Time Loop

by Jill Cooper

  It’s not a goodbye kiss. It’s a hello kiss.

  “My dad is standing beside me in all this. He never knew the lengths Mom was going to.” Donovan’s face screams his relief. “But I don’t know where this is going to take him. Me.”

  I squeeze his hand. “I’ll be by your side. No matter what.”

  Donovan smiles and the door opens. I turn and see Mom and Jax. Their eyes flutter with happiness and there’s so much I want to say to them, but I’m unable to as Mike and Molly rush onto my bed, screaming with glee.

  “Lara!”

  “You’re awake! You’re okay!”

  They crush me and I wince in pain, but I hug them anyway. Mom steps forward. “Kids, please, she needs to heal. I’m sorry, Lara. Are you all right?” She strokes my hair back and I gaze into her loving face. Then I glance at Jax and he looks so uncertain, but I smile at him. A shy, sheepish thank you smile sneaks across his lips.

  “I’m okay.” I hug the twins and kiss Molly’s forehead. “I think I’ve never been more okay.”

  Epilogue

  The moment I’ve been working for the last six months is finally here. The moment I’ve waited for since I first read that news article about John Crane’s arrest.

  But my stomach is a bundle of nerves. I lean against the car and stare out at the back of the prison. The chain link fence is locked tight. There’s been no sign of my father and I suddenly wonder if maybe he doesn’t want to leave. Maybe he doesn’t want to see me. The bundle of flowers and the blue teddy bear in my hand suddenly seem stupid. Trite. I don’t know if I can do this, or what I’ll even begin to say.

  In all of my time travel escapades, Dad has been short changed the worst. I don’t know how I can even begin to make that right.

  Donovan leans in beside me and takes my other hand. “It’s going to be all right.”

  His face is bright, despite how glum I feel. I know despite everything, we’ll be okay. I was so worried he wasn’t the boyfriend I thought he was, but in the end, Donovan is even stronger than I gave him credit for.

  “You’ll pull through this.” He slings his arm around me. “He’ll pull through this. We’ll all manage somehow, together. No matter where it leads us.”

  I smile with trepidation. “We’re an us.”

  “Montgomery, don’t you know we’ve always been an us?”

  I know he’s right. We share a tender moment as the sound of the gate opening pulls my attention. And then I see him.

  Dad.

  He’s walking toward us in a pair of jeans and a loose t-shirt around his lean frame. In his hand is a small box of possessions. When he sees me, he slows down, but he doesn’t stop walking. I can see the emotion on his face as I step away from Donovan.

  And then, with my heart pounding in my chest, I run towards him as if I’m five-years-old again and have hurt myself on the playground. Dad bends over to catch me and the full force of my hug nearly topples us over.

  Dad squeezes me tight in his arms and I squeeze him back as he spins me around. “Oh, Lara.” He strokes my cheek and studies my face. “I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for this moment. Can’t tell you at all.”

  There’s so much I need to say, but I kiss his cheek. “I’m so glad you’re out. So glad. I never believed a word of what they said about you. Never.”

  That, at least, is the truth. Dad looks overcome with emotion and he hugs me tight. There’s so much we still have to get through with Mom’s trouble with the government, Jax’s deception, and the trial of the century still has yet to begin.

  But I have my dad. My family. A life. Somehow, we’ll all get through it.

  “Mom has a small dinner set for you. If you don’t feel up to it I understand.” I know the state has provided him with an apartment and Dad will be rewarded a lot of money for his wrongful imprisonment. I hope he’ll want to come to the dinner with me. I hope he’ll want to be part of my life.

  Dad nods. “I can do that. If you promise to tell me what you’ve been up to for the last ten years.”

  My smile broadens. “I promise. Do you want to meet my boyfriend?”

  He grunts and I laugh with a roll of my eyes. “Oh, Daddy.”

  Dad’s face stills. “I haven’t spent any significant time with you since you were six years old, but my God, Lara. I feel like… I feel like we know each other. I feel like you trust me.”

  “I do trust you.” I take his hand and my fingers coil around his.

  Dad stares at it. “But how? Why?”

  “Because you’re my dad,” I say simply and my voice cracks. One day I’ll have to tell him the truth, but not today. Not yet.

  He doesn’t say anything, but he slings his hand around my shoulder and I lead him over to where Donovan is waiting.

  They shake hands. It’s a moment that every girl dreads, but I love it. It makes my heart soar.

  What’s to come? The challenges of life—the journey that never really ends is about to come next. But, somehow, watching the two men in my life introduce themselves, I feel as if everything is going to be okay.

  We have each other. There’s nothing family can’t tackle together.

  ****

  The main story ends here, but read on further to discover what happens after between Lara and her dad as the police launch an investigation into the murder of Rex Montgomery.

  Unraveling: An extended ending of Time Loop

  Lara Crane is free. And everything is out in the open.

  But past choices equal regrets for everyone involved. Donovan’s family is ripped apart. Jax and Miranda’s marriage may be left in shambles as they negotiate an immunity agreement. And that’s only part of it.

  John Crane is free and grappling with his emotions about prison, his ex-wife, and the snake she married. The snake that knew all along how innocent he was.

  But that will all need to wait when the police come knocking at his door. But they’re not looking for him this time.

  They’re looking for Lara.

  Lara Crane

  My dad is back.

  But, everything is different.

  He spent ten years in prison for the attempted murder of my mother, but it was all a lie. He was setup and suffered for a crime he didn’t commit. Ripped from me, ripped from everyone, for ten years no one believed he was innocent.

  This is what I did to him when I changed the past and saved my mother’s life. I exchanged one parent for another, but now Dad is out. It’s time to come clean with him about what I did. How my choices put us in this situation. He has a rough idea of what happened to me, but I’ve saved the worst for last.

  So on the weekend, I set the small table by the window with a vase of flowers and make his favorite dish. The tangy scent of ketchup mixed with brown sugar pipes from the oven, signaling dinner is ready.

  His apartment is small but everything is state of the art. Plus the view of the city is gorgeous. Way nicer than it was in our old place before everything changed. Back then we had a view of a dumpster.

  Dad has no memory of that place, but I remember everything. I carry all the memories of all the times I’ve changed the past. Sometimes my brain threatens to bust under the weight of all those altered moments in time.

  Dad sits at the table and sips the iced tea I pour him. Ice snaps in the glass as it begins its slow melt. I ready the meatloaf and then slide it in front of him.

  “I hope you like it.” I’m nervous around him because even though he’s dad, he’s different from the one I remember.

  But I love him anyway.

  Dad takes a few bites while I bustle back and forth. By the time I join him at the table, he’s digging into the mashed potatoes. “This tastes just like the one my mom used to make me when I was a kid. Not sure how—.”

  “I did it.” I sit a bit straighter feeling strangely proud. “I used her recipe.”

  Dad scowls and picks up his napkin. “How could you? The last time I made it you were probably only four-years-old.”

/>   “You gave it to me. You gave me the recipe. I used to make it all the time when you were at work and then we’d have it after you got home late. Sometimes I’d even mix a little into my mac and cheese.”

  He opens his mouth to argue and I reach across the table to take his hand. He stops in mid-gulp of air. “That…Honey, that never happened. Maybe you wished it did when you were little. When I was…”

  When he was in jail.

  I struggle to take a deep breath. “There’s something I have to tell you. You know I can go back in time, but you don’t know everything. I haven’t told you….” my brow furrows. I’m afraid once he knows he’ll kick me out. Maybe he’ll never want to speak to me again.

  Dad can read me like an open book. “You can tell me anything. I just want to be here for you, Lara. Having you in my life, it’s made everything better.”

  I blink back my tears. “We have mom here. She’s alive. She’s amazing, if not a little stubborn sometimes. Doesn’t listen to reason, but she’s alive. It wasn’t always that way.”

  Dad sucks in his breath and sits up straighter. His face looks like he knows I’m about to shatter his world and I’m sorry for that. So mournful of all of it.

  “I went back in time. I had fifteen minutes to save my mother’s life. And when I got back. Everything was different. Broken. Rewind. You. Our family.” I play with the hem of the napkin on my lap beneath the table.

  Dad’s face is puzzled. Perplexed.

  “I had Mom. But I lost so much. You lost so much. And that’s my fault. Before…” my chin quivers and I can’t find the strength to say the words. I stare into his warm eyes and I just can’t do it. My face scrunches and I nearly break down into the worst case of the ugly cry that’s ever been recorded.

  But Dad is there. He slides over to sit closer to me and his arm is around my quaking shoulders. “You just tell me what it is, Lara. Okay?”

  In that moment, he’s just like the dad I remember. I sniffle a nod and wipe my face. “Before I changed the past it was just the two of us. Mom was…dead. You raised me alone. We were happy, for the most part. We were poorer than dirt but we had each other. We always made it through.”

  I gaze up at him and look for some sign he’s not angry. Doesn’t hate me, but I can’t tell if what I’ve said even makes sense to him. His face is just blank like a computer still trying to process information.

  “Dad?” I shake his arm and wonder if I’ve lost him. Lost him forever.

  “There was no....I wasn’t in jail? Is that what you’re saying?”

  I nod and think he might be getting angry. Not that I can blame him. I’ve stolen ten years of his life.

  “That’s why you can look at me that way.” Dad mumbles. “Like you love me, like we’ve shared things that I know we haven’t.”

  “I’m sorry.” My lip quivers. “Daddy, please don’t be mad. I didn’t know…I didn’t know what would happen if I saved Mom.”

  “And she died?” His face is pale. “She died that day in the alley, that Rex character killed your mother.” His face suddenly flushes. Red.

  Anger.

  “We never knew who. We thought it was a mugging.”

  “He’s your uncle.” Dad whispers and I’m not sure he even realizes I’m still there. “That means Jax, your step-father. He knew everything. The entire time?”

  I can’t make excuses for Jax. Not when I’m with my dad, no matter how conflicted on the inside I am. All I know is that I have my dad back and right now he’s hurting.

  “I had to tell you. I’m so sorry, Dad.” I squeezed his arm and I’m not sure what I expect to happen. He could scream at me to get out. Scream a million things at me and I’d deserve every single one of them, but instead Dad just hugs me.

  He hugs me tight and I just about lose it. I can’t stop the tears from falling anymore and I tighten my arms around him so he saves me like a life vest, grounding me in the present.

  “It’s all right, Lara.” He strokes my hair back like he used to when I was little and I had a fever. “You didn’t know that saving your mother would make things so screwed up.”

  “I thought you’d be married.” My voice cracks to admit the secret wish I had for so long. “I thought I’d come home and find you guys together. I saved her for us.”

  Dad’s voice cracks and he’s crying too. Maybe he’s crying because that’s what he wanted. Or maybe because he spent so long in jail. I can’t know and I don’t ask. That’s his pain and if he wants to share it with me, he will.

  But I hug him. I grip the back of his head and holds the embrace hard. I think Dad needs me as much as I need him.

  “What was it like?” Dad asks much later as we lounge on his sofa. Big dishes of ice cream are long eaten.

  “You were a janitor. Worked three jobs a lot just so we could keep ahead on the bills and the food. A lot of the times you were, well, barely there.” I admit and Dad’s face turns sad. “But we were happy. We conquered everything together. A team.”

  He messes with my hair and I think he does it to cover how sad he is.

  “We had a dog. Sparky.” My face lights up when I think of him. “I wonder where he ended up. I hope a nice family got him.”

  “I could get a dog.” Dad suggests.

  The doorbell rings when I’m about to tell him what a great idea that is. “Expecting company?”

  Dad’s frown says he’s not. “I don’t exactly have a full social calendar these days.”

  I laugh as I head to the entryway to open the door. On the other side an older man is scowling at me. “You’re not here to sell us a vacuum, are you?”

  When he flashes me his badge, I guess he’s not.

  From behind me, Dad puts his hand on my shoulder. “How can we help you, officer?”

  “Detective.” He puts his badge back inside his breast pocket. “I’m Detective Frank Mulligan and I have a few questions for your daughter in the death of Rex Montgomery.”

  I suck in my breath and Mulligan studies my face. “That’s what I thought you’d say. Come with me down to the station.”

  “She’s not going anywhere without me.” Dad grabs his jacket off the hook by the door and the detective ushers us out into the hall.

  When you’re Lara Crane, nothing is simple. Not even a night in with your dad.

  John Crane

  Lara’s a good kid and the questions the detective asks her don’t make sense. Lara fiddles with her hair between questions. I haven’t been around a long time, but I know fear in my kid’s eye when I see it.

  “Are these questions done? Because it’s getting late.”

  Mulligan glowers at me from the other side of the table. “I know being at a police station like this must be hard for you, Mr. Crane, bring back a lot of bad memories—.”

  I think I might hit him.

  But Lara interrupts with wide eyes. “He was innocent! It was proven so you don’t dare talk to him that way.”

  I never thought I’d get to hear my daughter be so protective of me. Never thought I’d hear that love in her voice after Miranda tried so hard to distinguish it, but now isn’t the time. The place. So I slide my hand onto her shoulder and hope she knows what I try to convey.

  Lara relaxes under my grip and even though she doesn’t look at me, I think she understands.

  “But you, Ms. Montgomery? I think you’re far from innocent.” Mulligan leans forward in his chair to intimidate her, but I won’t be scared. In fact when I hear her call my daughter by that lying dirt bags name, I want to throttle him.

  I knew Miranda and Jax had an affair. That came out long ago but I thought he loved Miranda and even Lara, with time. I was in jail forever so I let that shmuck adopt my daughter even though it killed me. Even though I didn’t want to. I thought it was best for Lara to have a father and be rid of the Crane name.

  Now? I realize what a mistake that was.

  Lara licks her lips. “When Rex was killed, I was at Dunkin Donuts on the other side of to
wn. Over at downtown crossing. I couldn’t have killed Rex.”

  Mulligan snorts and leans his arm back on his chair. “I think you’re forgetting something. You’re a time traveler. You could have killed him, went back in time and put yourself somewhere else.”

  “My daughter wouldn’t have done something like that. She’s sixteen, not a killer.”

  But Lara flinches. I see it and I ignore it. Good God, I don’t want to know why she flinched and I won’t bring it up here. That much is for damn sure.

  “Uncle Rex put her through a lot if the stories are true. If the rumors are true that she spent two years being experimented on, tormented, and locked away in a cage. Who wouldn’t want to kill someone like that? Of course she can’t prove any of that happened…” Mulligans’ voice drifts off.

  “There’s a port in the back of my head, do you want to feel that?”

  Mulligans shakes his head. “I’ll prove it somehow that you did this. I know you did. I feel it in my gut, Montgomery. And you weren’t scared. It wasn’t in self-defense. He was in his damn car. You knew exactly what you were doing.”

  Lara bites her lip and she doesn’t say anything, but I slide my arm around her shoulders further for comfort—and to protect her. “I’d like to take my daughter home now.”

  Mulligans opens his mouth to speak as there’s a knock at the door. A woman in an expensive suit comes in and her hair is pulled back in an elegant twist for so late at night. “This ends now.” She slides her card across the table to Mulligans. It says her name is Alicia Livingston “I’m Lara’s attorney and unless you’re arresting her, she’s free to go.”

  A defense attorney? But who called her? Not that I’m not grateful or anything, but then through the open door I see him standing with my wife.

  My ex-wife.

  Jax.

  I rise from the table even though I know it’s a bad idea. Mulligans and the defense attorney are in a verbal duel. Lara sits there and stares up at me. Her gaze is loving, but worried. She grabs my hand. “Daddy.”