Still, she had to make the best of things.
“I, um, don’t suppose Spencer, Tabitha, or Buck will be around any time soon?” Jett broached to Sheila.
Even though the quirky office manager had told her over the phone that she most certainly had a job here, and had let her know she still did, Jett wanted to confirm it with the company’s principals.
If she couldn’t clear the air with Trask, she might as well try to secure her position. Trask would have a fit about it when he got back, but while he blew up, she’d at least know if there was an actual job to fight for, or if that ship had sailed and she should simply head home.
“They’ll be here soon. Very soon,” Sheila told her, still glued to her video game. “Their class got out early because of snow.There’s going to be snow. Lots of snow,” she said with what Jett was figuring out was a great deal of excitement from Sheila.
“I’m going to make a snowman. Spence promised me a snowman. I’ve never made one before. Spence will be here soon,” she deadpanned.
The imminent arrival of the three partnerswas good news, and it seemed that Sheila felt the same way about that, and the snow. At least in her own, understated way, with which Jett was beginning to become accustomed.
The next time, however, that the office manager looked up, her eyes held a modicum of excitement. “I’m going home with Spencer and Tabitha when it snows. They have a whole house generator. Rugby is coming, too. Rugby is friends with Duck.”
“Rugby? Duck?” Jett asked. “Who are they?”
“My cat,” Sheila answered. “Rugby is my cat. Duck is Spence and Tabitha’s dog. We’re going to pick them up and build a snowman.”
“That’s nice,” Jett told her. “I love cats. I also love dogs. I left my two at home.”
“You have dogs. I have a cat. What are your dogs’ names?”
“Langly and Tinker,” Jett responded.
Sheila nodded and went back to her computer, clearly filing that information away.
Jett was pretty glad that she hadn’t brought the dogs with her, considering that she’d probably get socked-in with a storm and need to get a hotel room soon. But she missed them. She always did when she had to be away for any length of time. During her separation period before she’d left the Air Force, when she’d been in the process of moving home and they’d had to stay with her father, it had nearly broken her heart. She hoped the storm passed quickly so she could get back to them.
Speaking of storms, Sheila’s clear exhilaration over the upcoming snow seemed a bit odd for someone her age.
Jett had to ask.
“You, uh, have to have seen a number of blizzards in your life. Am I right? Since snowisa pretty normal thing in winter around here.”Why hadn’t she ever built a snowman?
Although Jett had to admit, ithadbeen an inordinately warm and dry couple of months. This would be the first storm to hit New England this year. Everything they’d gotten up to this point had been nothing more than flurries.
“I’m from Florida,” Sheila answered, glancing out the window, probably hoping to see flakes. “Florida doesn’t have snow. No snow.”
Jett chuckled. Her first storm, huh? “Well, you’re in for a treat,” she acknowledged. “Just make sure you buy plenty of cocoa and snacks before you hunker in.”
Sheila nodded sagely. “Pick up Rugby, then snacks. Rugby and snacks. Sleepovers are fun.”
“Yes. Yes, they are.” Jett didn’t want to think about her lastalmost-sleepover, where she’d taken a chance by invading Trask’s room.
That hadn’t exactly worked out.
Well… Ithad, until it hadn’t.
“You, uh, don’t mind if I wait here for your bosses, do you?” Jett asked, making conversation more than anything else to keep her nerves at bay.
“I don’t mind. I don’t mind at all.” Sheila went right back to her computer screen, as if Jett wasn’t even there.
That was okay. For sure. Jett would take the opportunity to have a good look around the space. Especially what Trask had done with her father’s diving paraphernalia in the two, big front windows.
Twenty minutes later,the door opened with a blast of cold air that held the smell of snow, even though the storm hadn’t yet begun.
Looking up from a pile of old buoys Jett was rearranging for the display, she wanted to laugh. The woman entering had to be Tabitha, but there was no mistaking the Sothard men who trailed her. Their resemblance to Trask was so uncanny, Jett almost had to catch her breath.
