roof last month.”
“Why are you doing the repairs? Aren’t you selling the
land to a commercial developer?”
“Well, yeah. It started out that way, but Aunt Lilly doesn’t
want to sell. And I met this guy and…”
“Hold it,” Meg ordered, spinning around to face Becci
while keeping one hand on the squirming infant. “Guy? What
happened to Michael? I thought you two were engaged?”
“I was...am. But I’m having second thoughts. I don’t know
if I love Michael. He’s nice enough, and he has helped Aunt
Lilly and me plan a good budget to help eliminate the financial
problems that mom and dad left behind, but...” She raised her
shoulders in a shrug.
Through the glass enclosure Becci watched a maintenance
man push his cart down the hall. Love—she’d never known
two people who really loved each other. Although her parents
hadn’t divorced, they certainly didn’t share an undying love.
Becci sighed. Her grandmother had been a widow by the time
she’d been born. If anyone had been happily married, it was
Granny.
“Does your heart flutter?” Meg asked.
“What?” The question startled Becci, snapping her out of
her reflections.
Meg turned back to the baby. After changing his diaper
she carefully lifted the infant off the changing table and cuddled
him against her shoulder. “When Michael kisses you, does your
heart do funny flips? Or does just looking at him take your
breath away?”
Caleb does that to me, she wanted to say. Instead she said,
“Well, no. It’s not like that between us. It’s comfortable and
relaxed and...and kind of quiet. I guess that’s why I’m
questioning our relationship.”
“Have you slept with him?” Meg asked as she laid the
baby in his crib.
Becci laughed. It was just like Meg to ask questions that
everyone else would think too personal.
“No. We decided to wait until our wedding night.”
“You decided or did he? I mean it’s not like you’re a virgin,
right?”
Becci couldn’t look directly at her friend, and she inwardly
cursed the hot blush she could feel coloring her face.
“Heaven help me, you are! Does Michael know?”
Becci shook her head and raised the baby to her shoulder.
“No. We’ve never discussed it.”
“Michael is supposedly madly in love with you. You’re
engaged. Haven’t you ever had to fight off his advances?”
“Meg, that’s none of your business.”
“Okay. Let’s put it a different way. Number one, he claims
to love you. Number two, he never takes you out to dinner or
to a movie. And number three, unless things have changed over
the last month, you’re paying him to help you with your
financial problems, but you haven’t seen a cent of the pennies
he’s pinching for you. I’ve told you all along I had my doubts
about his credibility.”
“Don’t you start, too,” Becci snapped. “We went out last
week. Granted, I paid for the tickets. The function was a
fundraiser for the people trying to get aid from Ascomp, but it
was definitely a date.”
“You paid?”
“Michael forgot his checkbook. He promised to pay me
back.”
“You had a lousy time, didn’t you? And I’ll bet you ten
bucks you’ll never see one dime of your money.”
Shoving herself out of the rocker, Becci thought about her
date with Michael. She couldn’t stop the smile from sneaking
to her lips. That had been the night Caleb had discovered car
alarms.
“From your smile, I’d say I’m wrong.”
“No. You’re right, but Caleb has a way of turning every
situation upside-down and making it fun.”
“Caleb? Wait…one…minute,” Meg said, separating each
word with exaggerated flare. “I thought you went out with
Michael.”
“I did. Caleb is the guy that has me questioning my feelings
for Michael, but Caleb’s only here for a short time.”
“Uh huh. How does he make you feel?”
“Oh, dear. I’ve got to go. Look at the time,” Becci said,
glancing at the clock.
“Not so fast. Let me get this straight. Your date with
Michael turned out badly.”
Becci nodded.
“I assume that something happened after the date, and that
something has to do with this Caleb guy.”
Becci nodded again.
“Tell me about him.”
“No time,” Becci muttered. “I promise to explain tomorrow.
I should have been out of here five minutes ago. Caleb’s having
dinner with Aunt Lilly and me.”
“I’m not working tomorrow,” Meg declared. “I’ll let it slide
for now, but you mark my word Mary Rebecca, I won’t let you
off the hook. Next time I see you, I want a full report.”
“You’ve got it,” Becci said as she placed the baby in its
portable bed, noting the time and the amount of the feeding for
the nurse to add to the chart.
Grabbing her purse, she raced to the elevator. Was she in a
hurry to escape Meg’s continuous questions, or to rush home
to Caleb? She didn’t know. Besides, if Caleb found the key to
the time lock, he would be gone. Or would he? From what she
could tell, he didn’t love her namesake, so would he really
choose to go back?
He might not have a choice. Aunt Lilly’s words haunted
her. She knew he hadn’t had a choice in coming here. Fate had
played a dirty trick on him. Or was the trick on her? Had fate
sent him here to make her understand what losing the manor
really meant or to steal her heart?
Becci tugged on the car door. It made a horrible creaking
sound as it opened and again as it closed. She turned the key,
and the old car’s engine did its usual grind before it finally
started.
Through the copse of oaks, she could see her house. In
less than five minutes she would be home. She exited the
parking lot, and her heart began to flutter. Was this the sensation
Meg had spoken of? Did she actually have deeper feelings for
Caleb than she wanted to admit?
She rested her head against the steering wheel and waited
for the light to change. Yes, she did care for Caleb, and she
couldn’t wait to see him. Her heart pounded like a drum, and
her pulse fluttered with expectation.
Would Caleb be waiting to greet her? Or would he still be
clearing away the brush from around the lake? With the
attraction between them simmering on the edge of combustion,
she knew she should keep her distance. At least until she broke
up with Michael.
Becci turned into the drive. Maybe she’d talk to Aunt Lilly.
She might be able to give her some advice to straighten out her
confusion.
After parking the car, Becci caught her purse by the strap,
slid out of the car, and hurried in the front door. She entered
the dining room and came to an abrupt halt.
She had a perfect view of the kitchen table. Caleb was
placing the flatware at a precise angle beside each plate. She
waited for him to glance up. He worked his way around the
table, keeping his gaze riveted to the task he performed.
His normally shadowed chin held no stubble. Moisture
shimmered in the dark hair hanging over his shirt collar. He
looked as if he’d just stepped out of the shower. She’d seen
him clean-shaven with a thin sheen of water glistening in his
hair before, yet, something didn’t seem right. He
looked...different.
Unable to discern what it could be, she shrugged off the
strange feeling and took another step into the kitchen.
Caleb didn’t move from behind the table. Slowly he laid
the last piece down and glanced up.
“Hello.” He wedged his fingers into his pockets. “I hope
you had as good a day as I did.”
“It was nice,” Becci stated casually as she made her way
to the alcove by the back door. “What did you do today?”
“I ate lunch with Miss...with Lilly,” he corrected. Lilly
told him that most people today didn’t put Miss in front of
people’s given names. “After that, she suggested I read or watch
the television while she went shopping. I’m not much of a sitter
unless I’m reading, so Lilly gave me a couple of books, and I
sat outside under the oak until she came back.”
“What era did you study today?” Becci asked, hanging her
jacket on one of the hooks. She then took off the pillbox cap
and stuffed it in the pocket of her lab coat. One by one she
removed the pins holding her hair in a twist and shook it out.
When she turned back Caleb’s face had turned a deep crimson
under his dark tan.
“I—it—Lilly called them romance novels. They
were...entertaining.”
Becci felt the heat creeping up her neck to her cheeks. She
knew the types of romance novels her aunt preferred. “Yeah, I
bet. But that stuff is fiction. Take us for instant. If we were the
characters in one of those books, we would already be lovers
and falling irrevocably in love. We’re not. We’re friends,
nothing more,” she stated flatly, her cheeks growing hotter.
“You enjoyed the books?”
He remained silent as he eased out from behind the table
and cupped his palm to her cheek. He brushed his thumb over
her lips. “Yes. I did.”
With his index finger, Caleb tucked a strand of hair behind
Becci’s ear, letting the back of his hand slide slowly down her
neck. He knew he shouldn’t be touching her like this, but
according to the books he’d read, touching in this era wasn’t
as taboo as it was in his.
“I like your hair down,” he told her, his voice oddly husky.
“I dream about how it would look draped over a snow-white
pillow. That’s what the guy in the book said, but it’s true. I
dream about you like that. Do people today really do the, uh,
things that, uh...”
“It’s fiction, Caleb,” Becci interrupted, her breath catching
at the feel of his fingers massaging her nape. “Fables, stories,
tales, untruths. Things like that don’t happen in real life.”
“People don’t move through time, either,” he murmured
softly. He lowered his head. His lips hovered over hers, his
words nothing more than a warm, faint tingle of air.
“No. They don’t,” Becci whispered. “And people thrown
together like we’ve been don’t become lovers, either.”
A shiver rippled through her. They weren’t lovers and they
wouldn’t be, could never be. Meg’s questions about her feelings
had her wondering if she did feel more for Caleb than friendship.
He did make her heart race.
She silently chanted, “We’re not in love,” like a guru
repeating a meditation. She couldn’t deny the attraction, but it
wasn’t love.
Caleb inched closer, his breath touching her cheek. “Fiction
or not, the book I read had a very emotional impact. With what
I’ve learned, everything seemed...plausible.”
One second mixed with the next until time became
irrelevant. Becci feathered her hands over Caleb’s chest, and
caught him by the shoulders to keep from melting into him.
A cabinet door snapped closed in the dining room. The
noise ricocheted through the kitchen, jolting them apart.
Caleb stared at Becci, feeling confused. She’d said they
were friends, and they were. But what he felt went deeper than
just friendship. He wanted to kiss her and tell her he’d missed
her today, but he’d lost whatever composure he had when she
slid her hands over his shoulders and gazed up at him. He
expelled a long, weary breath and backed away from her.
Becci sucked in a shaky breath and took another step
backward, too. “You...you said Aunt Lilly went shopping. What
for?”
Caleb held his arms out to the side and shrugged. “These.”
“Clothes!” Becci exclaimed. She hadn’t noticed that
Caleb’s long-sleeved, plaid shirt had been replaced by a blueknit
golf shirt that brought out the color of his eyes. His jeans
had been swapped for denim shorts. No wonder he’d looked
different to her! Her gaze fastened on his bare legs and slowly
moved upward. Her mouth went dry. By the time her eyes
reached his lips, butterflies were doing double-time in her
stomach.
“Lilly bought me two outfits. When I refused them, she
said the work I did more than paid for the clothes and that I
reminded her of Nick on her favorite soap. I don’t know who
Nick is, or why he’d be on soap, but she assured me it was
good.” He shrugged. “She said these clothes are what he would
wear.”
Slowly Becci realized what he’d said. Lilly bought…
“How did she p-pay f-for them?”
Caleb glanced at Lilly over Becci’s shoulder. “She said
she didn’t need anything but a small piece of plastic.”
“Damn it, I don’t have money to clothe you!”
Caleb flinched. He hadn’t expected Becci’s angry
explosion.
“Whether you pay cash or charge them, they eventually
have to be paid for. I already have more bills than I can pay
now.”
Becci whirled around at the sound of her aunt shutting the
oven.
“How could you? You know how tight money is. First
Michael waltzes me into that fund raiser and orders me to write
a check for fifty dollars a plate, and now I have to pay for
clothes I can’t afford.” Tears blurred her vision. She battled to
keep them from falling but failed. As they rolled down her
cheeks, she batted at them impatiently and said, “Don’t you
understand we can’t pay the bills? There is no more money.”
Lilly set the biscuits on a trivet. Her shoulders sagged.
“I’m sorry, Becci. I didn’t think you’d mind.” She drew in a
deep breath. “Everything will be just fine. You’ll see. Now
you just go wash-up. We’ll discuss this later.”
/> Caleb kept his eyes trained on Becci until she ran from the
room. Her tears squeezed at his heart. He hadn’t realized that
accepting the clothes would create such a problem. Why had
he let Lilly talk him into them? He’d never accepted charity
before. This would be the first and the last time. And he’d caused
a problem between Lilly and Becci.
He hadn’t hurt the clothes. Maybe the storeowner would
take them back. If not, he would find a way to pay for them.
Lilly set a steaming bowl of potatoes on the table and cast
a quick glance toward the doorway. “I’m sorry. I guess I should
have asked, but I really didn’t think she would mind.”
“I don’t want to cause trouble between you and Becci.”
“Pooh. You didn’t do anything. I’m the one who upset her
by going shopping without consulting her. Her and her foolish
rules. We can’t buy this or that. Watch what you spend. You
can’t do this because there’s no money. When will all this end?”
“Maybe if I talk to the storeowner he’ll take them back?”
“Oh, that won’t be a problem, but I don’t want to take
them back.”
“I insist. I don’t need them, and if returning them helps
make things right, it’s what should be done.”
“You love her,” Lilly said quietly.
“I don’t know if it’s love, but I do know that what I feel is
wrong. As Becci said earlier, this isn’t one of those romance
novels or television stories you’ve introduced me to. I’m an
honorable man, Lilly. I would never do anything to hurt either
of you, no matter what’s written in those journals.”
“Heaven forbid,” Lilly gasped as she pressed her hand to
her chest in a theatrical gesture. “You mean you’re not the
murderer they claim you are?” Her voice became serious again.
“Where Becci is concerned, all I ask is that you not break her
heart when you decide to return to your own era.”
Caleb shrugged. “The heart is a funny thing. It gets hurt
real easy. I don’t plan on letting anything hurt Becci, but it
would be best if I left soon. I’m beginning to care more than I
should. She’s already taken, and I still have a promise to keep.
And that means I must go back. Just know that where Becci is
concerned I won’t act on my—”
“Desires,” Lilly supplied the word for him.
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