabelle followed.
“You ever crashed that thing?” She looked nervously over at his gleaming helicopter where it sat on the landing pad.
“Honey, if I’d crashed it, then it wouldn’t be still in one piece, but several of them. More importantly, I wouldn’t have been able to put them back together.”Or me, but he kept that thought inside his head.
“I’m not sure that’s reassuring, Gelderman.”
“You scared, Annabelle?”
“Hell, yes!” Ethan watched her fingers dig into the strap of her bag.
Most people would bluff their way out of it, spin him a line, or act tough, but not her; she told the blunt truth.
“So let me get this straight. You’ve never been up in anything?”
“Define ‘anything.”
Ethan just looked at her.
“No, all right? I’ve never been off the ground and never had a hankering to do so.” She was glaring at him, brown eyes darker now she was angry.
“Oh, now, this is just too much fun,” Ethan said as he took her things out of the back seat and headed to where his bird was standing. “Annabelle Smith has a weakness.”
“Fuck you.”
He laughed as she stomped after him but didn’t say anything else until he’d finished his pre-flight checks.
“Okay, we’re ready.”
She muttered something likeI’m glad one of us isunder her breath, but came forward as he signaled to her.
