A Way (The Voyagers Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

kind of car she would need.  She told him the distance, asked for the most economical and tried not to roll her eyes when he asked if she cared about the color, although pink would be nice .  She realized her hands were clammy, as he dropped the keys into them, and gripped them tightly before they fell onto the floor. 
    “Do you want me to point out the car for you or will you be ok?”  He looked at her expectantly.  His slightly magnified eyes pleading silently for her to not make him actually have to do his job.
    Jessie thought, I think I can find a blue Ford Focus out of the six vehicles out front , but instead she answered, “Nope, no problem, you can get back to your Candy Crush”.  He blushed, thinking he had done a better job of hiding his phone under the reservation book. 
    “That’s a hard level.”  She smiled a goodbye in his direction before exiting.
    Unlocking her rented car she eased into the grey, suede seat, tossed her bag on the passenger seat and inserted the key into the ignition.  Jessie exhaled and leaned back into the seat.  She expected to feel some uncertainty; her inside voice screaming, ‘what the hell are you doing?  Instead she felt calm and surprisingly, kind of cold.  She reached over to figure out how to get the heat on, also checked out the radio, and finally returned to the key and twisted it, bringing the machine to life. Before she slipped the car into reverse, she remembered to pull her phone out of her coat and made sure the GPS was active.  This was it.  She was on the road to the rest of her life.  Jessie had no idea how, but she knew she was making the right choice.
    *******
    Jessie, she felt, had always been in tune with her sense of déjà vu, more so than other people.  There was always a scent in the street, her apartment, walking past someone in the bar that could take her back to her childhood, last week, last year.  But nothing compared to the feelings that overwhelmed her driving the two plus hours to Duke Island.  It was like she was coming home, although she had never ventured this far out of the city that she had moved to a few months earlier.  The only long distance she had gone, to be honest, was the farthest Starbucks from her apartment, seventeen blocks away. 
    She met Ger in a coffee shop on the other side of the country, when she was on her road trip to find herself, and not doing a very good job of it.  Jessie had taken a few days out of her poorly planned road trip and found a hotel where she didn’t have to park in front of the room door.  It had a spa, a gift shop and a few chain restaurants.  Even though her overpriced shelter gave her no reason to, she decided to explore the mountain town it was situated in. She read on the internet that the least touristy of the coffee shops was just across the road and up a bit and took her laptop, to attempt to do some writing and enjoy a few lattes. 
    Jessie settled into a welcoming cushioned chair, near the faux fireplace, when a stunning, if not a bit worse for wear girl, plopped down across from her, sloshing her coffee over the side of her mug, muttering “shit” and glancing around to see if anyone had heard or seen her clumsiness. 
    Jessie caught her eye, stifled a laugh, and went back to staring at her computer, willing the words to come.  All work and no play makes Jessie a lost girl.    Those are not the words she was looking for.  Wait, when was the last time I checked Farmville?
    “After a few more of these I will be able to function like a normal person again, hopefully,” the coffee splashed girl in front of her said. 
    Jessie looked up again and gave her a knowing smile.  She was also hopeless without coffee in the morning, not to mention wine in the evening. 
    “I’m Geraldine, by the way.  Unfortunate, I know, but it was my great-grandmother’s name or something and she was a feminist or wanted to vote, I don’t know.  Anyway I go by Ger and really should find