by Zoe Matthews
Justin chuckled. “The future isn’t perfect, I promise.”
Bridget shrugged. “I know it’s not perfect, but you have to admit, there is a huge difference between your time and mine.”
“You’re right. And the biggest difference is, you aren’t there.”
Bridget wiped her cheeks and looked at Justin. Did he really mean what he said? Or had he decided since he was in her time for the time being, with the possibility of staying forever, he should just take what he could get?
“Actually, I have to admit that I am relieved to find out that the keys are no longer around. While we traveled from your ranch to Denver, I had a lot of time to think. I was starting to wonder if there was some way to work things out between us. Would one of us be willing to leave our time period for the other? But now that decision has been taken out of our hands. I need to stay.”
“But you are being forced to stay. It isn’t your decision.”
“Forced, maybe. Or maybe I’m supposed to be here.”
Bridget stared at him for a moment and then shook her head. “What about Garrett? Your parents? Their lives in your time?”
“You saw that Garrett is thrilled, although I’m not sure if he really understands all that’s happened, and what it means. I’ll talk to him about it later. My parents are a different story. But I do think that once they think things through they’ll be fine with staying here. After all, their entire family is here. I don’t think they will be happy in the future without us, and their new grandbabies.”
“Do you think Collins is going to find the man?”
Justin shook his head. “No, I don’t. I don’t understand all that is going on, but I don’t think we will see him again, or the keys for that matter. I think, if he was able to find the keys in the cave by himself, he has some ability, some power, that we are not aware of. Some way to gather information without us knowing. I think he probably could sense we used the keys, and that is why he went to take them. If he wanted to talk to us, he would have done it then.”
Bridget nodded her head, thinking for a moment. “So what are you saying then?”
“I want to give us a chance. Forget about the differences between your time period and mine for a while. Let’s explore what could be with us.”
Bridget looked him in the eyes, trying to see exactly what he was saying. What she saw humbled her. His true feelings in his soul for her showed all over his face. At that moment, she knew what she wanted.
“Yes,” she replied firmly. “Yes, I want to give us a chance, no matter what happens.”
A smile spread across Justin’s face that was so big, that Bridget couldn’t help but respond with a big smile of her own. He stood, took her hand and pulled her to her feet. He put his arms around her, pulling her tightly to him. Leaning down, he kissed her lightly, then again more firmly. It was a kiss of promise.
Chapter 18
Collins and Victoria left first thing the next morning for Cripple Creek. They expected to be gone for two days. It was decided that until they knew the outcome of the trip, the keys and the possibility of staying in 1894 would not be discussed. Even though both families agreed to this, small discussions were held in private.
Nicky and Kimberly admitted to each other that they would be thrilled if Doug and Michelle stayed in 1894, although Nicky had some concerns that her parents wouldn’t be happy. But deep down she was thrilled that they were going to stay. She loved Shaun and Colleen and didn’t regret her decision, but she had missed her parents, and had been sad that they weren’t going to know her own children that she might have someday.
Kimberly was also glad that Doug and Michelle were going to stay and she vowed she would do all that she could to help make the transition easier for them. Since her parents had died in the car accident when she was 15, she thought of Doug and Michelle as honorary parents. She wanted Richie and Kathy to know them as grandparents. Patrick wasn’t as thrilled with them staying, but she knew he was concerned that the more people coming from the future and staying in 1894 there were, the more problems there would be. It would be harder to keep the entire situation a secret. How could they explain to neighbors and townspeople of their sudden appearance? A story would have to be made up. The more lies that were told, the harder it would be to keep everything straight.
Kimberly knew that Patrick felt responsible for the entire situation. They had had many conversations about it since her family had shown up. She tried to help him see that at the moment, it didn’t matter who wrote the first letter, who contacted Victoria first, and who married first. They needed to accept the situation as it was and help her family adjust to the major changes in their lives.
Like Justin had commented one day, it wasn’t going to do any good to blame each other or themselves. In fact, it could cause more problems. If the Irish man wasn’t found, Justin suggested that they all focus on moving forward.
Keegan was probably the only one who didn’t care one way or the other about the keys and how they had changed so many people’s lives. His focus was on his schooling. He wanted to be a doctor and didn’t give much thought to anything else. He was glad his brothers had found love and were starting families. In his mind, the keys freed up his feelings for needing to stay on the ranch to do his part. He had another year of school and then he was going to a medical school back east to learn all he could to be the best doctor he could be.
During the few days Victoria and Collins were gone, Patrick had taken the bars of gold and silver to the local bank to sell them. They used some of that money to purchase clothes for Justin, Garrett, Michelle and Doug so they would not be seen in their 21st-century clothes.
At Kimberly’s suggestion, Patrick talked with Shaun, and they both agreed they wanted to split the remainder of the money three ways with Justin, if he did need to stay in this time. They were waiting to talk to him about it until Collins and Victoria returned.
When Collins and Victoria returned three days later, Bridget could tell that the news wasn’t good. After calling everyone together again in the parlor, Collins reported that the store where Victoria had gotten the first key was no longer in business. In fact, they couldn’t even find the building. It was like the store hadn’t ever been there. They asked a few of the local people questions about what might have happened to it and received strange looks. Evidently, a store had never been in that location. There used to be a large field, but now homes had been built.
After reporting about their trip, Collins reached over and took Victoria’s hand. “We feel we need to apologize to all of you for using these keys the way we have. We have talked extensively about what to do, and we have some ideas.”
Justin spoke up. “Can I say something first?”
Collins nodded his permission.
“I know that things haven’t worked out the way we thought they would when we first followed Bridget back to your time. We planned to stay a few days, maybe a week, and then return. Of course, we haven’t been able to return and it looks like we are going to be here for the unforeseeable future. I haven’t talked to my parents yet, but I want to say something to all of you that I said to Bridget. I feel we are here because we are supposed to be. Yes, our lives are going to be drastically different and there will be adjustments, but I think we are up for the challenge.”
He looked at his parents. “Now you will be able to live close to Nicky and Kimberly again. You will have a relationship with their children and have the opportunity to develop a good relationship with Patrick and Shaun.”
Collins broke in. “We would like to offer Doug and Michelle a position in our home. Our present housekeeper is going to be quitting at the end of the month. Her youngest daughter who lives in California is having her first child, and she is having problems in her pregnancy. She wants to go to California to live with and help her daughter. There is a small cottage on the edge of our property. I used to live there when I was Victoria’s butler. It is small but comfortable. You both can live there. Mic
helle, we are offering you the position of housekeeper. Doug, we are offering you the position of groundskeeper. We are also prepared to pay you a salary, enough for you to live on and save a little bit.”
Doug looked at his wife with a question in her eyes and Michelle nodded her head slightly. He turned back to Collins. “That’s very generous of you. We will accept your offers. Thank you. We have been wondering what we could do to support ourselves if we needed to stay.”
Michelle spoke up. “I know all of you are worried that I won’t be very happy about this, and truthfully I’m not. I have a very difficult time with change and there has been a lot of change in our lives over the last few months. But I am excited to live close to Nicky and Kimberly. I know that if we do ever find the keys and are able to go back to our time, we will very likely never see them again. If this is what it will take to stay in touch with our daughters, then I am willing to live here in your time. I can’t promise that I will be happy with all of the adjustments.” Michelle looked at Victoria. “You will need to be patient with us as we learn your ways and how you do things. But I accept your offer and thank you for making it easier for us to live in your time.”
Collins looked at Justin. “We also have an option for you. We need a bookkeeper and are willing to hire you to help us with our finances.”
“We can offer you a job on the ranch, if you’d rather live there,” Shaun broke in.
Justin noticed that Nicky’s eyes lit up at the idea of him living so close to her. He held up his hand to let everyone know he wanted to speak. “Even though I have accepted the idea of staying here, there are things that I need to work out.” He glanced at Bridget and then back to Collins. “I need to consider Garrett’s needs for one thing. I would like to thank both you and Shaun for your job offers, but I want to look around and consider all of my options before I accept anything.”
“Sounds fair and smart,” Patrick spoke up, admiration in his voice. “But I second Shaun’s offer that you are welcome to help us on our ranch. We are planning on building another cabin, and once it’s built, you can live in the place Nicky and I are living in now.”
“Thank you,” Justin said simply.
The impromptu meeting broke up after that and Justin grabbed Garrett’s hand. “Let’s go talk, buddy.”
“Okay,” Garrett agreed and turned to Colleen to make plans to meet after he talked to his dad. Justin smiled, glad that the two of them had become such great friends.
“Let’s take a walk, shall we?” Justin suggested and Garrett readily agreed.
They left the house and started down the street. Justin didn’t start talking at first, taking the time to notice how far apart the houses were. This area of 1894 Denver was where influential people lived. The houses were large and beautifully designed. None of them looked the same. There was quite a bit of land around each house, giving each family their privacy. Some of the properties had so many trees, you couldn’t see the next house giving an illusion of living alone, while still having the advantages of being in a city.
Justin turned his attention to his son. Garrett kicked a small rock a few feet in front of him. When he reached the rock, he’d kick it again.
“So how do you feel about everything that is going on?” Justin finally asked him.
“I’m fine with it, Dad. Really.”
“Are you sure? There are going to be many changes. You are going to need to dress differently. You will be going to school with kids that will probably not have learned as much as you have, especially because you were in advanced classes. You’ll need to be patient with them and the teacher. School is very different here.”
Garrett stopped to think about Justin’s words and then nodded. “I can do that.”
“You also can’t tell anyone that you are from the future. Anyone.”
“I know, Dad. I promise I will keep it a secret. I won’t tell anyone.”
“Let me ask you another question. Since it looks like we are staying here, where do you want to live? Do you want to stay on the ranch?”
Garrett looked at him in surprise. “I get to help decide?”
“Of course you do. All of this will be affecting you too, not just me. I think you should be able to voice your opinion. I will need to make the final decision since I need to come up with something to support us, but I will take your feelings into account.”
Garrett nodded with a smile. “Well, I guess I don’t care where we live. I want to still see Grandma and Grandpa. I like the ranch. Colleen told me she would help me learn to ride horses. She told me all about how she helps her dad train horses and he sells them for lots of money.”
“Okay. One last question. How would you feel about having Bridget be your mother?”
“Do you mean you are going to marry her?” Garrett asked curiously.
“I’m thinking about it.”
Garrett shrugged. “I guess it’s okay. As long as she doesn’t boss me around.”
Justin grinned. “If she’s your mother, she’ll have to boss you around, at least a little bit.”
Garrett shrugged again. “I think it’s neat she traveled to our time all by herself. I’ve been thinking about it. A lot of things could have gone wrong. She’s nice enough. You can marry her if you want. It might be nice to have a mom. Colleen says she likes having Nicky as her mom. Nicky spends time with Colleen and helps her with things. Maybe Bridget would be like that.”
“I’m sure Bridget will want to spend time with you.” Justin could tell that even though he hadn’t talked to his son about Bridget, Garrett had definitely been thinking about it, and had even talked to Colleen about it. Garrett was very aware of what was going on around him.
“What do you want to do?” Garrett asked him.
“I’m not sure yet. I need to think about things and research all our options. I just wanted to get your input.”
“Will you tell me before you make a decision about where we live?”
“Of course, son,” Justin assured him, putting his hand on his shoulder. “I won’t make any major decisions without talking to you about it, I promise.” He could tell that even though Garrett was talking like he was fine with all the changes in his life, he wasn’t feeling as comfortable about the situation as he was acting.
Justin noticed as they were walking that they were heading towards a street that had multiple small businesses along both sides. He saw a bank, a general store, and a clothing store. He then saw a drug store, and if he remembered his history correctly, drug stores in the 1890s sold ice cream.
“How about we get some ice cream?” he suggested.
Garrett’s face lit up. “Really? Do you have money from this time? Because I don’t think they’ll accept money from the future.”
“Yes, Patrick gave me a few dollars. How about it?”
In fact, Patrick had approached him about splitting the money they got back for the gold and silver bricks. At first, Justin had been uncomfortable with the idea of taking his sister’s money, but in the end, he agreed that he would need it to get on his feet. Even after splitting it, everyone would still have a fairly large sum. He wasn’t going to explain that to Garrett, though. Being that Garrett was only eleven years old, Justin didn’t want him too involved with the details of finances quite yet.
“Yes. I want to see if ice cream tastes the same as it does in our time.”
By this time, they were almost to the drug store. “Okay, but remember, don’t talk about the future.”
“Do you think they have strawberry ice cream?” Garrett asked.
“Let’s go find out, shall we?”
****
The next day, Justin decided to find Bridget. It was time to find out exactly what her plans were for her future and to see if she was willing to include him and Garrett in them. And to see if she was willing to take a chance on the plans he had come up with to support a family in the 1890s. After asking Victoria, he discovered that Bridget was out in her gardens, a place where she had spen
t quite a bit of time since they’d arrived in Denver.
When he found her, she was sitting on a bench in the gazebo. She was staring off into the distance with a small smile on her face. The sun shone through the slats of the gazebo onto her hair, making it look like it was lit up from within. She was dressed in a simple light blue dress, with long sleeves and a high neck. He had never thought the vintage styles were all that pretty, but on Bridget, he was growing to find them very attractive. Her hair was braided and pulled back into a bun at the top of her head, with the hair at the roots loose enough to frame her face. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever known. As he watched her, he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. It didn’t matter if it was in her time or in his. But since circumstances made it so he was going to be living in her time, her time was now his.