Page 67 of Once a Hero

After arriving at the San Francisco Airport, they had moved their luggage from the entertainer coach to the Gulfstream. Beatrice and Jake rented a car to go back to the city to retrieve their brooches while Kenichi and Helen Hu’s team began collaborating.

Jake’s bank where he had kept the one-amber brooch was their first stop. As soon as it opened at nine o’clock, he went in. Wearing a wig under a baseball cap, Beatrice waited in the lobby.

Then they went to Beatrice’s bank. This time, she did not want him to go with her.

“You want me to sit out here while you open your safety deposit box?” he asked.

“They won’t let you inside the vault anyway.”

“I could sit in the AC.” The weather was warm this May, although not hot. The breeze from the Pacific Ocean helped.

Yeah, Jake could sit out here and wait.

Beatrice unbuckled her seat belt. She handed Jake the car key.

“Technically, Philomena meant to give the three-amber brooch to me.” Jake rolled down his window.

“Technically, she stole it from my dad. His will stated that all he ever owned belonged to my brother and me—including the one-amber brooch you now have in your pocket.”

“Apparently, your dad didn’t die twenty-five years ago. Does that make his will null and void?”

“Why don’t you tell me, Mr. Kessler?”

“So it’s Mr. Kessler now, huh? I thought we were getting to know each other on a first name basis.” Jake grinned. “Tell me one thing before you go.”

Beatrice waited.

“Did our kiss last night mean anything to you? Or were we caught in the moment?”

Beatrice leaned toward him, placed her palm around his neck, and gently pulled him toward her. She touched her lips to the edge of his.

It was feather light, but Jake felt it down his spine.

Wow. “Should I be careful about you, Miss Glynn?” He smiled giddily.

“Always. If you know anything about our family, you know we love passionately.”

“Then why are you still single?”

“Because I haven’t found the right man. I don’t want to make the same mistakes my parents did. I’m waiting for the right man God sends my way.”

“Am I the one?” Maybe Jake shouldn’t have asked that. A kiss did not a relationship make. Not one, not two.

“We just met—sort of. So I don’t know. I need to pray about it some more. We both need to pray.”

“Sort of?” Jake’s eyebrows shot up. “Have we met before San Francisco?”

Beatrice pursed her lips. She got out of the car, shut the door, and joined the crowd of pedestrians on the sidewalk.

Jake watched her go.

Sort of how?

It gave him food for thought. On the sidewalk outside the car windows, a couple of homeless dudes were panhandling. One tall man was wearing too-big jeans and scruffy boots with broken shoelaces. The other man was shorter, but more muscular—like he was perhaps newly homeless and hadn’t starved off those muscles yet.

Up and down the sidewalk they went. Somehow they knew who looked like tourists and who were locals.

Ten minutes.

---