Double Time (Crossing The Line Book 1)

by M. D. Stewart

  She looked at the clock and realized it was close to four o’clock and the men should be home soon. She smiled as she moved to the master bathroom to shower. Dinner had been ordered instead of her cooking. It should be delivered in twenty minutes. Just enough time to rinse off and be ready for her men to come home.

  Her men. The sound of that made her heart swell. Her romance with Marc had been the classic fairy tale. Warm water sluiced over her as she remembered meeting Marc. He’d come to an art show that her friend Gary had invited her to. His fiancé Sarah was an amazing artist and her first show had her so nervous, she was afraid the woman would have a heart attack.

  ****

  Marc’s timeline – Ten years in the past

  Sadie walked into the art museum. The smell of canvas was subtle but clear to any artist, even one who didn’t work in that medium. She had been working on her steel sculptures and recently began playing with leather to incorporate into her work. It was a true labor of love, even if she had to convert her garage into her studio. She also worked full-time to pay the bills but still found time to work on her passion.

  “Sadie!” She turned to see Meghan walking toward her, a grin on her perfect face. She wrapped her in a friendly embrace before pulling back to see a genuine smile of happiness. “I know Sarah will be so happy you could come. She’s fluttering around here scared out of her mind that no one will be here or buy her stuff.” Sadie looked around at the twenty or so people wondering around the room.

  “I don’t think that’ll be an issue. It’s just started and there are so many here already. I bet there will be more soon. She’s very talented.” Sadie was awestruck at the pieces she could see from where she stood. “I wish I could buy some of these. They are beautiful.” She wished he had the extra money but had to skip Gary and Meghan’s cook out last weekend just to get extra hours at work.

  “Just pick the one you’d like and I’ll gift it to you.” The deep male voice behind her sent her heart into overdrive. With butterflies in her stomach, she turned to see one of the most beautiful men she’d ever laid eyes on. He was tall, sandy brown hair that reached the shoulders of his tailored tuxedo. He had the most amazing green eyes and darkly tanned skin. Full lips that looked way too kissable, smiled at her showing perfect teeth. She wondered if he could hear the breath whoosh from her lungs.

  “Thank you, but I don’t even know you.” Sadie nearly kicked herself for saying something so cliché. She used both hands to clutch her handbag so he wouldn’t see them shaking.

  “That’s easy. I’m Marc Kensington. I work at KenSpec labs as a scientist. I’m single, never married, love lasagna and my favorite color is whatever color your eyes are. They are amazing.”

  Sadie felt a bubble of laughter escape.

  “Does that line work for you often?” Beside her Meghan laughed. “He’s a rogue and heartbreaker. He gave Gary a job at the lab several years ago. They’re golfing buddies and until Gary got with Sarah, they were party buddies too.” Meghan was shaking her head, her long auburn hair swaying with each move. “Take it easy, Marc—she’s not like me. She’s a sweet one with a heart to break.”

  Sadie looked at her old friend, seeing a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. The words were said in a light tone, but the warning was clear.

  Marc’s smile disappeared as he took in the fiery redhead next to her. “Meg, I promise you I’m not going to break her heart.” His eyes showed an intensity that she had never seen in any man before. She didn’t know about her friend, but Sadie believed every word he said to be true. Nothing prepared her for the emotions that rose up and claimed her heart. She hadn’t believed in love at first sight, but she began to think she had been wrong.

  “I’m Sadie Michaels.” She reached her hand out to the man. “I’m a starving artist and full-time secretary at Radington Steel. I’m also single and never married. Lasagna is okay but I prefer pizza and beer. And you don’t look like a scientist. Not with gorgeous hair like that.” He smiled as he took her hand. She felt a shock like static electricity from the touch.

  “I can work with pizza and beer. My mother agrees with you on the hair. She’s been on me for years to cut it.” She had to refrain from reaching up to run her fingers through his hair. She had the strongest urge to kiss him. He must have realized what she was thinking as he glanced down to her lips and smiled.

  Meghan cleared her throat to gain their attention. “The exhibit is over there.” The smile was back in her voice. “And I need to get back to my hot date.” Both turned to see her walk away to a man who stood with his back to them, talking to Gary. He had short dark hair but never turned to look their way.

  “She’s very protective of me. I’m sorry if she said anything that embarrassed you, Marc. We were college roommates and she nursed me through one too many mistakes in my naïve early days of dating.” He took her hand in his and she looked down to see his fingers intertwine with hers.

  “So, she’s suffered with you when you were hurt by assholes. I don’t know how I know this but I promise you, I’ll never hurt you. There’s something about you that I can’t explain.” He smiled then and she smiled in return.

  “You know it’s crazy but I believe you.” He brought her hand to his lips. His warm breath fanned across her fingers and her body reacted strongly to that feeling. When his lips touched her skin, her breath hitched but then his tongue gently touched her before he pulled away. Her heart sped up and she could feel the blood rushing to her face.

  “You take my breath, Sadie. I look at you and I swear I see my future.” His face turned pink before he looked away. “If that sounded half as corny to you as it did to me, then I’m sure you think I’m insane.” She smiled at his reaction.

  “Sometimes corny is wonderful and sanity is overrated.” They both laughed before they walked through the exhibit. So many paintings had meaning and beautiful colors, but one kept drawing her eye. No matter where they wondered to, she always ended up right in front of it.

  He’d wound up buying it and surprised her with the purchase. It was the simple painting of a silhouette of a large tree in front of the sunrise. The painting was gorgeous with lots of oranges whereby she said her new favorite color was no longer green but orange.

  “Why did you want this painting? It’s pretty but she had so many to choose from.” Marc stood next to her with an arm around her waist. The painting in question still hung in the exhibit, with a paper in the corner marking it as SOLD. His name was neatly printed on the ticket.

  “I don’t know, it just called to me. She said it was inspired by Mishaka Peak, which is nearby. I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard it’s beautiful. Something about that large tree drew me and I just love the colors. It feels, like something beautiful happened there.”

  “Far be it from me to question my lady’s choice. I heard Meghan’s date wanted to buy it too, but I beat him to it. Maybe you can take me there sometime. We can make out under a tree.” He winked and pulled her in for a quick brush of his lips against hers.

  As they turned to go, Marc accidently bumped into a man. They stared at one another for a brief moment as Marc apologized. The man smiled and accepted the apology. His dark hair and blue eyes met Sadie’s before she looked away. She felt some recognition flare but Marc pulled her hand and they moved away to go to dinner.

  ****

  Present Day

  Sadie jerked at the memory. She barely remembered to shut off the shower and ran dripping and naked to the spare bedroom. She stood in front of the painting on the wall over the bed. “Oh my god.” Not only had she been drawn by the painting because she and Dave had first made love there, she and Marc had seen Dave at the art exhibit. She was covered in goosebumps.

  She ran to the kitchen and pulled her cell phone off the counter and returned to the bedroom. She snapped a picture of the painting and texted it to Marc and Dave. She was in shock that she hadn’t remembered this before. Marc was looking for a connection between them from before the t
ime rip. This painting, Sarah’s art show, both men knowing Gary and Meghan. It was all a web that connected them and to Sadie it proved they were meant to be together. Marc wasn’t a strange twist in her and Dave’s relationship. They were all linked by a weaving of different threads.

  Her phone rang as she stood staring at the painting, her heart pounding. She didn’t even realize she was holding the phone, barely heard it ringing as she stared at the painting. She had no idea how long time had passed before she heard her name being called. Marc stood beside her, and Dave soon followed him into the room.

  “Sadie, honey?” Marc’s voice whispered in her ear. The spell was broken as she turned to look at him.

  “I found it. The connection you were worried about. You didn’t think you belonged with us, but you do. I fell in love with you that night. It’s all connected.” She turned to Dave and took his hand. “You were there as Meghan’s date, weren’t you?”

  Dave grinned. “I had forgotten about that. I wanted this painting but didn’t know why. Now I do. You were the guy that bumped into me that night.” The men looked at each other, recognition blooming.

  Marc looked back at the painting. “Mishaka Peak. Where you two went after the party at Gary’s house and made love the first time.” Sadie turned to look at Marc, afraid he’d be upset. She was surprised by his smile.

  “Maybe we should move it to our bedroom and put it over our bed.” At her questioning look, he simply smiled. “It’s the thing that brought all of us together the first time, even if we didn’t know it then.” He reached up and tucked her damp hair behind her ear before sliding his fingers along her jawline.

  “Then we need to commission Sarah to paint the river from a vantage point of a boat so it evens out the paintings. What time of day was it when you two first made love? Afternoon? Evening?” Dave’s voice was huskier than she would’ve believed. His hand snaked around her waist, his mouth moved to her temple. “And you’re naked.”

  “And there’s a bed, right here.” Marc moved closer to her other side.

  It was good to be Sadie right about now.

  Chapter 7

  Marc, Sadie and Dave walked into KenSpec Labs and headed to his office. He glanced to his secretary and nodded. “I’ll be in a meeting with Captain Amsted and Sadie. Unless anyone with higher rank than him calls, I don’t want to be disturbed. Also, Dr. Lackney will be coming in, you can send her through. I’ll need the conference room when she arrives. If it’s taken, clear the schedule for me.”

  “Yes, sir. Do you need me to bring you anything for your meeting?” Marc knew the secretary was looking for a reason to walk through the door and see what was going on. Her eyes settled on Sadie’s wedding rings and her eyes rounded in surprise but never said a word. He cleared his throat to get her attention.

  “I’ll let you know, but we can make our own coffee if we need it. This is going to be a day-long meeting once Dr. Lackney arrives. I’ll let you know if we need you to order lunch. Thanks, Julie.” Without looking back, Marc used the keypad to unlocked his office door. He led Dave and his wife in before closing the door again, hitting the lock.

  “She’s efficient as any secretary I’ve ever had, but I’m sure she’s playing all sorts of scenarios through her head right now. She noticed our rings on your finger, Sadie.” His grin made them all look down at Sadie’s hand before laughing.

  “I’m sure she is wondering what’s going on.” Dave moved to stand behind his wife. “Maybe we should make some noise and help fuel her imagination.”

  Marc felt his cock jerk in response. Just like that, the thought of getting Sadie naked and making her scream had him ready to unzip his pants. Then Dave reached one hand between her thighs and one to cup her breast.

  “Fuck, Dave. We don’t have time. Dr. Lackney should be here any minute. Now I’m hard as stone.”

  Dave looked up and grinned. “Me too.”

  Sadie laughed, her joy washing over Marc in a way that had him thankful for Dave coming into their lives. He found it astonishing that as much as he loved Sadie, knowing Dave was there, loving her just as much made their lives complete. They were all supposed to be together. Of that, he had no longer had doubts. He reached down and adjust his hard cock to Dave’s huge grin, but he noticed the man did the same.

  “We’ll need to write out our memories for Dr. Lackney. She’s going to use a program we’ve worked on here at the lab to look for correlations and differences in our memories. We need to write dates if we remember them.” He reached out to trace his fingers over Sadie’s cheek. “Unfortunately, yours will be the longest one.”

  A knock at the door had all three turning. Dave opened the door since he was the closest in proximity. Telly Anne walked in carrying her briefcase and a large bag strapped to a rolling cart. She smiled when she saw everyone in the room.

  “Well, I have to say I appreciate that are you all here.” Dave smiled at the secretary where she stood near the doorway. Marc hid a grin before Dave gently closed the door behind the scientist. He flipped the lock quietly so his secretary wouldn’t become alarmed.

  “I have everything here we need to input the information and hopefully learn something.” Tel turned to Sadie and smiled. “Lucky girl.”

  Marc laughed when Sadie turned pink.

  ****

  The large conference room was empty as Tel set up her computer. Marc locked the door and pushed a small button near the light switch. The room had faint buzzing sound that was hardly noticeable. Sadie looked to Marc with her eyebrows raised.

  “It’s white noise. Nothing can be heard outside this room. Even if someone planted a listening device it won’t record. Also, it jams signals of video recorders and cell phones. Tel’s computer is fine in here, but only for collecting manual input. I don’t want any of this getting out there yet.” Marc moved around the table and took Sadie’s hands in his. Dave leaned against the wall, a grin on his face.

  Tel grabbed three small laptop computers and hooked each to the larger laptop she had. “Now each of you can begin writing what you remember. Start with the most recent events and work your way back. We’ll do it this way because sometimes as you write the events you recollect more details. If you have any changes to make, you can do so without worry. This program will adjust so just go back to the area where you have additional information to add. This is a real time program, so you can make changes to your account throughout and it will be fine. The more details you recall the better for extrapolating the data.”

  Each person began to type their recollections for the last decade from most recent memories to those in the past. Tel began to review the information as the program started to correlate the incidents. As one by one they all typed their memories, Tel would nod or make a noise. A few times the scientist raised her eyebrows but remained quiet and professional.

  Lunch arrived and the trio continued to type in their accounts, adding information as they recalled it. As things wound down, Tel kept her eyes glued to the screen on her laptop. “This time rip in the continuum is more fascinating than I had anticipated. My father had been studying them for years, even before we had the technology to track them in detail. He spent his time getting written accounts from those who came to him with weird or strange stories. Some were bogus to be sure, but this.” She paused and looked to the people in the room.

  “Nothing like this has occurred to my knowledge and while it makes me feel happy for the three of you, it’s disturbing that it happened to begin with. What was the cause? Can it happen again? Everything that I see on this readout makes sense but also has me put my scientific mind aside and the whimsical human side to speculate.”

  Marc walked to stand behind the older scientist and began to read the chart. He looked up as Dave grabbed Sadie’s hand and pulled it to his mouth. Tel’s eyes widened at the show of affection then turned her eyes to Marc. “I must say, just being in the room with you three, I sense no jealousy over your shared wife. That is another aspect of this that
confuses me. The scientist is studying it, the woman in me is astounded by it. It leads me to a conclusion that, frankly, science would scoff at.”

  “And what would that be?” Dave turned his full attention to the older woman.

  “Honestly? I think that each of you were meant to be together. Sadie obviously loves you both but according to her account, the computer has extrapolated that she felt,” Tel paused, took a breath and continued, “she felt incomplete somehow. I can only imagine that the Sadie on the other side of the time rip felt the same. The only way for her to be completely happy would for her to be with both of you. Therefore, perhaps time stepped in and corrected the situation.”

  “That’s a big leap to make. That’s based on emotion and not science, Dr. Lackney. Science isn’t emotion but fact.” Marc was in full science mode.

  “Normally I’d agree with you, Dr. Kensington, but it is your program. The computer program considers the emotional reactions of humans. For example, here where you mention your memory of Captain Amsted approaching you and Sadie in the restaurant, it has listed the emotions of jealousy, anger, trepidation. While on Captain Amsted’s memory of the event it lists elation, relief, love and jealousy when he realizes she’s with another man. Both accounts also show possessiveness. Now if you go down and read the accounts here, where you are recalling your conversation in the suite, you’ll see the change of emotions for the both of you.”

  Dave stood up and walked to stand behind Tel and began to read. “For your hypothesis to be correct, Tel, everything would’ve had to be perfectly aligned on both sides of the time rip.”

  Sadie stood up and smiled. “Well isn’t that how it worked out? Dave, you’ve never married on this timeline. You and the other Dave were both helicopter piolets and were on the same assignment. Marc and I had the same dream about you, even though on this timeline we’d never met you for more than a moment at the art show a decade ago. None of us remembered that until I saw the painting Sarah created. We had friends in common, but you and Marc never met even though you have close ties to Gary and Meghan. And obviously to me. You both ended up working on the same project and have access to information, but you’ve never run across each other in the years you’ve studied it. It has all aligned perfectly.”