It went without saying that Kellie keeping MacGyver in the dark while letting Blake in wasn’t a good sign. “Where is she? Is she all right?” He needed to know that above everything else, and Blake would tell him the truth.
“She’s here…at the hanger.”
Shit!“What’s she—”
“She came to talk to Christian.”
MacGyver’s heart dropped to his stomach. “How’d that go?” It couldn’t have been easy for her. Damn it. He would have gone with her if she hadn’t pulled her disappearing act.
“Far better than I imagined. Right now, they’re playing chess, and Kellie’s kicking his ass.”
She was okay. Relief poured through MacGyver’s body. “Let me talk to her.”
Blake paused for a heartbeat. “She doesn’t know I’m calling you, but I figured you’d be going psycho looking for her. Kellie overheard us talking at the cabin. Because of something you said, she thinks you agreed with me—that she shouldn’t have tried to stop Christian from attacking that girl.”
MacGyver sifted through his memories of the conversation he’d had with Blake, but all he could remember was coming down hard on his friend for the way he’d treated Kellie. “Why would she think that? It’s not even close to true.”
“I know, man, but she stopped listening before you started chewin’ my ass. She didn’t hear any of that. I told her what went down, but I’m not sure she believes me.”
MacGyver started pacing as the need to talk to her consumed him. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“No. Not tonight. This is their time—her and Christian. You should see him, MacGyver. He’s a different person.” Even though his obvious pride shone through, Blake’s voice cracked, and he stopped to clear his throat. “I’m taking her back to the house to spend the night, but we’ll be here in the morning. I talked her into playing mechanic with me.” He chuckled. “Come any time after ten…and bring coffee.”
Blake was gone before MacGyver could argue. For thirty seconds, he stared at the blank screen. He had to get his act together. Kellie was safe with Blake and Christian. That was the important takeaway from Blake’s call. She didn’t want MacGyver there. If she did, wouldn’t she have asked him to go? And Blake wouldn’t have had to make his call behind her back. Maybe MacGyver would be crowding her if he showed up there tomorrow. Maybe the smart thing would be for him to go home and give her the space she obviously needed.
Then again, he’d never been widely known for his common sense.
Chapter Twenty-three
“Augh! Christian, you cheated!” Exhilarated, Kellie jumped to her feet and stopped the rolling of her aviation creeper with her foot. The wheeled, plastic sled, intended to allow the viewing of a plane’s undercarriage in comfort, had carried her to second place in a race with a field of two.
Stretched across his creeper on his stomach, the toes of Christian’s tennis shoes dragged the concrete as his powerful arms shot him over the finish line. She could hear him laughing from where she stood. Almost stopped, he rolled from the creeper, landing with awhompon his back and threw his fists in the air. He’d given her no special treatment in their contest, and now he was gloating over his victory.
She’d learned two things about Christian Sorenson in the past eighteen hours.Everythingwas a competition for him, and healwaysgave everything he had to win. That was exactly how she liked to operate too.
Kellie couldn’t help but laugh with him. His enthusiasm for life was contagious. Blake, who’d been charged with videotaping their race, strolled by her, a huge grin on his mug, pushing Christian’s chair.
Christian raised his head and pointed at her. “How did Icheat?”
Kellie watched as he practically vaulted off his arms into the chair. “Just look at you. There’s a huge difference between your guns and mine.”
Christian shook his head as he rolled to within six inches of her and grabbed her arm, holding it up for inspection. With a cluck of his tongue, he let it drop. “You’ve got a ways to go before you can evencallthat a gun.”
Kellie snorted. “You didn’t just—I can’t believe you said that.” She smacked his shoulder playfully as he skirted around her.
“I could help you work on those if you come visit me in Frisco. My girlfriend, Meg, would love to meet you.”
“Hey. How come I’ve never gotten an invitation to meet the girlfriend?” Blake winked at Kellie as he bent to retrieve the rolling aviation tool Christian had ridden to victory.
She smiled at Blake as he picked up her creeper, returning both of them to the plane, where she and Christian were supposed to be helping him pack wheel bearings. Kellie was pretty sure she’d gotten more grease on the oversized coveralls Blake had provided for her than on the wheels, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered today. She was free.
“Be careful what you wish for, Christian. San Diego is my next stop, so I just might take a drive up the coast and crash at your place for a while.”
Christian cocked his head at Blake. “See there. If you ever get this bucket of bolts back in the air, you could fly Kellie over and stay for a visit.” He glanced toward her. “What’s in San Diego?”
“I am.”
Kellie gasped as the familiar timbre sent tingles of anticipation whispering across her skin.MacGyver is here? How? Why?She spun to face him.