Chapter 3

"Now don't worry. I'll call you every night."

"You'd better... Oh and if Sean Connery answers just ignore him."

"Yeah, right," Kenny grinned.

They heard his flight called over the airport P.A. system.

"Gotta go. I love you Jessie."

"Have a good time, but be careful and come back to me safe and sound."

"That's the plan," he said, holding her for a long meaningful kiss before picking up his bags and heading for the concourse.

Jessica didn't like the uneasy feeling which had hovered over her since she had awakened this morning. She wasn't about to say anything to Kenny which might make him uneasy or spoil his enjoyment of the trip, yet the feeling clung to her and she couldn't shake it. Her only consolation was that she often had these feelings when they were separated for more than a few hours and yet he always returned smiling with a big hug and kiss. So shaking herself to rid her mind of the sense of foreboding, she went to the parking lot and waited for Kenny's plane to take off. Shading her eyes with her hand she gazed through the setting sun as the 737 taxied to the end of the runway, paused then began its takeoff run. Her heart thumped loudly and she gasped slightly as the plane reached rotation and lifted from the runway. Yet the climb out was normal, Jessica following the flight of the silver craft until it was lost to sight.

Feeling a bit better, she got into the car, started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot, heading for home.

It was 11:30 that night when the phone rang and she was so relieved to hear Kenny's voice announce that he had arrived safely and was calling from his hotel room. Jessica knew she was being overly emotional but again she made Kenny promise to be careful. The two bade each other good night with Kenny promising to call each night.

True to his word on Thursday and Friday nights Kenny phoned and reassured Jessica that the rehearsals were going well. The four members of the group had been overjoyed to see each other again and all were looking forward to the gig on Saturday night. Since the gig would run until one o'clock in the morning Kenny suggested that he wait until Sunday to call, but Jessica was insistent and told him she would not sleep a wink until she heard from him no matter how late it might be. Kenny, recognizing how much the call meant to his pregnant wife, agreed to call her after the gig and before they boarded Tony's uncle's plane for the return trip to Houston.

"Hi Jessie. It's Sean Connery. I'm just around the corner. Is your husband home?" came the chuckling voice at 2:30 in the morning.

"Yes, now would be a good time. I think he's off gallivanting around Texas at the moment, probably with groupies hanging on both arms."

"Well, he should be there holding you in his arms."

"I couldn't agree more. How did it go?"

"It was great. We did three sets and the club owner said he'd love to have us back." There was an awkward moment of silence. "No, Jessie, I have no intention of doing this again and neither do the other guys either. It was great, but Tony had a lot of trouble getting through the third set. He told us all how grateful he was but he's just about wiped out. The rest of us are pretty wired, but we all agreed that as great as this was, it isn't something we would want to do again. The Cortez Quartet is now officially history. But it was good to go out on a high note... so to speak."

"I'm so glad it went well. Please hurry home."

"I'm calling from the airport. We're loading our gear in Tony's uncle's plane now. We take off in fifteen minutes. We have a two hour layover in Houston before catching our commercial flight, but I still should be home by late afternoon -- early evening at most."