CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

 

 

JEAN GOT A good night’s sleep in a wonderful suite hotel just outside of Missoula, Montana. Then the next day she had spent buying some new comfortable clothes and donating the last of the clothing she had worn in California to different charities around the town.

Then she donated her car to a charity after making sure it was rubbed clean completely of any fingerprints or trace she had been in it. She signed over the title under one of her fake names.

From there, she headed to the airport.

Five hours later she was in a cab headed into Denver.

She had no idea why she had decided to go to Denver. It just seemed logical and as the cab pulled into the hotel she had booked, she just flat changed her mind.

She didn’t want to be here. She wanted to be in New York, in her and Mary Jo’s condo.

So she had the cab driver wait and she went in and cancelled her reservation, then had the cab take her back to the airport. The poor driver was smiling the entire way, thinking he had managed to get the best client ever.

By paying a little extra and flirting with a woman at the counter, Jean managed to get on a late flight to New York through Chicago.

By three in the morning New York time, the cab dropped her off in front of the condo.

The air was muggy and the sounds of the city wrapped around her like a welcome hug. Damn she loved this city. She felt like she was home.

She stared up at the condo, but could see no lights in the windows, so she put her bag over her shoulder and turned and headed up the sidewalk to a deli. She was hungry and she knew they had left nothing to eat in the condo.

On top of that, she needed to buy some fresh orange juice. She planned on having a drink tonight and soaking in the hot tub. And then getting a long, long night’s sleep in her and Mary Jo’s bed.

Twenty minutes later, her travel bag over one shoulder and a sack of groceries in both hands, she was one block from the condo when she saw a cab pull up.

Jean kept walking, smiling, as the most beautiful woman in the entire world climbed out of the cab with a light travel bag and stood on the sidewalk staring upward.

Jean was within twenty steps of Mary Jo when she turned and looked at her and broke into a huge smile.

“Didn’t want to go up there alone,” Mary Jo said, coming to Jean and stepping into her arms as Jean put the groceries on the sidewalk.

For Jean, it was the best hug she had felt in a very, very long time.

Then after a very long kiss, Jean smiled at the woman she loved and indicated the groceries. “I had to get some orange juice and something to eat.”

“A woman after my own heart,” Mary Jo said, smiling.

“I was hoping I already had it,” Jean said.

“Oh, you do,” Mary Jo said. “You really do.”