Yet here he was, underwater with a fistful of gold coins.
It was going to take them weeks to bring all the treasure to the surface. His heart cried out against the delay. All he wanted to do was take the ruby, acquire a small armada and chase down the storm that would send him back home. As far as he was concerned, Rosalyn and her father could have the rest.
He had to be practical, though. He didn’t know how much time and resources the pursuit of returning home was going to require. They couldn’t afford to just abandon this discovery.
Besides, finding it again in a few weeks or months might not be that easy. As it was, they had discovered the sterncastle a good distance away from where Dave had thought they might find it. It was almost a mile from where the rest of the ship would be discovered in a few years.
Plus, they owed it to Rosalyn and her father to rescue as much of the treasure as they could. The two hadn’t been obligated to help them, especially given their crazy story, and yet they had. Their kindness should not go unrewarded--although given the way Rosalyn gazed at Dave and with the kiss she’d planted on him earlier, he was pretty certain what she was looking for had nothing to do with money.
~
Later that night, Mark finally completed the project he’d been working on in his spare time. It had taken a lot of effort, but he found a way to charge his smartphone. It was crude and he risked something going wrong and frying his phone altogether, but at least for now he had his pictures and several old voicemails from Sally to enjoy. Even more important than that, he had a way to capture life here for Sally in case he didn’t make it home. His first new picture was a selfie of himself with Dave, Rosalyn, the doubloons and the ruby.
“We have the money now. We should get our own place.” Dave spoke up suddenly.
Mark’s gaze snapped to Dave’s. It was late and he had thought his friend was asleep.
“What? Why?”
“We’ve imposed on Rosalyn and her father long enough.”
“With any luck, we won’t be imposing that much longer,” Mark said. “And we’ll definitely be leaving them better than we found them.”
“Still, it’s unseemly for us to stay. We’re not even relatives, and this is 1880. I’m surprised people haven’t already started talking.”
“Is this about the kiss?” Mark asked, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
“No,” Dave said a little too loudly.
“That’s exactly what I thought. I get it. You don’t want to live in the same house as your girlfriend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend!” Dave said, not at all amused.
“Just keep telling yourself that,” Mark teased.
23
Mark awoke and sat up abruptly. It was a big day and joy and grief mixed within him in equal measure. It had been two years to the day that they had been trapped in the past. So much had happened in that time. They had found the sterncastle of the Lita del Alma, and after many painstaking dives, they had recovered enough gold and jewels to make them wealthy beyond measure.
They had ventured into the triangle trying to get back home more than two dozen times since then, had completely wrecked fifteen boats in the process and had broken twenty bones between them. Their brushes with death were beginning to take their toll both mentally and physically on each of the men. The locals thought they were crazy, but it turned out when you had enough money, people would limit the whispering to behind your back.
He knew his darling wife had a healthy baby boy, but the moment she delivered, he had lost the connection, just as he had with her two previous pregnancies. It had been fifteen months since he’d been able to feel her with him and it was slowly breaking his heart.
He took a deep breath. While there was grief to spare on this day especially, it was time to focus on the joy. Rosalyn had proven to be a savvy business partner and had risen to the challenge that was David. The priest had finally broken down and admitted the truth to her. The whole truth. Instead of running away, she had believed him and redoubled her efforts to change her beloved’s life forever.
Today, they were getting married.
He had never seen his friend so happy or so befuddled. It was as if Dave didn’t know what to do with himself. Mark couldn’t blame him. The possibility of marriage had never even entered the other man’s mind before and now he was marrying a lady from a completely different time period.
In his own time he would have remained happily married to the Church. Here, however, he’d found a different destiny. Rosalyn was his match in every way. She was smarter than Dave, and as soon as he taught her to read, she was well on her way to becoming more educated than either of them. On more than one occasion, Dave had remarked that he’d created a monster, particularly when she debated him on theology or philosophy.
Mark got dressed in his best clothes as quickly as he could and then hurried to Dave’s room. The two of them had bought a house together, but after today it was going to belong to Dave and Rosalyn, and Mark was going to find a place of his own. The newlyweds certainly didn’t need a third wheel under their roof. Given the way that Rosalyn looked at Dave, Mark would be surprised if she even let him out of the bedroom for the first month.
Dave turned out to be a total wreck. He was wildly pacing his room like a caged tiger, one shoe on, one shoe off.
“You misbuttoned your shirt,” Mark pointed out.
Dave swore in Latin. “This is the fourth time!”
“Here, let me help,” Mark said. He rebuttoned the top button correctly. “There, now just work your way down. And you might want to try breathing once in a while.”
His friend met and held his gaze. “What am I doing?”
“Getting married.”
“I can’t get married,” Dave protested.
“Why not? I thought we settled the whole priest issue. I seem to remember a lot of discussion about God, and doors closing, windows opening. I think you even had a mental breakdown and started quoting Luther or something.”
“I did no such thing!” Dave protested hotly.
“Well, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.”
“I’m not from here.”
“I know. You’re from Miami.”
“You know what I mean!” Dave snapped, exasperated.
“Oh, the whole you’re from the future thing? Well, if she’s willing to accept it, then you should, too.”
“But how can I take her back with me?”
“Simple. You load her up into the boat, get her one of those cork jackets, and when we actually make it home, you immediately take her to Walt Disney World and blow her mind.”
“I’m being serious.”
“So am I,” Mark said. “Someone from the 1800s will be shocked not only at the thought of a theme park, but also at the fact that the entire world worships a mouse.”
“How can I risk her life in those storms?”
And there they had it.
That one notion Mark had been thinking about for weeks. And he already knew the answer. He’d known for some time.
Dave couldn’t go back.
Only his friend hadn’t quite realized that yet. It appeared he was about to, though. It would hurt Mark to be so brutally honest with his friend, but the fact was that Dave loved Rosalyn just as much as Mark loved Sally. He couldn’t let him throw that away, no matter the reason—even for him.
Because love was everything.
“Dave, we’ll have plenty of time to work that out after the honeymoon.”
Dave sat down on his bed and dropped his head in his hands. “What am I going to do?”
“Please don’t tell me you need me to give you the talk, because that’s just going to be awkward for both of us.”
Dave made a face at him. Then he sighed, his expression growing serious. “Am I making a mistake?”
Mark looked him straight in the eyes. “No. Marrying Rosalyn is the single best thing you’ve ever done
in your life. It’s the right thing.”
“Thank you,” Dave whispered.
“That’s what the Best Man is for.”
“You are the Best Man.”
“Of course I am,” Mark said.
“No, you really are. You’re the best man I have ever met.”
“You’re just saying that because I’m going to keep you from fainting at the wedding.”
“I’m saying that because you have kept it together better than anyone else would have in your situation. I’m only just starting to understand what it’s been like for you to be away from Sally for this long. How your heart must be breaking with every second you’re apart.”
Mark looked away. “Don’t make me cry. If you make me cry then I’ll make you cry and things will just get ugly.”
“Okay. No crying. Check. Anything else?”
“Yeah. Finish buttoning up that shirt. We need to get you to the church on time.”
~
The wedding was beautiful and the reception afterward was wild. Dave had spent a small fortune making sure it was the most memorable party anyone had ever seen. Of course, he and Rosalyn barely ate, didn’t even notice the entertainment and were only marginally aware of their guests. They kept dancing together, staring dreamily into each other’s eyes.
Finally, toward the end of the evening, Rosalyn started making the rounds with their guests and Dave stopped and stood by Mark for a moment. Dave was staring at Rosalyn and smirking in a way Mark had never seen him smirk before.
He had to ask.
“What are you thinking about right now?” Mark asked.
“My wife.”
“Must be nice to be married.”
“It is, and hopefully, especially for the reason I’m thinking about right now.”
“Pervert,” Mark said, trying not to laugh.
“Prude.”
Mark hugged Dave. “I’m proud of you, man.”
“Thank you for being here. Thank you for getting me here.”
“You’re welcome.”
Moments later, Dave and Rosalyn departed arm-in-arm. Mark envied them, starting off their lives together. He remembered the feeling all too well. They were embarking on a brand new journey.
And he was hoping to embark on an old one.
Later that night, he took out the boat by himself, even knowing how incredibly foolish it was to go it alone. He was well aware this might be it for him. If he didn’t make it home this time, he might not make it at all.
He kept wondering if there was a plan in all this, if they had been meant to be here so that Dave and Rosalyn could meet each other. If that was the case, then maybe he would be allowed to go home to his own family now.
He stayed out on the water for sixteen days, until he ran out of food and water. By the time he sailed back toward the port he was almost out of hope. He had avoided putting down any kind of roots here, but he realized he was going to have to, in case he never made it home.
St. Augustine was about to change in a big way. In a year Henry Flagler would arrive to spend the winter. When he did Mark would make sure to meet him and help nudge along Flagler’s ideas about developing the town into a winter getaway for the wealthy. Then when Flagler started building his hotels a few years later, Mark should be able to work things so that he was an onsite consultant or manager for Carrère and Hastings, the architectural firm Flagler was going to be using.
Once in port, Mark began to walk. He hadn’t secured accommodations because he’d been hoping it wouldn’t come to that. Now he realized he should have prepared better. He was going to have to find someplace new to live. He was also going to have to make some more permanent plans in case he never made it back.
He thought of Sally and just how worried and heartbroken she must be, raising three children alone. In some ways, it had to be even worse for her, since she wouldn’t know what had happened to him.
Did she believe he was dead? Had she gone on with her life?
Somehow, he didn’t think so. Maybe it was the way they’d communicated when she was pregnant. But somehow, he just knew she was waiting.
Like a lightning bolt striking, a thought occurred to him and he came to a sudden stop. He thought about some of the time travel movies he’d seen.
What if there was a way to send her a message, letting her know he was still alive? If he did this right, he could get it to her right about the time he disappeared so she would know that he was desperately trying to get back to her.
Excitement welled inside him. Up until that point he had been walking aimlessly, but now he looked up. He was standing in front of a large stretch of empty land, and he realized with a start that he knew what was going to be on that piece of land in the future.
He smiled.
24
Mark opened his eyes slowly.
Today was the day.
There was something different. He could feel it in his bones. But rather than being elated, he felt a sense of foreboding. He sat up and grabbed the journal off his bedside table. With any luck, this would be the last time he had to write in it and tomorrow morning he’d be waking up next to his beloved wife.
He took extra care when shaving, wanting his skin to be as smooth as possible. Sally didn’t like stubble because she said it was scratchy. He wondered if she would even recognize him. Ten years had given him a light dusting of grey hair and his face was more deeply tanned than she’d ever seen it.
In truth, he felt that he looked even older than he was. Life in the past was harsher in some ways, and he noticed Dave also seemed to be aging at a slightly accelerated rate. Still, they looked and felt much better than their peers of a similar age.
He couldn’t help but wonder what would happen when he made it back. Would the Triangle spit him out roughly around the time he had left? Or would it spit him out ten years later, so that the same amount of time would have passed for both of them?
His stomach clenched at the thought. He would never wish that upon her. He also had no idea if his contingency plan would have been actually set into motion. What if she had moved or married someone else? What if he couldn’t find her or she was unwilling to take him back? What if she was dead?
These and a thousand other questions plagued him until his gut was clenched so tight he could barely breathe. The future was completely unknown, and it scared him. He followed his plan, however, because the thought of doing nothing, of dying here in the past and never making it back to at least see Sally once again scared him even more than something else going wrong.
“I’m coming, Baby,” he whispered as he turned away from the mirror.
A half an hour later, he was making the ship ready for sail. He heard a creak as someone else stepped on board. He turned around to see Dave with a toddler on his hip. It was his youngest son, Abraham. Fatherhood really suited Dave, who had settled rather naturally into the role. Abraham looked even more like Dave than his older brothers. They all had inherited Dave’s distinctive nose, but Abraham had also inherited his eyes and his bright, inquisitive mind.
“Where you going, Uncle Mark?” Abraham asked him, wide-eyed.
“I’m going back home,” Mark told the youngster as he tousled his hair.
“You really think you’re going to make it this time?” Dave asked.
“Air’s different today, can you feel it?”
“I feel it, but I don’t like it,” Dave said. “You don’t have to go, you know. There’s people who love you here.”
He could hear the apprehension and the sorrow in his friend’s voice.
“And you don’t have to stay,” Mark said softly.
Dave shook his head. “You know I can’t leave, just as much as I know you can’t stay.”
Abraham began to struggle and Dave set him down. The little boy climbed onto a seat and sat there looking immensely pleased with himself. Dave stared at him, a smile on his lips.
“You were right
, you know. They’re all my kids,” he said.
“They all have your nose,” Mark affirmed. “And every time I see one of them, I’ll tell them they had the most amazing great-great grandfather in the whole world.”
Dave nodded and the two men embraced. Mark didn’t even bother to try and check the tears that spilled freely down his cheeks. “I’m going to miss you, my brother,” he said. After all they’d gone through together, they were closer than brothers, but he had no words to adequately explain how he felt.
“The law firm has everything ready for Sally when the time comes?”
Mark nodded.
“Don’t worry, we’ll keep passing down the secret so that when the time comes, she’ll know you’re trying to get back to her.”
“Thank you,” Mark said, his voice wavering as he struggled with his emotions. “When I get back, is there any message you want me to give anyone?” Mark finally asked.
Dave shook his head. “No, and if anyone asks, tell them I died heroically or something like that. Make up a good story.”
“You have the most heroic story already.”
“Yeah, but if you tell people something like that they’ll lock you up in a mental institution and throw away the key.”
“I know,” Mark said with a sigh. “Marooned on an island, surviving off our wits will have to do.”
“That will have to do.”
“And the local wildlife gave you an epic funeral, fit for a king.”
Dave laughed. “That would be something to see.”
“Yes, wouldn’t it, though? Dolphins accompanying your raft to sea before I shot it with a flaming arrow.”
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