“I see that. Come here. Let’s see if I can fix it.”
Jet took the brush and attended to Hannah’s mop, and then inserted the clip and snapped it shut. She stood back and inspected her, and after straightening her sweater, nodded approval. “There. All better. You look beautiful this morning.”
“Radiant as a little angel,” Matt chimed from the doorway. Jet looked up and caught his smiling eyes. “And hungry, if I know our Hannah.”
Hannah moved to the dining room table and Jet followed her out with a bowl of warm oatmeal – one of her favorite dishes, especially when mixed with brown sugar and cinnamon, as Jet well knew. Hannah made a show of stuffing her napkin in the front of her sweater collar, smoothed it out, and then clutched a spoon in her small fist like a treasured heirloom. Jet couldn’t help but beam at her.
“Go ahead. Eat up. Your ride will be here in a few minutes.”
Hannah dug in with relish as Matt slid behind Jet to the refrigerator and removed a bottle of orange juice. He’d taken to buying a roll and large cup of coffee at a café next door to the small shop he rented for his computer business, so he was low maintenance in the mornings, preferring to down a glass of fruit juice and be on his way. He gulped half the glass in two swallows.
“Anything exciting planned for today?” he asked Jet.
“No. Just some errands,” Jet replied, watching Hannah make a mess of her breakfast. “You?”
“Nothing special. I’ve got a couple of new customers who are supposed to drop off a server and a notebook, and I’ve got the bookkeeper in the afternoon. You know how much I enjoy his visits.”
“Sounds like an eventful afternoon,” she said with a small grin.
“Yeah. Guy could get used to this.”
The Kosovo winter had almost driven them from the region, but Jet and Matt had stuck it out, and when spring had melted the snow and the surrounding hills had bloomed with wildflowers, she’d declared that she could tolerate the cold in exchange for the peaceful surroundings and undemanding pace. For the first time since their brief sojourn in Argentina, they’d been able to live without looking over their shoulders, although some habits never died, and never would.
Jet had remarked numerous times at how naturally Matt had taken to his role as head of the household and father, and lately they’d been discussing the possibility of another child. Not as an immediate or urgent possibility but rather as an inevitability, sooner than later. With Jet’s stash of diamonds secreted away in Uruguay and her three million dollars’ worth of stones locked in a safe deposit box at the local bank, money wasn’t an issue, and with each passing month it had become more obvious that their life on the run was over.
A horn from outside the window jarred her from her thoughts, and she hurried to where Hannah was crawling off the seat, fumbling with her napkin. Jet knelt beside her and wiped away the oatmeal that always managed to make its way onto her cheeks and chin while Hannah made a face that clearly conveyed that she wasn’t a baby and didn’t appreciate being treated like one. Once Jet finished, she gave Hannah a final look and then handed her a pink backpack emblazoned with a stylized Disney princess.
“Here’s your stuff. Have a good day at school,” she said. Hannah took the bag and tilted her head. Jet kissed her cheek and they walked together to the front door.
A brown Fiat sedan waited at the curb. A woman Jet’s age smiled from the driver’s seat. Behind her sat a little girl strapped into a car seat, with an empty space beside her awaiting Hannah’s arrival. Hannah ran down the steps to the car, and the woman stepped from the vehicle and held the rear door open. Hannah dutifully placed her backpack on the floor and the woman lifted her into the seat and buckled her in, and then turned to Jet and waved. Jet returned the gesture and watched as the car drove off before closing the door softly behind her.
Matt tromped down the hall and gave her a long kiss. “Got to get going,” he said.
“You sure you don’t want to take advantage of an empty house?” she asked, one eyebrow cocked.
“I should know better than to turn that offer down, but I have those new customers this morning…”
She shrugged. “Suit yourself. The offer was made.”
“Rain check?”
She shook her head. “Clear skies, so if you’re not going to strike while the iron’s hot…”
He looked at his watch and frowned. “Maybe I’ll come home early.”
“Maybe I’ll be here.”
Matt made his way to where an old motor scooter was chained to a light post and unlocked the padlock. He wound the chain into a heap, dropped it and the lock into the compartment beneath the seat, and kick-started the motor with a puff of blue smoke.