Chapter 63

"Brenda's going to be in town this week." Jessica said.

After the conference with Harry they had only had time to do some shopping before going home. After their ritual breakfast she was checking messages.

"When?"

"Next week, actually. Today's Friday, she'll be here Monday. All week. She wants to see us if it can be arranged."

I'd like to see her too. And not just 'cause she's almost as pretty as Jessica. Need to know more of what's goin' on in my head, if she has any ideas.

"We don't have anything scheduled firm, do we?" Alex asked.

"Nothing so far. Here's a message from the realtor. Probably a response to your offer. Other than that, we're mostly waiting on developments."

"Let's see when Brenda has time then."

"OK, sounds good. Let's see if there's anything else."

Alex refilled their coffee cups and waited as she finished and put the phone down.

"Thanks," she said, taking a sip of coffee. "Ready for another day?"

"Much as I'm likely to be today."

"Next week you go to thirty-five, right?"

"Yeah. I only celebrate multiples of five."

Jessica always watched while he did his morning pushups before getting out of bed.

"You're doing well. It wasn't that long ago it took you a couple of days to do one. You always did heal fast."

I did? Hope I still do.

"You used to get cuts and scrapes, sometimes sprain an ankle or something, working on your farm. In a day or so you were good as new. When you had the flu that time, turned into punemonia, you were near death, literally, when I got you to the hospital. You were out for two days, on the fourth day you wanted to go home. They kept you two more days anyway."

"Think you can save me one more time if you need to?"

Jessica smiled.

"You've been through the fire. You've got that light around you, as Brenda says. But I'm never leaving you. If the Grim Reaper wants you he'll have to go through me."

Don't like any of this. Some medical mafia tried to use me for something, maybe even sell me for spare parts if there's anything to what Harry's got. Jessica didn't ask for this. What they might do.

'course neither did I.

"I don't like any of this." said Alex. "Wonder why, how it was me. I'm pretty well off, we could go somewhere and pretend this never happened. You didn't ask for it, it's not right to put you at risk."

"Could you walk away from Jennifer and the others?"

No.

"No. I can't. But you could...."

"Neither can I. That poor girl... and she is not much more than a kid... what they did to her brother. What they did to her. Tried to do to you. Who knows how many.."

"I got it. I don't like it, but I got it."

Must be that damn light.

Jessica's a special kind of woman. Puttin' up with me should be enough.

"Coffee's getting cold." she said, smiling.

Not a man on earth that smile wouldn't melt. 'cept the ones completely nuts. Or something else. Evil. Evil don't respond to normal. Or nice. Guy like Cox, that smarmy looking critter. Got an idea how he treats women. Like he sees the whole world probably.

While Alex checked the website logs Jessica called Brenda and the realtor.

After a while she came over to watch as he worked.

"How's it going?" she asked.

"It's getting traffic. Google and the other search engines have all the pages indexed, hit it every day. Aside from the usual spam, no contacts.

"Once the word gets out maybe some will show up. I didn't think to take Harry some of the cards. We'll take some by when we're in town next."

"Probably need to order some more."

"Good idea. Laura says she's showing properties in town tomorrow, and with a half hour's notice and she can meet at her office. Brenda says Wednesday is good, she'll be at the same place as before."

"Sounds good. Let's go see Laura, get this rolling. Like to get started on that."