SHELTER

Chapter 3

Jolie woke up to a strong late morning sun filtering through the window. A quick glance at her phone confirmed it was verging on noon.

Once her head had hit the pillow she didn't thinks she'd moved all night. Her muscles confirmed this suspicion with their strong, negative reaction to her movements to get out of bed. Everything about her was warm and comfortable right now; a state she was not used to.

She was frugal with her funds and rarely spent the night in hotels. More often than not she found well maintained campgrounds with shower facilities for her stays.

Luke had left everything to her and named her as his life insurance beneficiary. She'd sold their home and everything in it 6 months after his death. She still had a small storage unit back in Idaho filled with pictures and mementos she simply couldn't part with even if she couldn't bring herself to look at them.

She left town with no plan, just a few changes of clothes, Luke's motorcycle and a couple hundred dollars in cash on her person and the rest in the bank.

Now, over a year and a half later she still didn't feel like she could crack the door on the emotions that had made her run in the first place.

Every time something made her think of Luke and what they had had together her chest became tight and she felt like the world was closing in on her like a swirling black hole.

Dustin, Maria, Jake...... they'd all said time would help. Millions of women had gone through exactly what she'd gone through. There were counselors specifically for the spouses of military members killed in action. All she'd known was that she couldn't step foot in her own home, she couldn't sit in their car, she couldn't think of a future void of his face and all the plans that they had made. She felt broken and abandoned.

 So she'd run away and hurt the small band of people in the world who still cared about her. It was the only way she could continue to live.

Moving slowly she left her room and wandered down to the kitchen. A bag of coffee sat next to a coffee maker with a note beside it.

Jolie,

Good morning. Hope you slept well. There is coffee and eggs and toast. Hopefully you like those things. I took the Jeep in today and have left you the keys to my pickup and a house key. Go wherever, do whatever, I trust you. I'll be home around 6 and we'll do those tacos we vetoed last night. I've left my cell if you need anything.

Warren

She smiled. He was really the nicest guy, almost to the point of fault. He had no idea who she was or anything about her but he'd left her alone in his house with the keys to his pickup; crazy. Then again, Luke had been the same way. He'd called everyone he'd served with family and family was a priority.

That was why Dustin still called her family; because she was Luke's widow and Luke's "family's" responsibility now. No matter how many times she told him that she was fine on her own and they could all stand down, that they were under no obligation to her, they still called and checked on her regularly.

And saved her bacon when she wrecked herself in the middle of nowhere.

With a sigh she filled the coffee maker and waited for the life giving fluid to finish. She'd try to wait patiently for James at the shop to call with a full run down of the damage to Frederick. She had a lot of anxiety wrapped up in how much time and money this was going to cost her. In the mean time it couldn't hurt to check out the town and pickup up the local paper.

If her suspicions were correct in regards to her near future she would need to start looking for a place to hunker down for the winter and a job. She'd also need to locate the local thrift shops to fill out her wardrobe for winter. She hadn't planned on facing snow and wind and thus hadn't been carrying clothing suited for such.