If I found my target, I didn’t want to be disturbed.
It was the next day, late morning at Fortnum’s. The store would be closing in an hour so we could all get ready to go to Tex and Nancy’s wedding. But Jet, Indy and I were taking off in thirty minutes to hit the mall to buy dresses (and probably shoes).
So I didn’t have a lot of time.
I found her in the way back room, beyond the middle room with its table filled with crates, crates that were filled with vinyl.
She was shelving books in Women’s Studies.
Tall, extremely thin, dark hair that was graying and she left it at that.
Jane.
“Hey,” I called and she jumped.
Then she turned to me. “Hey, Ally.”
I got close and asked, “You going to Tex’s thing?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“Going to Blanca’s after?” I asked.
“For a little while.”
This meant she’d show her face, leave a present and get the hell out of there.
Let’s just say Jane wasn’t social.
“You write those Rock Chick books?” I went on conversationally, and her eyes went huge.
She took a step back.
Fuck. My gut feeling was right.
She did.
Holy crap.
I followed her. She took another step back and we kept going, but as we did it occurred to me she would think I was on the attack. So I reached out, grabbed her hand and held it just as her shoulder hit a shelf.
“It’s okay,” I whispered.
“It’s… okay?” she asked incredulously.
I nodded. “I’m not mad.”
“You’re… not?”
I shook my head. “I’m not. But, if I’m gonna have your back, I gotta know why you wrote them and why you didn’t tell anyone you did.”
“You’re going to have my back?”
This was going way too slowly. I had to speed things up.
I squeezed her hand. “Yeah, Jane. I’m gonna have your back. But you gotta talk to me. We don’t have a lot of time and we don’t wanna get caught talking.”
“No one ever comes back here,” she spoke mostly the truth.