The silence stretched out and Scott squirmed. “Well?”
Nothing.
Maggie stood very slowly, like a woman weighed down by depression, and looked at Scott. “Let me get this straight. That thing you talked into is a telephone?”
“Yes.”
“And everyone has them in the year 2005?”
“Yes.”
“But this one is also a time travel device.”
Scott didn’t reply. He felt as if a trap were closing over his head. He gave Maggie a pleading look and a weak nod.
Maggie sank to the nearest chair. She stared out the curtained window. Scott could see the blank look on her face. He waited for his words to sink in.
Moments felt like hours, which felt like years. Scott couldn’t stand it and strode to the icebox. He grabbed a couple of Cokes, handed one to Maggie and chugged the one in his hand.
He desperately needed a drink. Why did he have to appear during Prohibition?
Maggie had heard weird tales before, but this one took the cake. She stared at the incredibly handsome man before her. His dark hair gleamed. His unshaven, rugged face turned her heart to mush. She’d started to fall in love with Scott Forrester. He’d seemed normal when she first met him. Strong and competent, he’d saved her from Carey Chambers’ unwanted attraction, from falling lights and a crashing train. The man seemed to have nerves of steel.
The most important thing to Maggie was her unusual attraction to Scott. She’d never felt such passion for a man before. Intense heat would rage through her, her legs always weakened and she felt on the verge of swooning when she smelled his erotic scent. Maggie literally forgot the world around her. Whatever room they were in would fade to two feet around them. Maggie couldn’t hear over her pounding heart, her palms would itch and sweat at the same time and she’d feel desperate to touch and be touched by Scott.
Maggie felt heat rush up her body and flame in her face. How could thinking about her reaction to him cause such an intense response? She slumped in the chair and buried her face in her hands.
Too bad the man was crazy.
“Maggie. Sweetheart. Talk to me.” Scott kneeled at her side and placed his hands on either side of her face. He gently lifted her chin until they were again eye to eye.
She saw the bolt of desire shoot through him. His eyes widened and dilated, he licked his lips. Scott clenched the sides of her face and leaned forward. With a light touch he kissed her lips. Maggie tasted salt and Coke, a potent combination. But when a groan escaped Scott and he moved to pull her closer Maggie forced herself to push him away. “No.”
Fighting the passion between them Maggie jumped up and stepped back. “Don’t touch me again, Scott. I can’t think when you do that.” Maggie’s hand flew to her mouth. She hadn’t meant to tell him that.
His grin wasn’t cocky. It wasn’t snide. It was the most masculine, sexy, relieved grin she’d ever seen on a man’s face before.
And it rocked her down to her toes.
It was at that moment that Maggie Ingram knew she’d fallen completely in love with an insane man who said he time traveled from the twenty-first century by accident.
And she had no idea what to do about it.
Scott pulled Maggie into his arms and gave her a big hug. “I know you think I’m crazy. I’ll find a way to prove it to you. I promise. But for now, will you take me at my word?” He pulled back to look at her.
She stared at him with confusion, concern and compassion. “How can you prove your outlandish story? It sounds like something out of a fiction novel.”
Scott’s face lit up. “Wait. I can prove it right now.” He bent down and picked up the BlackBerry. He pushed a button on one side and it turned on with a musical tone. “Good old Verizon Wireless,” he muttered. He started to push his brother’s phone number in when a feeling of fear rushed through him. “Wait.” He dropped the phone.
“What’s wrong?” Maggie asked. “I thought you were going to prove your story to me.”
“I… I’m not sure how this altered phone works. The last time I pushed buttons on it I ended up here. And Shauna told me to let her call me.” He bent down and took the battery out of the device to turn it off. He didn’t want to push any more buttons. “We’ll have to wait until she calls me again.” Scott looked sheepish as he reinserted the battery. “Will you trust my story until I can prove it to you?”
“I don’t know, Scott. It’s pretty farfetched.” She walked to the door of her trailer and pulled it open. “I’m tired now. Please go. I need to be alone.”
Scott put a hand on her shoulder and gently squeezed. “Maggie. If there’s one promise I need from you right now, believing me or not, I need you to promise not to tell anyone what I’ve told you.”
Maggie cocked her head to the side, her mouth drew down and her eyes spit fire. “Scott Forrester. There’s no way I’m going to tell your ridiculous story to anyone. They’d think I was mad! I already think you’re off your rocker, and I don’t need to have this get back to my father.” She marched around the trailer. “I can just see the headline now, ‘Heiress daughter tells crazy story about time traveling friend’. They’d lock me up and throw away the key!”
* * * * *
Scott watched the sun set from the window in his trailer. He had stopped at the commissary on the way back from Maggie’s and picked up some orange juice. God, he needed a beer. Without that luxury he decided to take a much needed nap while Maggie pondered his story and decided whether she should believe him or not.
He wanted to go home. He wanted to stay. He didn’t know what he wanted.
Yes he did. He wanted Maggie. With a yearning he’d never felt before, a twisting, churning, soaring, giddy need that raged through him, Scott knew that Maggie was the love of his life. The one. The only woman he would ever love. No one affected him the way she did.
Yet they lived in two different centuries. They had families, friends, commitments in two different time periods. He’d heard about love across the ages, but this was beyond belief. Or would have been if he hadn’t known about his brother’s lifestyle.
How could two brothers live in different time periods with the women they loved? Why did this have to happen to him?
Stop it. Quit jumping ahead. Assuming that Maggie believed him, he didn’t know if she’d want to be with him, love him, or time travel with him. How stupid was he to think she’d leave her family and friends, her whole way of life for him? If there was one thing that Scott knew, it was that he wasn’t stupid.
What a pickle. He banged a fist on the table. It shook so hard back issues of Time magazine fell to the floor. “Great! Just great,” Scott exclaimed. He couldn’t nap or sit still any longer and decided to pace. The trailer was too small. He needed to take longer strides, breathe fresh air. Scott yanked open the door and jumped over the three steps to the ground. A thin ray of fading sunshine hit him in the eyes and he put up a hand to cover them having forgotten his sunglasses. The remnants of warmth from earlier in the day had weakened and he felt a shiver of coolness on his face. At this time of night fog would begin to roll in off the coast. He could see the gray line of clouds begin to blot out the sun.
The gloomy fog matched his mood. Scott wanted to prove to Maggie he wasn’t a liar. Yet he didn’t want to make a mistake and disappear to another time period. He’d have to start all over and wait for Shauna to find him again.
If he disappeared right in front of Maggie, if he left in a tangerine bubble with a high-pitched noise, Maggie would at least know he had been telling the truth. But how long would it be before he could come back to her? Would Maggie want a man like him in her life?
Scott shook his head. At this point it was all speculation anyway. He knew that Maggie had strong feelings for him, but he didn’t know if they were strong enough to overcome a little thing like living in different centuries.
After all, how many women would leave everything they knew, their family and friends, to move to a future th
at didn’t even exist?
Chapter Six
The fog had thickened and Scott could see just a few feet in front of him. Buildings had disappeared. The silence would have been unnerving if not for Scott’s sour mood. No birds chirped, no leaves rustled. The darkness was complete and he needed the privacy it afforded him to think and come up with some way to prove to Maggie that he told the truth. Scott almost bumped into a street sign pointing the way to the commissary, wardrobe, the studio’s offices, the prop building and the trailers.
He turned toward the trailers not thinking about anything at the moment. He let his mind wander and stretch, hoping it would clear enough for him to come up with some solutions. The gray blanket that covered him felt damp and Scott knew his wavy hair would twist into loose curls. He ran his hand through the mop and felt the wetness. The fog was so thick it felt like a light mist. Drops of moisture hit his face and Scott relished the fresh feeling. He began to feel invigorated.
Being a naturally optimistic person, Scott ran through the pros and cons of his situation. Cons. He temporarily lived in 1925. He came from 2005. He had no way back to his time at the moment. He had no place to live except a small trailer on the lot of Artists Unlimited. He desperately missed his brother.
Pros. He’d fallen in love with a beautiful woman. He was filming a silent movie with the biggest star of the decade, he made good money for the times and the sky was clearer and cleaner than he’d ever seen before. Okay, the pros outweigh the cons yet the tug on his heart to see his brother felt like a lead weight. Conversely, the amazing attraction he felt for Maggie pulled him in the other direction.
He didn’t want to leave her.
So now what should he do? He rubbed his hands together and jabbed them into his pants pockets. He pulled the jacket closer around him thankful he’d grabbed it off the back of the chair before he left the trailer.
He had to wait. Be patient. Shauna would work out how to get him back.
In the meantime Scott decided to love Maggie the best he could. He wanted her. He needed her. He wanted to bury himself inside her. But he knew the mores of this time wouldn’t allow it. Maggie would be shunned if her friends and family found out they’d ever made love, but Scott didn’t know how much longer he could hold himself in check. He sighed.
A drop of mist rolled down his nose. He wiped it away with an angry swipe. In his time he would have had Maggie in his bed. His body reacted roughly to the mental picture he had of her naked, soft and gorgeous. He could even smell the musky scent of her after they’d made love. Desire and passion raced through him and Scott caught his breath. He stopped and leaned against the building that appeared out of the mist. The intensity of his need was so strong Scott felt weak at the knees. He slid to the ground and held his knees up to his chest. His hands clenched into fists and he pounded the ground beside him willing away the desire. If Maggie had been there he would have taken her and not been able to stop. He cursed the fates that brought him here and thanked them at the same time.
A noise startled him out of his reverie. Footsteps and mumbled voices. Scott hoped the people coming nearer wouldn’t see him. How would he explain why he was here and what he was doing huddled on the ground against this building? He felt his heart race and breathed slowly to calm himself. His palms began to sweat when he heard the words, “Glad I found you in this fog. Jeez, it’s so thick I can’t see my hand in front of my face.”
A second man said, “He’s out of opportunities to repay his debt. He’ll learn his lesson, I tell ya.”
“Don’t mess up his face. He needs it and so do we,” the first man said. “Otherwise we got no way to get paid.”
“I knows my job. You insult me when you says things like that.”
Scott heard the anger in the man’s voice. Who where these people and who were they talking about? Who needs his face?
The men got closer and Scott tensed. He knew from the conversation that if he were found he’d have to defend himself. The footsteps were close. The men had stopped talking for a second. When they spoke again Scott jerked. They were right next to him yet around the corner of the building. Scott hadn’t realized when he’d leaned against the wall he’d been at a corner.
“Okay, youse go and get Chambers, I’ll wait here.”
So it’s Carey Chambers. Scott wondered what he’d gotten himself into.
“Why me?” the other one asked. “You drag him from his cushy bed.”
“Looky here, we ain’t got all night. This fog’ll only help us so long. Just get him. I’ll do the rest.”
Scott prayed both men would leave. One did. Scott sat huddled on the ground and wondered if he could slide away without being noticed. Not likely. He felt his right calf muscle start to cramp. Shit. Scott lifted his foot from the ground and stretched it out. He flexed it and prayed the cramp wouldn’t fully form. It didn’t. Just as he let out a slow sigh of relief the man moved and tripped over Scott’s leg.
“What the— Goddamnit!” the man said.
Scott jumped up and ran. He didn’t want to be caught by the thugs and knew the fog would hide him. He limped at first from the slight cramp but soon his muscle stretched and he sprinted into the fog.
He ran blindly for a while and when he felt he was far enough away from the two men he slowed to catch his breath and find his bearings. Leaning over and placing his hands on his knees Scott took in great gulps of air. Soon his breathing slowed and he straightened. Scott recognized the building he stood next to, the corporate offices, or whatever they called them now. He turned to his left and walked to his trailer.
So, Carey Chambers was involved with some thugs. Scott wondered what the man had done. Drugs weren’t an option in this day, but owing money was. Gambling debts? Not that it mattered. Whatever Chambers had done, payback was now.
Scott wondered if he should get involved but remembered Chambers trying to force Maggie in her trailer.
* * * * *
Maggie couldn’t sleep. She lay in her bed and stared at the dark ceiling. Pictures of Scott flashed through her mind like a newsreel. She saw him when he carried Sid Goodman out of the burning façade on the set that first day, then when he came through the door for their first scene. Images flashed by of falling bright lights and strong hands pulling her to safety. His crooked grin after the train accident melted her heart. But the look of complete shock on his face when that funny telephone rang in his hands kept replaying through her over and over again.
Maggie sat up in bed but left the light turned off. 2005. How could he live in that year and be here with her in 1925? Eighty years! Yet, she’d heard the voices that came through the black box, heard the love of a man Scott said was his brother and the strength and pride of a woman’s voice who was supposed to be that man’s wife. A woman who came from the year 2110. That’s one hundred and eighty-five years from now! Preposterous. Maggie smacked the bed next to her.
Scott must think her a fool to tell her a story like that. Time travel. Hand-held telephones that everyone had and no telephone operators were needed. What would he tell her next? That man flew to the moon?
Maggie couldn’t stand it any longer. She heaved a long sigh, turned on the light and went to the small wooden icebox. Too bad Sid Goodman wouldn’t splurge on the new electric refrigerators that General Electric made. She knew they were expensive, but didn’t the studios pamper their big stars? Well, she wasn’t a big star. She felt the blast of cold air and rummaged around the block of ice to pull out a small bag of Hershey’s Kisses. The new foil-wrapped chocolates were all the rage and Sid Goodman knew she loved them. Maggie carried the bag to the tiny table and overturned the packet. Silver flat-bottomed drops of chocolate spilled across the table making a mosaic pattern. She reached for a piece of candy and began to unwrap it. Once the chocolate melted on her tongue she sighed blissfully and thought about her problem.
That problem being one very handsome man who wasn’t in his right mind.
Add to that the minor detail
that Maggie had fallen in love with him and the problem became insurmountable.
Let’s say Scott was telling the truth—as outlandish as that seemed. If he really came from 2005 he’d have to go back to live, wouldn’t he? He had family, friends, a job. Why would he want to stay in 1925? Maybe he couldn’t stay in this century. Maybe this time-travel thing would yank him back at any moment. Why he could be gone right now!
Maggie’s heart pounded. Her hand flew to her mouth and she stood without realizing her arm had scattered Kisses to the floor. He couldn’t be gone. What would she do without him? Somehow Maggie knew that there’d never be another man in her life like Scott. Not in any century.
Calm down, Maggie girl. You’re jumping ahead. She took deep breaths to slow down her racing heart. Go back to the beginning. That would mean Scott’s honest and honorable and is telling the truth. Well of course he is, he’s a fireman. Every fireman is strong, capable and heroic. Scott’s proven that already.
What if he’s delusional? He could be violent. Or a thief. Or worse—a womanizer! Maggie paced the trailer. How could she have fallen for a womanizer? Her reputation would be ruined. Wait! Wasn’t that what she wanted? That’d be another way to get her father out of her life.
Maggie wore a crease in the carpet not realizing it matched the one in her forehead. That’s no good. When her father found out that Scott was a good-for-nothing womanizer he’d whisk her right back to Pennsylvania. He’d force her to marry that awful Roger Morgan.
Maggie sank to the nearest chair. Her thoughts were tangled. Her plan to use Scott to get away from her father could backfire and land her right where she didn’t want to be.
No. Whether Scott was a madman or a sane man, Maggie knew she had to continue her deception to get a compromising picture of them in the newspaper and get out from under her father’s control.
That meant one thing to Maggie. Pretend to believe Scott’s claim that he came from 2005. When the time was right and her father had disowned her, then she could slip away on her own and figure out what her future had in store for her.
No Silent Christmas Page 8