STARTING OVER (3 page)

Actually, Kate admitted, there were probably quite a few unemployed helicopter pilots in the area. Even though Lake Jackson was a relatively small town with a population of less than twenty thousand, there were enough heavily populated cities nearby, including Houston and Galveston, to provide several qualified applicants. The problem would be finding someone who was trustworthy enough for her to be able to turn the company over to his management during her recovery. It would have to be a person who understood the urgency of her situation. And he would have to be as determined to make C-Breeze successful as she was. It was important that whoever she hired not only be able to fly the helicopter but be able to generate new business.

Kate knew that C-Breeze's future relied entirely on the person she hired. All the bookkeeping skills and telephone techniques would be useless if she didn't find a pilot who would inspire confidence and loyalty. The oil companies probably would hesitate to give their business to a transport company that had just been involved in a major crash. And it wouldn't help that C-Breeze had been inactive for the past three months.

She reached for the pad and began listing the newspapers in which she would place employment advertisements. After several attempts, she was finally pleased with the wording of the ad, making sure she didn't promise too much or sound quite as desperate as she was feeling.

If this didn't attract the right person—quickly—she had no idea what she would do. Her own skills and work experience wouldn't qualify her for a job that would adequately support herself and an infant. She had been working on a degree in elementary education and had been only a few credits short when she dropped out of college to marry Doug. However, she was well aware that without the full degree, the credits she had earned wouldn't help her find a good position.

Even if she could locate a good job, day care for a newborn would be difficult to find and extremely expensive. And Kate was devastated at the thought that she would be separated from her child so soon.

She placed the pen on the table and propped her elbows on top of the pad. Lowering her face onto her open palms, she massaged her tired eyes. How quickly and irrevocably her life had changed. One minute she had been the pampered wife of a successful businessman, busy with her charities and the activities at the country club and happily anticipating the birth of her child. Then suddenly, the rug had been pulled out from under her, leaving her flat and trying to pull
herself back up. If only she could wake up and discover that it had all been an awful nightmare. She could snuggle next to Doug in their cozy bed, and he would hold her close and tell her not to worry because he was there to take care of her and the baby.

But as Kate struggled to carry in her suitcases, then took a long, hot shower, she knew the nightmare was real. She would be alone in that bed tonight and every night. Doug was gone forever.

KATE SAT in the padded chair and studied the open ledger in front of her. As she had waited for the ad to come out in the area newspapers and the applicants to begin contacting her, she had spent the past two days reorganizing the files and going over the books. It had been a very sobering experience.

The figures weren't good. In fact, they were awful. Expenses were so much higher than they had been when she'd been handling the books. The profit had been cut to a dangerously low level. If something wasn't done quickly, there would no assets to protect.

It was evident that Doug had been doing his own bookkeeping. And it was equally evident that he was much better at the controls of a helicopter than at record keeping. She hadn't had time to go through all the canceled checks. And there was a pile of receipts she would have to try to match to the expenditures. But the bottom line on the bank statement was enough to send chills down her spine.

Doug hadn't been absolutely honest with her. He hadn't told her how little money they had in the bank or how few long-term contracts there were. With the gigantic payments on the new helicopter combined with the salary of the secretary or the temporaries and the cost of living increases, they had barely been making ends meet. Kate had had no idea how close they were to bankruptcy. Dear, sweet Doug had been protecting her, knowing the truth would cause her to worry. He hadn't wanted anything to disturb her happiness as she made plans for the baby.

She knew he had been making a lot more business trips in the past two years, many of which had required him to travel as far as Louisiana and Mexico. He had blamed it on the oil slump, which meant he had to make contacts with out-of-town companies to drum up new accounts, but now she realized he had been acting out of desperation, struggling to keep C-Breeze afloat. And he had kept it all to himself.

A firm knock on the office door reverberated through the small room. Kate closed the cover of the ledger and shook back the thick honey-blond hair that had dipped across her face as she leaned over the books.

"Come in," she called, hoping whoever was outside could hear her over the noise of the air conditioner. It was becoming increasingly difficult for her to get up and down.

The door opened and a tall, broad-shouldered form was silhouetted against the warm May sunshine that streamed inside.

"I heard you need a pilot," the man spoke, a deep southern accent clinging to his words, making them sound slow and lazy.

"Uh . . . yes, I do," Kate answered, a little bewildered at this unexpected applicant. She hadn't mentioned the name of the company or its address in the ads, and she hadn't received any calls yet, so she wasn't quite sure where this man had come from. Since this was no time to look a gift horse in the mouth, she smiled and gestured toward a chair across the desk from her. "Please sit down."

His long, easy strides carried him across the room, but he didn't sit down. Instead, his gaze surveyed the framed photographs of helicopters, rigs, ships and other memorabilia that were displayed on the wall next to the desk. Now that the closed door had shut out the sunlight, Kate was able to see the details of his features.

Long, muscular legs were encased in tight jeans that had been faded either by style or many
washings to a soft, pale blue. A lightweight knit shirt stretched across a wellformed back, and tanned arms were bent at his sides as he stood, his thumbs hooked in the belt loops of his jeans. Even without knowing anything about him, she could have guessed he was a pilot just by the loose, self-confident way he moved.

"Is this your Bell 206
LongRanger II?" he asked, nodding toward one of the pictures. "It's an excellent piece of machinery."

"It was. But it went down in the crash that killed my husband."

"I heard about your husband. I'm sorry."

She accepted his condolences with a practiced nod.

"What was the problem?"

"My husband mentioned trouble with the engine when he called in his Mayday. But we'll never know for sure. We weren't able to recover the aircraft."

"Hmm. Too bad."

"Mr. uh...?"

"Russell. James Russell," he obligingly filled in the blank.

"Just out of curiosity, Mr. Russell, how did you hear that C-Breeze had a job opening? I just placed the ads a couple of days ago."

He turned and directed the full power of his electric blue eyes on Kate. "We have a mutual friend, Harry Jensen, who knew I was looking for a change and knew you were looking for a pilot," he explained. A smile as slow and genial as his voice stretched across his mouth, and he settled onto the chair she had indicated. "I suppose he thought we could help each other out."

Kate was beginning to believe her prayers must have been heard . . . and, hopefully, answered. But still she was a little suspicious at the coincidental timing. "Harry hasn't mentioned you."

He nodded toward the telephone. "You could call him. He'll vouch for my work record, but you probably shouldn't listen to anything he might say about our college days." A twinkle brightened his sky-blue eyes. "Boys will be boys," he added with no hint of apology for whatever might have occurred. "Harry and I met at the University of Alabama. When we graduated, I got a job in Lake Charles and Harry moved back here. But we've kept in touch."

Kate pulled a form out of the desk's bottom drawer and handed it to him. "Would you please fill out this application? If you brought a résumé, I'd like to look at that, too."

For several minutes the only sounds in the room were the hum of the window air conditioner and the scratch of a pen across the paper as James Russell filled out the form. Kate read through the two-page résumé he had given her, noting the man's rather impressive qualifications. However, instead of becoming excited about them, Kate began to feel depressed. Why would a man with his experience take a job with C-Breeze? Her small company could never offer the benefits or the salary he had been earning from his last employer.

If even half the information he had detailed on his résumé was accurate, he would easily be able to handle what would be required of him at C-Breeze. He had flight time in dozens of different types of helicopters and had worked for several transport services and even directly for some oil companies, as well as other related businesses. His only flaw seemed to be his inability or unwillingness to stay with one company for any length of time.

Lifting her gaze to his, she saw he had completed his form and was watching her. "Pretty impressive references," she commented. "But you don't seem to stay in one place very long."

"I enjoy traveling, waking up to a different sunrise each morning and seeing a different sunset each night." he explained. "My parents grew up next door to each other and went steady from the time they were old enough to walk. They married right out of high school and have lived in the same house for the past thirty-five years. It works for them, but I want to move around a little, experience life in every state before I decide where to settle."

"How long do you plan on staying in this area?"

"I don't know. It depends on what kind of job I get. I've been spending a lot of time in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. I thought I'd see if Texas was as great a place as Harry is always telling me."

Kate glanced over his application. "No wife, no kids, no ties?"

"None to speak of."

In a sleepy little town like Lake Jackson, a young bachelor would be bored to death. She tapped her pencil against the desk as she asked, "If I were to hire you, what sort of guarantee would I have that you'd show up for work regularly?"

His face sobered and he straightened in the chair. "I've never missed a day of work in my life. You can check with any company I've ever worked for." He leveled a steady look at her, piercing her with a gaze so powerful that she leaned back in her chair. "I may not stay at one company long enough to get a gold watch, but I wouldn't just sneak out in the dark of the night. If I decide to move on, I'll give you a month's notice. If you hire me, you can count on me to get the job done."

Something in his tone convinced her. She liked this man's strong, friendly personality and even his almost cocky self-confidence. In some men it could have been annoying, but in James Russell, it was comforting. Kate felt her tensed muscles relaxing. For whatever reason, she trusted this man and knew she could rely on him. She needed his expertise. She needed his strength. And she wasn't certain which she needed most.

"Actually, Mr. Russell..."

"Just call me Rusty, ma'am."

"Okay, Rusty.
But only if you drop the 'ma'am.' That word makes me feel even older than I am. My name's Kate. My husband, Doug, and I started this business a couple years after we were married. It means a lot to me."

"I suppose he had some contracts lined up."

She shrugged. "Some, but we lost them while I was away and there was no one here to fly the schedule."

"Well, I've got some contacts," Rusty said, leaning forward until his forearms rested on the desktop. "I was a business major in college, so I know a little about marketing, bookkeeping and all the other details of a small, independent company." He glanced down at Kate's expanded waistline, and the twinkle returned to his eyes. "What I don't know about is birthing babies. When is your little one due?"

"In mid-June, but—"

"Good. That'll give us at least a month to get used to each other and have you fill me in on all the details of your business operations. Then when the baby arrives, you won't have to worry about things around here."

Kate blinked, suddenly feeling as if she were the one being interviewed rather than him. "I can't pay you the same salary you were making before," she informed him, bracing herself for his negative response. "But we can work out some sort of commission schedule that could bring your income into the ballpark if we can get this company back on its feet."

He nodded, seemingly unconcerned at the prospect of a reduced salary. "I suppose I could live with that. It'll keep me motivated to drum up some business, won't it?" His chuckle was contagious, and Kate felt as if a heavy weight had just been lifted from her chest. For the first time in weeks, she could see a ray of light in the darkness.

The ring of the phone startled her out of her reverie. She picked up the receiver and had to think for a second before she answered, "C-Breeze Transports. May I help you?"