by Nora Roberts
“I was thinking.”
“Well, that’s fine, but you haven’t picked one fight in five hours. I’m worried about you.”
“I don’t want to fight with you.”
“Now I’m really worried.” She’d known that something was on his mind, something that caused her palms to sweat. Deliberately she made her voice light and cheerful. “We’ll be back in a few minutes. Once you’re trapped inside the cabin, hauling wood and eating out of a can, you’ll be your old cranky self.”
“Sunny, we have to talk.”
She moistened her lips. “All right.” Her nerves began to hum as she stopped the car in front of the cabin. “Before or after we unload?”
“Now.” It had to be now. He took her hand and said the first words that came to mind. “I love you so much.”
The little fist of fear in her stomach unclenched. “We’re never going to fight if you keep talking like that.” She shifted closer to kiss his cheek. It was then that she noticed the smoke pumping out of the chimney. “Jacob, someone’s here.”
“What?”
“In the cabin.” She saw the front door open. “Libby!” With a laugh, she shoved the car door open and bounded out. “Libby, you scared me to death.” As Jacob watched, she threw her arms around a slim brunette. “Look at you! You’re so tanned!”
“There’s a lot of sun in Bora Bora.” Libby kissed her sister’s cheeks. “When we got back last night we thought you’d skipped out on us.”
“Just a quick trip into the real world to recharge.”
Libby’s laugh was smooth and easy. She knew her sister very well. “That’s what I told Cal. All your books were still here.” Suddenly she gripped both of Sunny’s hands. “Oh, Sunny, I’m so glad you’re back. I can’t wait to tell you. I—” A movement caught her eye. Glancing over, she saw Jacob as he climbed out of the Land Rover. As their eyes met, her half smile of greeting faded and her fingers tightened on Sunny’s.
“What? What is it? Oh.” Smiling, Sunny turned. “Guess who dropped in? This is Jacob, Cal’s brother.”
“I know.” Libby felt as though the ground had vanished from under her feet. She’d seen his face before, in the picture Cal had kept on his ship. But this was no picture. It was a flesh-and-blood man, a furious one. As they stared at each other in silence, the blood seeped slowly out of her face.
He’s come for Cal, she thought, and had to bite back the scream of protest that rose into her throat.
She’s terrified, he realized. Something moved inside him that he stubbornly ignored. He wouldn’t feel for her. He wouldn’t think of her as anything but the obstacle preventing his brother from returning home.
“J.T.?” Instinctively Sunny put a protective arm around Libby’s shoulders. There was something here, she realized. And she was the only one not in on the secret. “Libby, you’re shivering. You shouldn’t be standing out here without a coat. Let’s go inside.” She tossed a look back over her shoulder. “Let’s all go inside.”
“I’m all right.” Shaken, Libby walked inside to the fire and tried to warm her icy hands. No amount of heat could warm her trembling heart. She wouldn’t look at him again, not until she had herself under some kind of control. In the back of her mind, the little germ of fear had lived. Someday they would come for him. But she hadn’t believed it would be so soon. They’d had so little time.
Time, she thought bitterly. It was a word she could learn to hate.
Sunny stood between them, baffled. The tension was so thick in the small room that she could smell it as easily as the woodsmoke. “All right.” She looked from Libby’s rigid back to Jacob’s stony face without any idea who she should go to. “Would either of you like to tell me what’s going on?”
“Hey, Libby, if that was that sexy sister of yours, I want to tell her—”
Barefoot, his sweatshirt torn, Cal strode in from the kitchen. Everyone turned toward him. It was like a slow, deliberate ballet. His easy grin froze. All motion stopped.
“J.T.” His voice was hardly more than a whisper as joy and disbelief flooded through him. “J.T.,” he said again. Then, with a whoop, he was across the room, grabbing his brother in a hard hug. “Oh, God, Jacob! It’s really you!”
Libby watched them until tears blurred her vision and she turned away.
Sunny beamed. The two brothers held each other in a fierce embrace. She could see the emotions run over Jacob’s face and found them beautiful.
“I can’t believe it,” Cal murmured, pulling his brother back to study, to devour, his face. “You’re really here. How?”
He kept his hands on Cal’s arms, needing the simple and tangible contact. “The same way as you, but with more finesse. You look good.” Somehow he’d expected to find Cal pale and thin and tired from coping with the twentieth century. Instead, his brother was tanned, alert and obviously happy.
“You, too.” His smile faded a bit. “Mom? Dad?”
“They’re fine.”
Cal nodded. It was a hurt he had learned to live with. “You got my message. I couldn’t be sure.”
“We received it,” Jacob said dully.
“You’ve met Libby, then.” Regret vanished. Turning, he held a hand out for his wife. She didn’t move.
“We’ve met.” Jacob inclined his head and waited. She could take the first step.
“You’ll both have a lot to talk about.” Using every ounce of effort, she managed to keep her voice steady.
“Libby.” Her name was a murmur as Cal crossed to her. He laid a hand on her cheek until she lifted her eyes to his. He saw the love and the fear in them. “Don’t.”
“I’m fine.” Calling up more strength, she squeezed his hand. “I have some things to do upstairs. You two should catch up.” She shifted her glance to Jacob. “I know you’ve missed each other.”
Turning, she fled up the stairs.
Sunny shifted her gaze from her sister’s retreating back to Cal’s unsmiling face and then to Jacob’s angry eyes. “What the hell is going on here?”
“Go up with her, will you?” Cal laid a hand on her shoulder but continued to look after his wife. “I don’t want her to be alone.”
“All right.” She could already see, just by looking at the two of them, that she’d get no explanations here. She’d damn well get one from Libby.
Cal waited until Sunny had climbed the stairs. Facing his brother again, he recognized the fury, the passion, and the hurt in him, “We have to talk.”
“Yes.”
“Not here.” He thought of his wife.
“No.” Jacob thought of Sunny. “We’ll go to my ship.”
Sunny paused outside the bedroom door. Taking a deep breath, she pushed it open. Libby sat on the edge of the bed, hands folded. There were no tears. Tears would have been less heartbreaking than the despair on her face.
“Honey, what is it?”
Libby felt as though she were in a dream. Looking up, she focused on the reality of her sister. “How long has he been here?”
“About three weeks.” Sunny sat on the bed to take Libby’s hand in hers. “Talk to me. I thought you’d be happy to finally meet Cal’s brother.”
“I am—for him.” Hoping that much was true, she pressed a hand to her jittery stomach. “Did he explain to you why he’s here? Where he’s from?”
“Of course.” Puzzled, Sunny gave her a little shake. “Come on, Libby, snap out of it. J.T.’s a little rough around the edges, but he isn’t a monster. He’s just concerned about Cal, and maybe a little hurt that he chose you and settled here.”
“Oh, God.” Unable to sit, Libby rose to pace to the window. She heard the hum of an engine and saw the Land Rover disappear into the forest. “I would have let him go,” she said quietly, and closed her eyes. “Back then I was prepared to. I couldn’t have asked him to give up his family, his life. But now I can’t let him go. I won’t.”
“Where would he go?”
Libby rested her head on the cool glass of the
window. “Back.” She laughed a little. “Forward. Jacob must have told you how impossibly complicated it all is.”
Rising, Sunny walked over to lay her hands on Libby’s shoulders. They were taut, like bundles of wire. Automatically she worked to relax them. “Cal’s a grown man, Libby, and staying here was his choice. J.T.’s just going to have to accept that.”
“But will he?”
“When he first got here, J.T. was angry and resentful. He just wasn’t able to understand Cal’s feelings. But things have changed. For both of us.”
Slowly Libby turned. What was in her sister’s heart was clearly written in her eyes. Libby felt a lurch of panic. “Oh, Sunny.”
“Hey, don’t look at me like that.” She grinned. “I’m in love, not terminally ill.”
“But what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to go back with him.”
With an inarticulate cry, Libby threw her arms around Sunny’s neck. She clung, rocking.
“For Lord’s sake, Libby, you’re as bad as Jacob. It’s only Philadelphia. You’re acting like I’m going to set up housekeeping on Pluto.”
“There aren’t any settled colonies on Pluto.”
With a strangled laugh, Sunny pulled away. “Well, I guess that leaves that out. We’ll have to make do with a condo in Philly.”
Libby studied Sunny’s face, and her expression gradually changed. The tears that had dampened her eyes dried. “You don’t understand, do you?”
“I understand that I love J.T. and he loves me. We haven’t talked about life commitments yet, but it’s only a matter of time.” She stopped, wary. “Libby, why are you looking at me as though you want to wring my neck?”
“Not yours.” Libby’s voice had firmed. She might be the quieter of the two, but when those she loved were threatened she could put an Amazon queen to shame. “The bastard.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I said he’s a bastard.”
Sisterly love notwithstanding, Sunny’s hackles were rising. “Now look, Libby—”
She shook her head. She wasn’t about to be stopped now. “Did he tell you he loved you?”
Nearly out of patience, Sunny snapped off an oath. Then: “Yes.”
“And you’ve gone to bed with him.”
Sunny’s eyes narrowed. “Have you been taking lessons from Dad?”
“Of course you’ve gone to bed with him,” Libby muttered, pacing the room. “He’s made you fall in love with him, taken you to bed, and hasn’t had the decency to tell you.”
Sunny’s foot was tapping a rapid tattoo. “Tell me what?”
“That he and Cal are from the twenty-third century.”
Sunny’s foot stopped. In the sudden silence, she gaped at Libby. All that sun, she thought. Her poor sister had had her brain fried in Bora Bora. Slowly she crossed the room.
“Lib, I want you to lie down while I get you a cold cloth.”
“No.” Still fueled by fury, Libby shook her head. “You sit down while I go get you a brandy. Trust me. You’re going to need it.”
***
When Cal stepped onto the bridge of the ship, the wave of nostalgia rolled over him like warm water. The cargo planes he piloted in the life he’d chosen satisfied his need to fly, but they weren’t much of a challenge. Unable to resist, he ran his hands over the command console.
“She’s a beauty, J.T. New model?”
“Yes, I thought it best to have it designed specifically for this trip. We made some adjustments for heat and maneuverability.”
Cal couldn’t prevent his hand from gripping the throttle. “I’d like to take her up, see what she can do.”
“Be my guest.”
Cal laughed. “We’d be spotted in the first thousand miles and find ourselves on the front page of the National Enquirer.”
“Which is?”
“You have to see some things for yourself.” Reluctantly he turned away from the console and temptation. Again he studied Jacob’s face, feature by feature. “God, it’s good to see you.”
“How could you do it, Cal?”
Blowing out a long breath, he sat in the pilot’s chair. “It’s a long story.”
“I read the report.”
Cal gave him a long, steady look. “Some things don’t come through in reports. You’ve seen her.”
“Yes, I’ve seen her.”
“I love her, J.T. I couldn’t begin to tell you how much.”
Jacob felt a spark of empathy and banked it down. He couldn’t think of Sunny now. “We thought you were dead. Almost six months.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you?” Jacob swung to the viewscreen to stare out at the snow. “Five months and twenty-three days after you were reported lost, your ship crash landed about sixty kilometers from the McDowell base in the Baja. Empty. We had your reports.” His gaze flashed back to his brother. “And I had to watch Mom and Dad grieve all over again.”
“I wanted you to know where I was. And why. J.T., I didn’t plan this. You saw the log.”
“I saw it.” His jaw set. “You should be dead. I calculated the probability factor of you pulling out of that void in one piece. There was none.” For the first time he smiled. “You’ve always been a hell of a pilot, Cal.”
“Yeah, but you can’t input fate into computer banks.” He’d thought about that long and hard over the past months. “I was meant for Libby, J.T. You can calculate into the next millennium and that won’t change. As much as I love you, I can’t leave her and go back.”
In silence, J.T. studied him. He hated most of all that he understood. Weeks before, only weeks, he would have argued, shouted. He would have locked Cal in a cabin and taken off for home without giving him a choice. “Does she love you as much?”
A ghost of a smile played on Cal’s lips. “She never asked me to stay. In fact, she did everything she could to help me prepare for the return trip. She even asked to go with me. She would have given up everything.”
“Instead, you stayed here. You gave up everything.”
“Do you think it was easy for me to make the choice?” Cal demanded. He pushed himself out of the chair, driven by fury and frustration. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Damn it, there was no choice. I didn’t know if the ship would make it back, and I couldn’t risk her life. I was prepared to risk my own, but not hers. If I had left her, I would have been right back in the void again. And I wouldn’t have cared.”
Jacob didn’t want to understand. But he did. “I’ve spent two years working on perfecting this time-travel procedure, having this ship designed, fine-tuning all the equations. I’m not saying that more work, more study, isn’t necessary, but I made it without any major problems. The success factor is 88.57. Come home, Cal, and bring her with you.”
Cal stared at the viewscreen. He’d learned a great deal over the past year. The most important lesson was that life was not simple. The choices to be made could not be made lightly.
“There’s another piece of data you haven’t considered, J.T. Libby’s pregnant.”
Chapter 11
She didn’t speak. In the past thirty minutes, Sunny had gone from believing her sister had a wicked case of sunstroke to wondering if she herself had gone quietly mad without noticing it.
The twenty-third century. Black holes. Spaceships. Sunny had finally lapsed into silence as Libby had recounted a story about a mission to Mars—dear Lord, Mars—and Cal’s fateful encounter with an uncharted black hole, which, through a combination of luck, skill and the mysterious hand of destiny, had shot him backward from the middle of the twenty-third century to the spring of last year.
The confused Cal, an intergalactic cargo pilot with an affection for flying and poetry, had become a time traveler.
Time travel.
Oh, God, she thought. Time travel.
She remembered clearly the faint smile on Jacob’s face when he had told her of his current experiments. But that didn’t mean— No. Sh
e took a steadying breath, determined to control her wandering imagination.
It had to be some sort of joke. People did not, accidentally or otherwise, zoom through time and fall in love. Jacob was from Philadelphia, she reminded herself as she gulped down brandy. He was a scientist with a bad attitude, and that was all.
“You don’t believe me,” Libby said with a sigh.
Care and patience, Sunny told herself as she dragged a hand through her hair. Her sister needed care and patience. “Honey, let’s just take this slow.”
“You think I’m making it up.”
“I’m not sure what I think.” She took a cleansing breath. “Okay, you’re trying to tell me that Cal, a former captain in—what was it?”
“The International Space Force.”
“Right. That he crashed his spaceship in the forest, after being sent through time by an encounter with a black hole.”
She’d hoped that when she said it herself, when Libby heard it repeated, her sister would come out of whatever spell she was in. But Libby just nodded. “That’s fairly accurate.”
“Fairly accurate.” Sunny tried again. “And now Jacob, going about it through more organized methods, followed the same route so he could visit with his brother.”
“He wants to take him back. I could see it by the way he looked at me.”
The misery on Libby’s face had Sunny reaching out a hand. “Cal loves you. Nothing J.T. did or didn’t do could change that.”
“No, but . . . Sunny, can’t you see? He didn’t pop up here on impulse. He must have worked for months, even years, to find the way. If a man’s obsessed with something—”
“All right,” she interrupted. “He didn’t pop up here on impulse. For reasons I’ve never fully understood, he’s angry that Cal married you and decided to live in Oregon.”
“Not just Oregon,” Libby shot back. “Twentieth-century Oregon.”
“Now, take it slow, honey. I know you’re upset, but—”
“Upset?” Libby countered. “Damn right I’m upset. The man traveled over two hundred years, and he’s not going to want to go back without Cal.”
At a loss, Sunny flopped back on the bed. “Libby, you’ve got to get ahold of yourself. You’re the sensible one, remember? You have to know this is all nonsense.”