Page 60 of Angel In Armani

“Flying in war zones sounds plenty exciting to me.” Maggie slid to her feet. “Anyway, how about I start by showing you around and then we’ll figure out how best to put you to work. And you can tell me how you met Lucas.”

Sara’s stomach curled slightly. She’d expected the question, knew damned well that Maggie was likely to ask about Lucas, but that didn’t mean she had to give anything away. And hey, that would just give her the opportunity to grill Maggie in return. So she was going to grab the opportunity while she could.

“There’s not much to tell,” she said. “He hired me to take him to Newark. Pretty standard.”

Maggie waved a hand toward the door. “You must have done a good job. He was the one who pushed to hire you. Lucas doesn’t impress easily.”

She headed toward the outer office, and Sara followed her.

“We’ll start with the stadium,” Maggie said. “That’s the fun bit, that and the training complex. Then I’ll show you where everything is back in here.” She reached out and hooked a scarf and gloves off a shelf near one of the desks. “Will you be warm enough outside?”

“I have a scarf and gloves in my purse,” Sara said.

“Well, leave that here and bring those.”

Sara did as she was told.

Maggie set off again. “So,” she said as they walked, “being a pilot must mean lots of travel. What does your boyfriend think about that?” She smiled innocently at Sara.

Sara sent an equally innocent smile back. “No boyfriend. Just a dog. And he stays with my folks when he needs to.”

Maggie’s expression softened. “A dog. What kind?”

“He’s a big black Lab. A big softy.” Most of the time.

“What’s his name?”

“Dougal. Do you have a dog?” Sara asked. Safer to talk about innocuous things to start with. Like dogs. Not Lucas.

Maggie shook her head. “My mom had a gorgeous Border collie when I was little, but he died. And after my mom passed away, there never quite seemed to be the right time to get another one. Dad was always traveling a lot and he didn’t want me to have to take care of a dog by myself. Or at least, that was his excuse. I think dogs remind him of my mom.”

“How old were you when she died?” Sara asked.

Maggie smiled, a little wobble in the expression. “I was twelve. Too young. But Dad was great. He’s still great. How long have you had Dougal?”

“He’s six and a bit,” Sara said. “And I got him when he was a couple months old.” She didn’t add the part about Jamie dying and the grief that had driven her to want a dog so badly.

“Lucky you,” Maggie said. She paused at a doorway and threw the door open. “This is the conference room,” she said. “It’s got the best view of the complex.” She walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows that made up the far wall and pulled up several sets of blinds. “Come have a look.”

Sara walked over her and peered out the glass. They were looking not at the stadium itself but at what lay behind it. Which consisted of several small baseball fields, a row of caged enclosures, and a couple of other single-story fairly nondescript-looking buildings. NEW YORK SAINTS was painted in bright-yellow letters across the flat roof of one of them.

“I never realized all this was here,” Sara said. “I’ve only ever driven past the stadium. You don’t see all this from the road.”

Dark eyebrows lifted. “Lucas said you were a local. You’ve never been to a game here?”

Damn. Her dirty secret was about to be out. Again. Maybe it would be easier to have a T-shirt printed with SORRY, I DON’T LIKE BASEBALL. Save the explanations.

“I was more interested in helicopters than sports, growing up,” she said.

“Not even a school tour?”

“Not that I remember.” She was pretty sure there’d been a field trip to Deacon Field at some point, but she’d played hooky.

“Huh,” Maggie said. “So you’re not a baseball nut then?”

“No, sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. It makes a nice change,” Maggie said. “We need some sanity around here.” She waved at the buildings out the window. “Training facilities. Mostly. We use the fields for some of the community leagues we get involved in, too, but mostly for practice. Gotta keep those players on their toes.”

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