Page 6 of Live Like There's No Tomorrow
Angel grinned and slid onto the bench to sit beside Missy. “Thank you. This is great. I haven’t had chance to get to know many people yet.”
Missy smiled. “Don’t let him work you too hard. Just because Ben lives for his work, doesn’t mean you have to.”
“Oh, I don’t mind. I think we’re kindred spirits in that respect. Work is all I have.” She smiled. “And I do love it.”
The way she smiled at him, and the way she called them kindred spirits, made Ben feel a little uncomfortable. It didn’t get by Missy either. The way her eyes narrowed at him reminded Ben of Chance. He smiled. “You need to find your feet, make some friends and have some fun. Take it from me, when you work too much everyone gets on your case about it.”
Missy smiled. “We just want to see you happy.” She turned to Angel. “How are things going over there on the other side of the lake?”
“They’re going great.” She smiled at Ben. “It was a stroke of genius on Ben’s part to do a soft launch for the lodge. We’re running at low capacity, but that means we get to iron out the wrinkles as we go. It also means that we can give a lot of attention to the few guests we have. They’re loving it and we’re getting more bookings than we planned for, just from word of mouth recommendations alone.”
“That’s great.”
“Morning.”
Ben looked up to see Smoke standing there smiling at them. It seemed everyone was sneaking up on him today. “Hey, bud. Do you want some coffee?”
Smoke nodded and sat down. “Please. I need caffeine this morning.”
Missy grinned at him. “What’s up? Did you sit home and drink away your sorrows last night since your lady’s not here?”
Smoke laughed. “No. If you must know I tossed and turned all night because I couldn’t sleep and I feel crap this morning.”
“Aww.” Missy laughed. “You miss her so much you can’t sleep without her?”
Smoke shook his head and gave her a rueful smile. “Something like that, yeah.”
“Well, if you’re at a loose end this weekend, I’d love to go up for another flight lesson,” Dan said hopefully.
Ben had to bite back a smile at the way Missy scowled.
“Sorry, Dan. I’ve got office work to do all day today. Catching up on the books at the flight school.”
“You’re the one who runs the flight school?” asked Angel.
Smoke nodded. “Not just me. My partner Jason and his wife Rochelle.”
“Have you two been introduced?” asked Missy.
Ben felt bad. He should have introduced Angel to the gang a long time ago, but given the prickly reactions they’d had to her, he hadn’t wanted to.
Angel shook her head and held her hand out to Smoke. “I’m Angel. I’m managing the lodge over at Four Mile. It’s nice to meet you.”
“I’m Smoke,” he said as he shook with her. “As you now know, I run the flight school and I fly for Pete and Jack.”
Ben felt bad again that Angel wouldn’t even know which ones Pete and Jack were. Smoke made him smile as he continued.
“My fiancée, Laura, owns the jewelry store up at the plaza. You might have met her?”
Angel shook her head. “I haven’t really met anyone yet.” She smiled at Ben. “We’ve been too busy.”
Smoke turned to him and raised an eyebrow that Angel couldn’t see. Ben shook his head slightly. Smoke—of all people—should know that he hadn’t been gettingthatkind of busy with her! Over Smoke’s shoulder he spotted Pete and Holly, and Jack and Emma making their way across the square. He didn’t think he wanted to stick around for anymore questioning looks—and certainly not for whatever Emma might have to stay. He stood up and poured the rest of the coffee into Missy and Dan’s mugs. “I’ll go fill this up.”
Once he was in the kitchen he set the coffee pot down and rubbed both hands over his face. He felt bad leaving Angel out there to fend for herself with people she didn’t know—and who weren’t exactly open to her. Well, that wasn’t fair. Missy was nice to everyone, Dan didn’t tend to say much to anyone, and Smoke didn’t really care. He sighed. Emma might be a problem when she joined them, but Jack and Missy would no doubt keep her in check.
He was surprised to see Smoke stick his head into the kitchen.
“What’s up?”
