“I love you so much, woman.” He pulled her to her feet and grabbed the bar of soap.
Eva’s hand trailed across his chest and came up to caress the side of his head. “I love you, too, Zach. And I always will.”
“Let’s get out of here and go fool around in the bedroom until Tony gets home.”
She wiggled her eyebrows. “Sounds good to me.”
Eva stood still while Zach ran the soap quickly over her body then gave himself a fast wash. He turned off the shower, grabbed up his woman, and walked out into the bedroom. Lowering his head, he touched his lips to hers. “Now, I’ve got you where I want, me pretty.”
* * * *
Eva looked up when the bedroom door opened. She smiled when she saw Tony. “Why don’t you get out of those clothes and join us?”
Tony frowned, running his hand through his hair. “I think you guys need to get dressed and come downstairs.”
Zach set Eva on her feet. “What’s wrong?”
Tony shook his head and raised a hand to ward off any questions. “I can’t—I just—we’ve got company downstairs, and I need you both to come down so we can talk.”
Zach frowned. “Who is it?”
Tony’s gaze settled on Eva. He took a small step forward and rested his hand on her cheek. “Please, for me. Just get dressed and come on downstairs. We all need to talk.” Caressing her cheek one last time, he turned and walked from the room. She could hear the sound of his footsteps as he went down the stairs. She turned to Zach. “What do you think is wrong?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him that shook up.” He walked over to his suitcase and pulled out some clean clothes.
Eva turned and began putting on her own clothes. Her hands were shaking and a sudden coldness hit at her core. Her hand reached up to lightly clasp her throat. She jumped when Zach’s hands settled on her shoulders.
He leaned forward to nuzzle her neck. “Don’t worry, darlin’. I’m sure everything’s fine. Let’s just go down and see what’s going on.”
She nodded and then moved to sit on the bed to put on her shoes. “You don’t think he’s changed his mind about the three of us, do you?”
“No, honey, not a chance. Let’s not borrow trouble. Let’s just go on down and see what’s going on.” He held out his hand, and Eva placed hers in his. Smiling, he pulled her toward the door. Silently, side-by-side, they descended the stairs and walked into the living room.
Tony was standing by the sliding doors, a strange man at his side. They were gazing out at the backyard and talking in soft tones. The man was a little taller than Tony, with dark hair thoroughly mixed with gray. He was dressed in worn, faded jeans, a cotton short-sleeved shirt, and scuffed cowboy boots. In his hand was a dusty black Stetson.
Eva grabbed Zach’s arm. “That’s the man that’s been watching the house,” she whispered. As soon as she spoke, Tony and the stranger turned around. She studied the man carefully. His body was rigid, his movements jerky as he crossed his arms, still hanging onto the dusty hat. The cords stood out in his stiff neck as he raised his chin, his nostrils flaring slightly.
The stranger swallowed hard. “Hello, Eva. It’s good to see you got here safe and sound.”
Ignoring the fluttery feeling in her stomach, Eva stepped closer and studied brown eyes that began to fill with tears. “Timothy? Is that you?”
“Timothy?” Zach said. “Isn’t that the name of the man you came through the portal with?”
The man uncrossed his arms and looked down at his hat. “Yeah, it’s me, Eva. I can’t tell you how sorry I am for everything that’s happened.”
Eva moved closer and let her eyes rake his form up and down. “What in this world happened to you? Where’ve you been? You look so old.”
Timothy chuckled. “The damn thing didn’t spit us out at the same time.”
“What do you mean,” Zach asked. “Where did it send you?”
Timothy sighed and walked over to sink into a chair. “It sent me to the saloon. I reckon it’s the only place it can send you.”
Tony held up his hand. “Okay, everybody just stop. It’ll be easier if we all take a deep breath, and then maybe you can start at the beginning.”
“The beginning?” said Timothy.
Tony smiled. “Start with the two of you getting pulled inside the time portal.” He grabbed Eva’s hand and pulled her to the couch. She sat down between Zach and Tony.
Eva looked up. “Okay, Timothy. We’re all listening. Let’s hear your story.”
“Okay, well, once we were pulled in I didn’t have any control over anything.”
“What do you mean,” asked Tony.
“It was just a black void. The only thing I felt was Eva’s hand. We were holding on tight to each other.”
Zach snorted. “If you were holding tight to each other, how did she end up in the basement of the saloon without you?”
“We started out holding hands. We hadn’t been in there long before she was jerked away from me.” He looked down at his hands and shook his head. “I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t see or hear anything. It was this huge, vast, black void. There was no light, or even air.” He took a shaky breath and gazed at Eva. “But it didn’t matter. I didn’t need to breathe, so the lack of air didn’t matter.” He gave a grim laugh. “Truth be told, I thought I was dead. I didn’t see any way out of it.” He paused and looked toward the window.
“And then what happened?” Tony asked.
“I felt myself falling, and when I landed, it was in the basement of the Silver Rush.”
“Wait,” Eva said. “That doesn’t make any sense because that’s where it dropped me.”
Timothy nodded. “Yeah, but it dropped me back in 1980.”
“Wait a minute,” Zach cried. “You’re telling us you’ve been here for over thirty years.”
Timothy nodded. “That’s right.”
Eva grabbed Tony’s hand and looked at Timothy. “What did you do?”
“Nothing at first. Hell, I didn’t even know where I was. It was night, and pitch-black in that basement. I don’t even know how long I sat there, in the dark, terrified before I felt my way around and found the stairs.”
“Was anybody around when you came up?” asked Tony.
“Hell, no. It was the middle of the night, and it was cloudy so no moonlight. I was stuck in that building until morning.”
“What do you mean, stuck?” asked Zach. “Why couldn’t you leave the building?”
Eva groaned. “It would have been too dangerous.”
“Exactly!” Timothy nodded.
“What do you mean?” asked Zach.
She sighed. “Back in our time, the woods were full of predators. He’d have no way to know what was out in the dark.”
Timothy laughed. “I had no way of knowing for sure where I was until the sun came up. It’s not like it looks anything like the Silver Rush from our time.”
Eva grinned. “What’d you do when you realized it was the Silver Rush?”
“At first I was thrilled. I danced around, thanking God for delivering me safely, and then a bit of reality kicked in.”
“What reality?” Tony asked.
Timothy stared at Eva. “I remembered you were with me. I searched and searched, calling your name. I didn’t understand why you weren’t there.” He leaned forward in the chair. “You have to believe me, Eva. I never meant you any harm, I swear. I just wanted a way out of my miserable life. I wanted something better, and to be somewhere they never heard of Pa and what he’d done. I truly believed the stories Pa told about your ma coming from the future, and I just wanted a chance for a better life. I never meant to take you with me.”
Tony squeezed Eva’s hand. “Where’d you go after you gave up looking for Eva?”
“Truth be known, I never gave up watching for her. I always hoped I’d find her someday. But, after two days, I had to move on. There was no food or shelter, and I didn’t even kn
ow what the date was. So, I headed out on foot.” He laughed as a blush crawled up his neck. “When I made it to the main road and saw my first car, I knew I’d made it to the future.”
Eva leaned forward. “What’d you do then?”
Timothy shrugged. “Bummed around for a while. I didn’t know how to go about getting any money, so I did odd jobs for people. Sometimes they paid me, and sometimes they just fed me. It went along for a while until I got an offer for my gun.”
Tony cleared his throat. “You had a gun.”
“Sure did. Had my pa’s Colt 45.”
Tony shook his head. “And somebody wanted to buy it from you.”
“Yeah. I had decided to travel around to see some of the country, and I was working for a spread over in Texas. The guy that owned it saw my gun and said he was a collector of antique firearms.” Timothy laughed. “It was pretty funny to hear it called antique, but he offered me a good little piece of change for it, so I sold it.”
“Where’d you go then?” Eva asked.
Timothy leaned back in his chair. “For a while I traveled all over. It was pretty easy to get folks to give me a ride whenever I was ready to move on.”
“So, what brought you back here to live?” asked Zach.
“I’d been traveling around the country for about five years, and I was getting pretty homesick. It was a lonely life, and I was just about ready to see if I could figure out how to get the saloon to send me home.”
“Did you try?” asked Eva.
“Not for a long time. I was on the West Coast, up in Oregon, when I met my Mary.”
“Who’s Mary,” Eva asked.
“Mary was the love of my life, my own precious wife.”
Eva stood up. “You’re married. Where’s your wife?”
Timothy shook his head slowly. “My Mary passed on almost ten years ago.”
“Oh, Timothy, I’m so sorry.” Eva sat back down.
“Thank you. The doctors said it was some kind of cancer that took her. I never really understood it. It’s been powerful lonely with her gone.”
“Do you have any children?” Eva asked.
“The Lord blessed us with two fine sons, but he took one away. He was in the Marines when we lost him. My other son and his wife live with me on our small farm.”
Zach crossed his arms over his chest. “You said you met Mary in Oregon. What brought you back here?”
“My Mary did. I told her the truth about where I come from.”
Tony groaned. “And she believed you.”
“She had some doubt at first, but then she said if you really loved someone you can believe in them no matter what. She never doubted me after we was married.” Timothy got up and began pacing back and forth in the small room. “That woman started studying up on time travel. Any books she could get her hands on, she’d pour through them making notes and charts. I didn’t understand all of it, but she said we’d have to move back here if we ever expected to find out what makes the red circle open here.”
“Were you trying to get home?” Eva asked.
“No, I didn’t wanna go home, but I did want to find out what happened to you, and I wanted to bring Alicia here.”
Zach frowned. “Who’s Alicia?”
“She’s my younger sister. I wanted to get her away from all the scandal with Pa. Mary and I bought a small place here and started experimenting, trying to open the red circle again. We both thought you were taken back to your time since you didn’t come through with me.”
Zach sighed. “But you never found a way to open it, did you?”
“I never said that.”
Eva clasped her hands together. “Are you saying you opened the portal?
Timothy sighed. “I’m not sure how to answer that. Mary’s research taught her a lot, but it boiled down to something pretty simple.”
“What’s that?” Tony asked.
“Emotion. Strong emotions can cause a rift in the time line, and that disrupts everything.”
Tony frowned. “What makes you think that?”
“I didn’t think it, but my Mary was a college graduate and did a lot of study on the subject. Hell, she tried experiment after experiment, until finally one day, something happened.”
Eva felt her heartbeat quicken. “What happened?”
“We were out here, and we had little Edward with us. She was set up in the basement, with her candles lit, when Edward sneaked away and started up the steps. He was fixing to fall, and she jumped up, begging the Lord to save our son from harm. Suddenly, the red circle appeared on the wall. She grabbed Edward in time to keep him from getting hurt, and that circle just hovered on the wall for a few minutes, not getting any larger, and then slowly it disappeared. I’ve never been able to get it to appear again, no matter how hard I tried.”
“Why would you keep trying?” asked Zach.
Eva wiped the moisture from her eyes. “That’s easy. He wants to go back to spend more time with Mary.”
Timothy nodded, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. “I’d have given anything for just one more day with my Mary.”
Tony got to his feet. “Why have you been watching this house?”
Timothy snorted. “I wasn’t watching the house. I was following Eva.”
“Why on earth would you be following me?”
“At first, I wasn’t completely sure it was you. I spotted you the first time at the mall. I’ve been working there part-time for a little extra money to help out my boy and his wife. Once I got a good look, I knew it was you, and I had to follow you.”
Tony rubbed two fingers between his eyes. “Why would you have to follow her?”
“I wanted to make sure she wanted to be with you, and that you weren’t keeping her against her will. I just wanted to be sure she was safe.”
Eva sighed and leaned back on the couch. “I’m exactly where I wanna be, Timothy. I think fate brought me here so I could find my prince charmings.”
Timothy glanced from Tony, to Zach, and back to Eva. “Are you saying the three of you are together? Like your ma and Beau and Zeke?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
“Well, I’ll be durn. I guess things worked out for the best, after all.”
Eva studied him. “What will you do now, Timothy?”
“Nothing, I guess. If you’re doing okay, then I’ll go back to my life and look forward to the grandchild that’s set to come this fall.”
Tony picked up a small tablet and pencil from the table and handed it to Timothy. “Why don’t you leave a number where we can reach you, in case Eva ever needs to hear a friendly voice from her past.”
Eva clapped her hands. “That’s a wonderful idea.” She got up and went to the kitchen to fetch her phone. She brought it back and handed it to Tony. “Would you put Timothy in here where I can call him by pressing his name?”
“Sure, honey. What’s the number, Timothy?”
After giving out his number, Timothy stood. “I’ve got to be going. It’s my night to work at the mall and I don’t wanna be late.”
“What do you do there?” asked Zach.
“Just work in maintenance. I’m the poor feller that comes along and cleans the tables after you go in and have your lunch. I know it’s nothing special, but I’m saving up to help with expenses on the farm.”
“How’d you get a social security number to work?” asked Tony.
“Well, um...”
“Never mind,” Tony said. “What I don’t know can’t hurt you.”
Eva walked over, hesitated a moment, and then hugged Timothy. His arms slowly came up around her. “Thank you, Timothy. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d never have met my prince charmings. I’ll be forever grateful to you.” She lowered her voice. “And I’m really glad to know you made it and found the happiness you wanted.”
Timothy’s face reddened more when he pulled back. “Since you found your prince charmings, I’ll wish that you get the happily forever after you des
erve.” Nodding to Tony and Zach, Timothy hurried toward the front door.
The three of them stood silently until they heard his truck drive away.
Tony took Eva’s hand in his. “Can you ever forgive me?”
“Forgive you for what?”
“For doubting you.”
She laughed and put her arms around his waist. She rested her cheek on his chest, his heart beating rhythmically against her ear. “There’s nothing to forgive. I’m not sure anyone would have believed that story without a little proof.”
“Zach believed you.”
Eva turned her head. “Did you believe me, without any doubts at all?”
Zach moved over to make it a three-way hug. “I had plenty of doubts, but I guess my wanting to believe helped me see past them. When I laid eyes on you, I wanted you to be the real deal so I could have you in my life.”
Tony pressed a kiss on Eva’s head. “My question now is, do you wanna stay, or do you wanna see if we can figure out how to open the portal using emotion like Timothy and Mary did?”
Eva rubbed her cheek on Tony’s chest. “I want nothing more than to stay with the two of you. You’re the prince charmings I’ve dreamed of my whole life, and now I want my happily forever after.”
Tony bent down and swept Eva off her feet. “Come on, Zach. Let’s go show our little time traveler just how much we love her.”
Chapter 12
When they reached the bedroom, everyone stripped away their clothing. Tony scooped her into his arms and tossed her to the middle of the bed.
Eva giggled as she bounced up and down. Before she could complain, his hard lips brushed hers once, twice, and then settled, moving gently until the passion flared between them. She kissed him, openmouthed, her tongue flicking over his bottom lip.
“My turn,” Zach whispered next to her ear.
Eva turned and offered her lips to Zach. Their kiss was lazy and slow, sexy in its unhurried exploration of each other.
Forever Eva [Sequel to When Kat's Away] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 16