Page 4 of Ava
“Who?”
“The J’s.”
Chip frowned at her, then looked up and saw his three oldest nephews standing shoulder to shoulder with their arms crossed over their chests, dressed in jeans, tee-shirts and leather jackets.
Chip walked up behind his secretary, firmed his voice, and demanded, “What’s going on here?”
The men turned as one and looked at their uncle. “Uncle Chip, we’d like to talk to you.” Justin, the oldest said.
“We need to discuss something with you,” Johnny, the middle triplet said.
“Morgan!” Josh, the youngest triplet yelled, and stepped forward.
The next five minutes were with the three men hugging their sister, and all talking at once. Chip stepped back and told his secretary that he would handle the boys. With his hand held out, he nodded and silently indicated for everyone to make their way back to his office.
Once everyone settled, and the three boys removed their leather jackets, Chip settled behind his desk and only looked at his nephews, then Morgan leaned against the table behind him, and studied her older than her by five years triplet brothers. When no one said a word, Morgan took the initiative to start the conversation.
“So, why are you here trying to throw your weight around in a government building?”
“This is government?” Justin looked around the office in shock. “We just thought it was Uncle Chip’s office.”
“It is,” Chip said as he studied the men before him. “Why are you really here?” Chip and Morgan studied the men intently, and when they began to squirm, Justin, the oldest triplet, cracked first.
“We were wondering what Morgan did for you when she worked here.”
“Why didn’t you ask me?” Morgan frowned at her brothers.
“Because, you were never home, and when we did try to approach you about it, you said you’d tell us, but then you’d have to kill us.”
“And you have a problem with that?”
“Morgan,” John said as he sat forward on his chair. “This conversation isn’t going as we had planned. We came here to talk to Uncle Chip to see if there was anything we could do.”
“For?” Both Chip and Morgan asked as one.
Josh sighed, jumped to his feet, and paced. He repeatedly ran his fingers through his hair. Out of the three of them, Josh had always been the one to try to smooth things over when the others acted like bulls in a china shop. Morgan knew this, and waited for him to get his thoughts together. They had several minutes to wait, but both Morgan and Chip were patient. In the meantime, she went over to the corner, and poured everyone a cup of coffee, then started a fresh pot. It took a couple of trips to distribute all the cups to everyone.
“Growing up we were older than you, we all know that. At a certain point we only thought of you as an annoying little sister.” Josh held up his hand to hold off any arguments, but when none came, he grinned at his sister. “You were thirteen when we left for college, and I can’t speak for Justin and John, but I didn’t really give you another thought. Even when you graduated and went into the military, you were still just the little sister, but then you showed up a couple of years ago on that sweet new Harley, and informed us that you were going to Sturgis by yourself. Again, I can’t speak for them,” he pointed to his two brothers. “But, that’s when I realized that you weren’t that irritating little sister anymore. You’d grown up, and I hadn’t realized it. Then, you were in that accident and no one knew it when you lost your memory.” When he remained silent for a long time, Morgan walked up to him and gave him a hug.
“I understand what you’re saying, but why are you really here? Your explanation doesn’t really explain it.”
“We wanted to talk to Uncle Chip to see what we could do to help you. We’ve overheard you and Chip discuss you opening some type of military compound out there in North Dakota. We want to know what we can do to help.”
“Nothing,” Morgan and Chip said together. When it looked like the men would argue, Chip held up his hand to ward off anything they might say. “It’s a military thing, boys. There’s nothing more I can tell you. Now, if one of you happens to be an engineer and can help Morgan build a barracks, maybe we can come up with something where you can help.” He held up his hand again. “I’m not saying you can go on missions or anything like that, we’ll leave that to the professionals, but you’d have to move to North Dakota in order to do that. I don’t think you’d want to do that.”
Morgan frowned when her brothers exchanged looks. “J’s, what are you thinking?”
Chip whipped around and looked at her, then looked at his nephews. He saw them silently communicating between each other. That had always freaked him out, but he’d gotten used to it over the years.
“What type of engineering help do you need?” Justin asked.
Morgan sighed and scrubbed her hands through her short hair. “We had a snow storm three weeks ago, and the ground is still frozen. We think we can break ground in a couple of weeks, but now the town planning board is telling us something is wrong with the blueprints from the engineer we hired. When I went to confront him, he’d disappeared. No forwarding address, and his phone number isn’t in service.”
“So, you need a building engineer?” Justin clarified.
“Yes,” Morgan laughed. “You don’t happen to know of any do you?”
“Actually, I’m one.”
