Lightening bolted across the sky as the rain poured down. Trish sagged in her saddle, her shoulders shuddering, her hands shaking. She was home. She shook off the memories of what she'd left behind. The sound of the pickup startled her and she clucked to Yedi to get him to move into the shadows of the lone cottonwood. Why not flag the driver down and ask what day it was? Confused with her covert action, she nudged Yedi out of the shadows and climbed through the barrow pit to the road, turning their feet for home while her thoughts turned to more pressing matters.
Why hadn't the events of yesterday happened days ago? She wanted Quinn's attentions if he loved her, but couldn't stay no matter what his intentions. She had dressed like a whore for most of a week. She couldn't blame him if he thought she was a whore, but the fact that his advances had come now just before her time to return safely home brought tears to her eyes. For once, she had met a man who had defended her honor, watched her back, and kept her secret. She had found the man she believed she wanted to try to make it work with, the man of her dreams.
But he didn't know the truth. He didn't know where she was from or why she had come. He didn't know and she had known she couldn't tell him. She had lingered with him when she shouldn’t have. Now she rode to a secluded spot to return home, even if she had misjudged the talisman's cycle.
She glanced at the sky. Why hadn't she asked Quinn… Stop. What’s done is done. Time waits for no woman, not even one holding a talisman in her hand. She could, in theory, return to the same time once more, but she would have to wait for a new cycle. The more pressing question was. What would she tell her mother and Vance?
The Talisman - Crisscross Page 45