Midnight Angel [Jenlisa FF]

~'~'~ Chapter 21 ~'~'~

Walking over to Jennie, Lisa took one of her hands and looked into her eyes. "I promise I'll do everything I can to make sure the truth – the real truth – comes out."

"I know I've said this before, but thank you for everything, Lisa," Jennie told her sincerely. "If it weren't for you, I'd still be hiding out in my rooms and my friends would still think I'm dead. Whatever else happens, I'm grateful for that."

"I just want to see you happy," Lisa responded in complete honesty. It was the truth. she just wanted her to be happy without having to look over her shoulder all the time.

An awkward moment followed as Jennie stared up at Lisa, her eyes meeting her. Butterflies settled in her stomach, and she swore her hands trembled. The way she was looking at her, it was as if she was gazing inside her. She had the distinct impression that she wanted to kiss her again. It seemed like eons ago that she had kissed her by the door in the kitchen. Did she want her to do it again?

Old fears resurfaced inside her. Jennie told herself she was being stupid. Lisa was nice. she wouldn't ever hurt her. But she couldn't push the fears, the memories, away. So she shifted away, breaking the intimate moment.

"You called your friend," Jennie said suddenly, remembering the conversation she had accidentally overheard.

Lisa was abruptly aware of the broken moment. she wanted to kick herself. she'd been so tempted to lean down and touch her lips to hers. Stupid, she cursed silently. This was definitely not the time to be putting moves on Jennie. There may never be a time for that. She needed her help, not her come-ons. So, she took a huge mental step back and focused on her question.

"Yes, I just got off the phone with him," Lisa answered.

"What did he say?"

Lisa shrugged and stuffed her hands into her pockets. "Not much. I really didn't tell him anything, just that I was going to send some stuff to him. And I asked him to look it over and then call me back."

"Why didn't you tell him about," she waved her hand around, "all this?" Jennie inquired.

"I didn't want to prejudice him," Lisa explained. "If I told him the situation first, he'd read the files with preconceived notions. I wanted him to read the files cold."

"Oh, that makes sense," Jennie said, considering it.

Lisa could see her nervousness. Her whole life depended on her idea. It was a heavy weight to bear. she hoped Ryan came through for her. "He'll see just what I saw in those files, Jennie. he'll see that you weren't the one."

But Jennie wasn't so sure about that. She turned away and asked, "so who is this friend of yours?"

"He's actually my sister's boyfriend."

"Really?" Jennie posed curiously, facing Lisa again. "How did he meet her?"

"He worked for the LA Police Department for a while, and few years ago there was a problem in the building Rosé lived in. Some vandalism, nuisance stuff. Ry was one of the officers who handled it, and they hit it off," she relayed, remembering how worried she'd been when Rosé had reached her on location in Africa and told her about the problem.

"Wow, they've been together for years?" The idea of two people being together for so long was almost foreign to Jennie. Practically everybody she knew, well, had known, had been divorced or broken up. The only relationship she'd seen work had been her parents, but she quickly pushed thoughts of them out of her mind.

"Sort of," Lisa responded. "They dated for a while, then broke up and Rosé was seeing someone else but that didn't work out. When Ry came back to California after his training at Quantico to join the FBI, they started dating again."