“He would have to handle whatever you did. You were traveling all over the world. Will you give that up?”
“I was thinking about it, yes,” she said.
At that, Jessie stopped, looked at her slowly, and said, “You loved it.”
“I did. I don’t know if I still do.”
“I won’t judge you for that,” she said. “After what we’ve been through, I’m not sure anybody would expect you to ever travel again. But you did have that travel bug, and you may want to again. So, if you do, wouldn’t you want somebody who could accept what you did?”
“Well, of course,” she said.
“No of course about it. When you think about it, you want somebody who would accept you doing what you love, and he’ll want somebody who’ll accept him doing what he loves.”
Brenna looked at her friend in surprise. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh,” she said. “What’s talking right now is the fear inside you because of what happened to you. That doesn’t mean he can’t do what he loves, and it doesn’t mean,” she murmured, as she got dressed slowly, “that you can’t do what you love. But, if the travel bug bites you again, surely you would want somebody to support you in whatever direction you wanted to go in.”
“That’s how it’s supposed to be, isn’t it? Partners?” She shook her head. “I got cold feet last night, when I thought about him taking off on these missions, going all over the world and getting shot at,” she said. “It just makes me feel like I couldn’t go back there anymore.”
“Of course you can’t. There’s no going back when it comes to something like this. But there is going forward. That’s up to you to figure out.”
“Wow,” Brenna said. “When did you get so wise?”
“I’ve always been wise,” Jessie said, with a laugh. “You just never listened.” And, with that, she smacked Brenna on the leg and said, “Come on. Get up, and let’s go get breakfast. I’m not exactly sure when we’re leaving today, but I want to be ready.”
“Okay, give me a few minutes,” Brenna said, feeling much better as she hopped up, and went into the bathroom. The hot shower was a gift and one she enjoyed but didn’t have time to savor. As she stepped out, she dried off and quickly dressed. With both of their bags packed and ready to snag at a moment’s notice, they slipped out the door and walked down to the lobby. A small coffee shop was attached, but it didn’t offer much. And it was pretty full as well. They waited to see if a table would open up, and then the waitress called them to share another table. As they walked up to it, both Killian and Jerricho sat there. “Wow,” Brenna said, “I didn’t know if we were allowed to come for breakfast or not.”
“Why not?” Killian asked, with a bright smile. “It’s morning. We all need food. We have a long day ahead of us.”
“I guess,” she said. She smiled at Jerricho. “Good morning.”
His gaze was searching, but he answered readily enough. “Good morning. Did you get any sleep?”
“Some,” she said. “It’s amazingly hard to sleep, even after all that. I thought I’d crash and burn. Instead it’s like I was still on the water, caught up in a never-ending nightmare.”
“Sometimes your thoughts just keep circling the hamster wheel,” he said, “and then it’s really hard to drop it all.”
“Yep, that’s about the size of it,” she said, with a chuckle. She sat down and waited for the waitress to return. By the time they’d ordered and had food coming, she looked at the two of them and asked, “Do we have a plan for today?”
“We’re leaving in an hour and a half,” Killian said.
“Okay, good,” she said. “I wondered when you would tell us that.”
“Didn’t know you were awake yet,” he said. “We figured we would finish eating, then come wake you. It’s actually still pretty early.”
She glanced around to see multiple groups of the women. “Are they all leaving?”
“Some have already left,” he said. “This is the last of them here.”
“Wow,” she said, “I wasn’t expecting this much progress so fast.”
“It’s the best way,” Killian said. “The faster people return to their lives, the faster it feels more normal.”
She nodded. “I guess part of what I’m feeling is that whole disconnect about this mess.”
“And that’s normal.”
Just then, their food arrived, and, by the time they were done eating, Jerricho said, “We’ll go grab our bags.”
“We’ll come with you,” she said. “We’ll get our stuff, and then hopefully we can grab the flights that we need and get home.”
“We’ll get flights,” he said. “Come on.”
With that, the next hour was busy collecting their gear, packing up the last of it, checking out, saying goodbye to the few women who hadn’t left yet but were waiting at their ride for their driver, and getting into one of the vehicles that the guys had rented. They made it to the small local airport.
Brenna looked around and asked, “Don’t we need IDs? Passports? Is it safe to travel without?”
“We have all that taken care of. And this transportation is all we have available here,” he said. “Small planes will fly us into the main city.”
She knew she was going home, but, from there, she wasn’t sure where they flew first. “Where are we going from here?”
“Spain,” he said, “and then we’ll head to England and likely to the States.”
“So a circular route.”
“Maybe,” he said. “Jessie, you wanted to end in England, didn’t you?”
She looked at Brenna. “Yes.”
“I thought you were coming back to the US with me?” Brenna asked, surprised.
“My fiancé is English,” she said. “We’ll get married there.”
Brenna stared at her friend. “Oh, is that why we’re doing the circular route?”
“Yes,” Jerricho said. “We promised to get you both home, and that’s what she has determined as home.”
“Okay,” Brenna said, “I’m good with that.”
“You don’t mind the extra flight?”
“Not particularly. I’m not rushing home for anything.” She reached over and gave her friend a hug. “Have you already quit your job?”
“I did last night,” she said. “I got an email from them this morning, saying they were sorry to see me go, blah blah blah, but they understood, due to the stress of the job, etcetera.” She rolled her eyes at that. “Of course they don’t know I’m pregnant.”
“No, they don’t,” she said. “Maybe it’s better to keep it that way.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do when I get to England.”
“Yes, you do,” Brenna said, “you’ll get married, and you’ll have a family.” She studied the quiet glow on her friend’s face. “What does he do for a living?”