Page 23 of Flyboy

“Of course not. But I’m not going to recommend you either, not when you would step away in the middle of a job.” His eyes told her he was serious. She couldn’t tell if any of this was personal to him. He’d created such a blank mask over his face that she didn’t know what he was thinking. But what he said was fair.

“You’re right. I’d like to finish this job, of course. I just wasn’t sure if you wanted me to.” She hated the vulnerability of her comment, but there it was. She was equally irritated with his methods and embarrassed she had interfered, and she wanted to give him an out if he’d prefer she just leave. In truth, she half-hoped he would give her some kind of reaction, some indication that he wanted her to stay.

“I’ll be up in the plane all day today,” he assured her. “You and Omar will be working together on most of the classroom instruction. I don’t imagine you’ll see much of me at all.”

She told herself that was a good thing. Then she nodded. “Very well.”

The pilots started filing into the room, and she was kept busy with them and Omar for the rest of the day.

After training,they piled back into the truck, Omar and Colton laughing about some of the stunts the other pilots had tried to pull in the air. Ivy just looked out the window, quiet. How had she let things get like this?

Colton applied the brake. “What’s this?”

A woman with a basket of fruit sat in the dirt on the side of the road. A few children ran around behind her, playing in the tall grass. Before Ivy could even hop out herself, Colton had lifted the woman from the dirt, and she and the children were climbing into the cab. Colton hefted her basket and placed it in the back.

Three squiggly little boys squirmed and scurried into the cab next to her. But when they saw her, they became very still and solemn.

“Hello.”

Their eyes widened.

“Oi?”

They just continued to stare.

Colton jumped back in the front seat. “Where can I take you?” When the woman didn’t answer, he said, “A onde?”

The stream of Portuguese she responded with didn’t help Ivy understand anything more.

But Colton seemed to grasp something of what she was saying. He turned in his seat and showed her his phone map and his translator, and pretty soon they were on their way to the woman’s destination, wherever that might be.

He kept up a friendly chatter with her the whole way, which ended up being a significant distance. Would this woman have walked all that way on foot if not for their help?

They turned up a street that led straight up a hill. Soon, they had attracted an audience. People followed the car all the way up the hill along the narrow road between rows of houses. A crowd was growing, getting larger while they went.

“Aqui.” The woman pointed. The car slowed in front of a home with a gate. Her boys were scrambling to climb out. They’d already spotted some of the children they knew, apparently. She stepped out so that they could leave.

Colton moved to the back of the truck and lifted her basket and then followed her to the gate.

She rattled it and put in a key, opening it to a tiled-in area on the inside. The house sat on the top of the hill, and as Ivy compared all the other houses, this one was clearly the most well-kept and it was in a prime location. Why was she stuck on the side of the road with her children so far from home?

But as soon as she walked in the door, a shrill voice came from inside, and what sounded like a harsh scolding gave Ivy the answer. A woman stepped out, dressed in fine clothes, calling to the children to get inside. Her face was pointed, her features harsh. But when she saw Colton and Omar, everything relaxed, the lines disappeared, and she smiled. “Welcome to my home. Thank you for bringing home my nanny and my boys.”

“You’re welcome. They were stranded. I don’t know what they would have done if I hadn’t happened along.”

She clucked. “Angelica is dramatic. She would have been just fine. Buses run along that line all day.”

“We were happy to bring her home. I hope that she will be treated well.” Colton stepped closer. “I’ll check in on her tomorrow. I know others who would like a nanny as good as she is.”

Ivy stepped closer. What was Colton doing?

“Oh, we are good to her. We love our Angelica, ask my boys. They can’t live without her.”

“I’m happy to hear it.” Colton nodded. Then he waved up the stairs at the woman herself and her boys. “Ate logo!”

She waved in response and then scurried away with the boys in tow.

When they climbed back into the car, Omar grunted. “Do you think she’s gonna be good to her?”

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