CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

 

 

JEAN HAD NEVER wanted the last six months to end, and she hoped they wouldn’t. But there was no doubt she and Mary Jo needed to get going with their plan to move on their target.

All winter long they had worked on the plan, sometimes over dinner, sometimes sitting in the hot tub while sipping vodka and orange juice.

And the plan was a good one.

So during a wonderful dinner of Italian-spiced chicken laid over a bed of green, smothered in a cheese combination, Jean finally turned to the woman she had fallen madly in love with.

“I think it’s time.”

Mary Jo nodded and didn’t look up from her salad. “I agree.”

The first part of the plan was that Mary Jo would head into the city and live in an apartment they had rented across from a condo their target owned and used for affairs.

Jean would stay behind and sell the house and dispose of everything before moving into the city to another apartment they had rented close to the target’s large apartment near Central Park.

They both figured it would take at least three months, maybe longer, before they could move on the target. The tricky part was going to be the banking.

But Jean was convinced their plan on that would work.

The only thing Jean didn’t like about the plan was being separated from Mary Jo. And Mary Jo had said that was what she didn’t like as well.

But Jean knew, just as Mary Jo did, that if they were going to have a long-term relationship, they were both going to need to go their own ways at times to do their jobs.

That knowledge didn’t make it any easier.

But what did make it easier was the fact that they had worked on this plan together. It had been fun, actually, and Jean had to admit their plan was a lot better than anything she could have come up with alone. Mary Jo just had a stunning mind for knowing how to get inside a person’s life to get close to a target.

So if this worked out, maybe, just maybe, going down the road, they would stay together more than they would be apart. Work together more. At least that’s what Jean wanted.

Mary Jo seemed to be focusing on her dinner, clearly not wanting to look up at Jean.

Jean leaned forward and touched Mary Jo’s hand. Mary Jo finally looked up, her deep brown eyes worried and sad.

“You know I love you, don’t you?” Jean said.

Mary Jo nodded. “I love you as well.”

“And if I have anything to say about it,” Jean said, smiling, “we’re going to be sharing a hot tub and drinks for a long time into the future.”

“Now that’s a plan I like,” Mary Jo said.

Jean watched as Mary Jo took a deep breath and then smiled. “I’ll head out in the morning, call you when I get settled there as we discussed.”

“I’ll get started on disposing of all this stuff and getting the house listed,” Jean said. “And then join you in the city.”

“Taking this jerk down is going to be fun,” Mary Jo said, smiling.

Jean laughed and stood and went around the small dining table to kiss Mary Jo. “A lot of fun. Especially doing it together.”

“And the celebration when we finish will be even grander,” Mary Jo said.

“Oh, I think we should practice that tonight, don’t you?”

“I do,” Mary Jo said. “I love practicing celebrating.”

They both laughed at that.

And Jean didn’t mind that they didn’t make it to the hot tub for Mary Jo’s final night in town.

She didn’t mind at all.