Hourglass (14 page)

Chapter 29

I
had to hand it to my brother. Maybe he believed I’d experienced some sort of relapse and had somehow used my feminine wiles to rope Michael into my delusions. Maybe he was faking the calmness to keep me from going even further off the deep end. Or maybe he’d been all ramped up to take me down for spending the night with Michael, and my news threw him for a loop. Whatever it was, he seemed to be taking the whole “apparently I can time travel and by the way I’m off my meds” thing in stride.

Dru was a little bit harder to sell.

“You’re saying,” she said, looking from me to Michael, her cool blue eyes intense, “that together you can break the boundaries of time?” She kept her voice composed, but it sounded forced, the way a parent might speak to an unruly toddler in public.

I nodded. Dru knew I could see random dead-ish people since the first time it happened, but while Thomas believed me immediately, it took her a while to come around.

She was quiet for a moment as a waiter cleared the table beside us. When he blew out the candle in the centerpiece and left, walking through the jazz trio on his way to the kitchen, she continued. “So you’re trying to tell me that the things you saw weren’t ghosts, but people from the past?”

“Sort of.”

“Sort of?”
Her voice hit a higher pitch than usual as more of her composure slipped. She held up her hand. “I need a minute.”

Michael had chosen the restaurant as the place to spill the beans. He’d hoped being in view of the public would help curb the intensity of any strong reactions. Didn’t look like it was working for Dru.

Smoke from the extinguished candle drifted over to our table, briefly covering the smell of tomato sauce and baking bread coming from the kitchen. My stomach growled, and I thought about asking for a basket when it came out of the oven.

Instead, I stuck to the business at hand. Hoping I’d given Dru enough time, I tried to explain more clearly, realizing again how unbelievable it all sounded. “The fact that I can see time ripples is a symptom that I’m a time traveler. I mean an indicator.”

Her gaze jumped from me to Michael. “And you can time travel, too?”

“Yes.”

“Uh-huh.” She slumped back in her chair, checking out of the conversation.

“Could Dru or I see rips?” Thomas asked.

I looked over at the jazz trio and answered for Michael. “No.”

“So when you met Emerson the first time, when she came to you from the future, how did you know she was a time traveler instead of a time ripple?” Thomas asked, leaning closer to us over the table, keeping his voice low. At least he seemed to be following.

“Rips disappear if someone touches them. Time travelers know exactly what and where they are. And they’re solid.”

I sat up straighter in my chair. “How solid?”

“The same as we are now.”

An uneasy thought crowded my mind. If rips were vapor and time travelers were solid …

What was Jack?

The thought disappeared when Thomas asked Michael his next question. “What would happen if someone who wasn’t born with the ability to travel attempted it? Assuming they could come up with exotic matter and something made of duronium. Could Dru or I do it?”

“Only people born with the innate genetic ability can travel without serious consequences.”

“What kind of consequences?” Thomas asked.

Michael’s face was grim. “Death by disintegration.”

“Ouch,” Thomas said, sitting back and loosening his tie.

“What have you seen? When you’ve traveled to the future?” Dru interrupted. She’d been so quiet I’d almost forgotten she was at the table. “What kind of world do we live in?”

I knew she was thinking of the baby.

“I can’t say. I have to keep what I’ve seen a secret. But babies were still being born, every day”—Michael gave her a comforting smile—“and then going on to lead spectacular lives.”

“What’s the next step for you two?” Thomas asked, but not before reaching out to wrap his hand around Dru’s. “Do you have a plan?”

“I’ve got to fill Dr. Rooks in on what I want to do,” Michael said, turning serious eyes to my brother. “If she agrees and Emerson has your permission, we’re going to try to save Liam Ballard.”

Thomas looked at me with concern. “Are you on board with this?”

I nodded.

“If—really, really big if—all this is … true,” Dru said, worry clouding her expression, “I hope you’re completely aware of what you’d be risking.”

“I am fully aware.” I searched my gut once more to make sure the words I spoke were true. The answer came back the same. “I know I’m doing the right thing.”

Thomas reached over to touch me lightly on the arm. “Do you think you and I could talk for a second? By ourselves?”

“Dru,” Michael said, standing and stepping around my chair, steadying himself by placing his fingertips on the table. “I wanted to ask you about one of the art photos in my loft. I wondered if you had contact information on the photographer. Can we go look at it?”

“No problem. But if it’s a photograph, I can guess who took it. Have you met Em’s friend Lily?” Dru asked as they left the table together. She cast a worried look over her shoulder as they walked to the door, her dark hair hiding half of her face but none of her concern. The phantom musicians seamlessly transitioned from a Cole Porter classic to a Billie Holiday standard.

Once the heavy wooden door closed behind Michael and Dru, Thomas looked at me intently. “Truth time.”

“I’ve been telling the truth since we sat down, Thomas. You think I could make all that up?”

“Not that.” He pulled a green packet of sugar substitute from a ceramic holder on the table. “You know I believe you, at least I hope you do. What I’m talking about is the way you sounded when you two were explaining everything.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and waited.

“Even though I’ve been your legal guardian for the past four years, you’ve pretty much made your own decisions about how you run your life. The only exception was when you were …” He paused, his face cautious as he tried to figure out how to put it delicately.

“Committed.” I said it for him. “It’s okay. It’s not a dirty word.”

Thomas acknowledged the word but didn’t expand on the subject, just continued folding and refolding the tiny green packet in his hands. “You’re almost an adult. I can’t really tell you what to do anymore.”

“I’m not following.”

“You and Michael.” He ripped the packet open and poured the contents on the table in a grainy pile. “Listening to the two of you, watching you together, I’m guessing your connection goes further than sharing a supernatural ability.”

“We haven’t crossed any professional lines.” Looking away from him, I felt the blush start beneath my skin. “It’s not like that.”

“It’s not like that
yet
, you mean. What about last night?”

I’d hoped I’d gotten away with last night.

“Thomas. Please.” I wanted to crawl under the table and hide. Anything not to participate in this conversation. “Nothing is going on.”

“Hey, you’re the one who tried to knock a security camera off the side of a building. That’s a lot of pent-up frustration.”

I’d wondered when he was going to bring that up. “You have nothing to worry about. No rules have been broken.”

Thomas traced a circle in the white granules on the table before looking up at me. “But you have feelings for him?”

“There are a lot of complications.”

Rules. Trust. Ava.

“I thought something like this might happen. That’s why I made sure Michael would adhere to the rules, both the Hourglass’s and mine.” Thomas sat back in his chair, assessing me the same way he’d evaluate a foundation before buying a building. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I won’t,” I said. “My relationship with Michael is professional. We’ve never even come close—”

I stopped when Thomas pursed his lips.

“Well, except for that one time on the patio, we’ve never even come close to doing anything inappropriate.” I looked down at the sugar substitute, then absently brushed it to the floor, immediately feeling guilty for making a mess. “Even though he’s amazing, and thoughtful …”

My brother’s lips pursed so tightly they almost disappeared.

“Anyway, nothing is going on.” I dusted my hands and placed them on the table, staring Thomas dead in the eye. “So it doesn’t matter.”

“But see,” Thomas said, reaching out to take my hands in his, “I think it could matter. Be honest, Emerson. Does the way you feel about him have anything to do with why you’re helping him?”

“No. It doesn’t,” I protested when he gave me a knowing, superior, older-brother look. I tightened my hands around his for emphasis. “Liam Ballard has a family, a wife and a son. I could save him. After everything, you have to understand …”

“I know why it appeals to you. I worry about you, not physically, although that’s part of it.” His face contorted in pain, reflecting mine. “How can you go back and save the life of someone else’s parent without thinking about going back to save the lives of your own?”

“Michael and I already had that conversation.” I focused on the chandelier centered in the ceiling, not wanting him to see the hopelessness I felt. And to keep the tears from falling. “There’s no way. This is some crazy once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I know it’s impossible to change the past. Except for this time.”

We sat quietly for a moment, both deep in our own thoughts, remembering our loss. Thomas cleared his throat. “You know what Dad always used to say whenever we faced a big decision.”

I resisted an eye roll as we said the words together. “Do the next right thing.”

“Exactly. Whatever the next right thing is for you, Em, I’m behind you.”

“The right thing is helping Michael. After that”—if there is an after that—“we’ll just have to see.”

Thomas let go of my hands and looked in the direction of the front door. “Wonder what’s keeping them?”

“I’ll go check,” I said, grateful for the opportunity to exit the conversation before I said something I shouldn’t. I nodded my head toward the kitchen. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and score me some of that bread and marinara? Don’t you own the place or something?”

As I crossed the town square, I replayed everything Michael had said to my brother and Dru in my head, my mind sticking on one particular subject.

Travelers were solid, and rips were vapor.

Jack. Not solid, not vapor, but somewhere in between.

Michael, Dru, and Thomas would have to wait. I needed to take care of some business. Now.

Chapter 30

C
ome out, come out, wherever you are!” I called softly as I opened the door to my room. “Jack? Don’t tell me you’re getting all shy on me now.”

Silence.

I opened my closet door, my bathroom door, looked under my bed.

Nothing.

I sat down in my armchair to think. Unlike the leather in Dru’s SUV earlier, it felt cool against my legs.

What if, when I touched Jack, I’d scared him away for good? I twirled a strand of hair around my finger, wondering. If I had, it would solve a big problem, because I still hadn’t decided if I should tell Michael about him.

Besides, what was I going to say? By the by, there’s this partially solid glow-in-the-dark guy who likes to hang out in my room? Was I going to admit why I’d never mentioned him to Michael? The attention and interest Jack gave me felt good. Now that I thought about it, maybe good enough to offset the fact that Michael had the lovely Ava as an alternative, when I had no one.

Except whatever Jack was.

How could I explain that without looking like a complete jerk?

If Jack disappeared, it wouldn’t be an issue, and I could go back to worrying about other things, like the possibility of dying while attempting to time travel so I could stop a murder.

Stuff like that.

So much had happened since I returned to Ivy Springs. I leaned back and closed my eyes. My whole world felt upside down. A month ago, I didn’t know what rips were. I didn’t know what my ability meant. I didn’t know Michael existed. Things were a lot simpler.

And a lot less interesting.

I waited a few more minutes. Figuring Jack for a no-show, I knocked on the door to Michael’s loft. No answer. I returned to the restaurant to find Thomas and Dru at the table. Alone.

“Where’s Michael?” I asked, looking up at the clock hanging above the bar. I’d been gone for only fifteen minutes. Surely the man possessed more patience than that.

“He left.” Dru’s eyes darted to meet Thomas’s before she looked back at me. “This, um, woman, came up to his loft to find him. She said there was an emergency.”

“Woman?” Please mean Cat. “Tall and gorgeous? Supershort hair?”

“No,” Dru said apologetically. “Tall and gorgeous, but long auburn hair.”

Ava. “What kind of emergency? Did she say?”

Dru nodded. “She mentioned a name before I left them alone … Kaleb.”

“Michael insisted you stay here.” Thomas cleared his throat and took my cell phone from the table where I’d left it when I went to the loft. He dropped it into his shirt pocket. “That you not try to contact him and that you keep a low profile. He was adamant it was for your own safety and told us that if you tried to follow him, we should stop you.”

“Of course he did,” I muttered. I dropped into my chair, overcome with jealousy. And worry. Whatever happened must have been big for Ava to come to Ivy Springs to get Michael.

I folded my arms on the table and laid my head down on top of them, fighting tears and exhaustion. I’d just made a huge decision, agreeing to help Michael save Liam, and I itched to act on it. I’d felt so connected to him when we sat down to talk to Thomas and Dru. Now he was back to keeping things from me.

I sensed Dru gesturing furiously to Thomas. When I looked up, she and I sat at the table alone. “Michael said he’d call you as soon as the problem was resolved. I’m sure things will be fine.”

I nodded.

“If it makes you feel better, he didn’t seem happy to see her.”

It didn’t.

I felt hurt that he left without saying good-bye, and angry that my brother and Dru seemed to be so accepting of Michael’s “orders” for me. I also felt too defeated to argue. For now.

Dru sighed and reached out to pat my hand. “When was the last time you ate anything?”

The pineapple at the Renegade House. “Breakfast.”

“Let me take care of you, okay?” Dru asked in a gentle voice. “I know you hate it, but I need to practice for when the little one gets here.”

“Not fair.” Mentioning the baby was the worst kind of blackmail.

I let Dru take me home, feed me the marinara sauce and bread I’d smelled coming from the restaurant kitchen, and even make a bed for me on the couch, knowing she did it only to keep an eye on me.

Even though my body had reached the point of exhaustion, my brain wouldn’t shut down. So many thoughts kept my mind whirling: Jack, and who, not to mention
what
, he really was. Lily, and the secrets between us. Michael, and where he was. What he was doing. And with whom.

Circling around and around, never finding any answers, I fought sleep, holding out hope the phone would ring.

Talk about pissed.

I woke up confused. I’d slept in three different beds in the past few days. I preferred Michael’s to all of them. Probably because of the pillow.

He never called. Or he did and Dru or Thomas answered because I was asleep. Maybe one of them turned off the ringer. I reached out for the portable phone on the coffee table, fumbling to see the caller ID.

Nothing.

I might not know where Michael was, but I had a pretty good idea how to find him. I threw the covers back and made a beeline for my room, taking the phone with me, just in case.

“Hold it.” Thomas stepped out of the kitchen with a box of Fruity Pebbles in his hand, blocking my way. “Where are you going?”

“To take a shower.”

He angled his body to keep me from stepping around him. “What about after that?”

“Why does it matter?”

“You’re not going to look for Michael, are you?” Thomas asked the question as if he already knew the answer.

“I guess it all depends,” I said, fisting my phone-free hand on my hip. “How long are you supposed to keep me away from him?”

“Did he call?”

I shook my head.

“Em, he was serious. I don’t know if he knew what kind of situation he was walking into when he left, but he didn’t want you to be involved.”

“I need to go to the coffeehouse to check my schedule,” I said in a monotone, not meeting his eyes. “Am I allowed?”

“Don’t be this way,” he pleaded. I knew he hated lording any kind of authority over me. But he still did it.

“I’m your sister. You’re taking Michael’s side over mine. How could you?” I figured it wouldn’t hurt to layer on some guilt now to pave the way for forgiveness later.

“I am on your side. So is Michael,” he said self-righteously. “His intention is to keep you safe.”

I still held the cordless phone in my hand. I really wanted to throw it at my brother’s head. Growling in frustration, I pushed past him, slammed the door to my room, and locked it behind me.

I showered quickly and chose not to argue with my hair, leaving it loose and wavy. I didn’t want to think about why, but I took special care with my makeup and clothing, wearing tighter jeans than usual and a close-fitting green T-shirt with a scoop neckline. As accessory challenged as I am, I even threw on a matching pair of earrings. Dru’s shimmery powder still sat on my dresser, and I used a little to highlight my … collarbone. Trying not to feel like a hooker, I grabbed a pair of strappy-heeled sandals and pulled them on as I half ran, half hopped to the front door.

I didn’t see Thomas, but as I turned the knob to leave I heard Dru clear her throat from behind me.

“What?” I spun around to face her, leaning back against the front door hard enough to make it creak. “I’m going to Murphy’s Law. I already cleared it with the prison matron, even though her panties were in a wad about it.”

“Work? I know what I would do in your situation.” She scanned my outfit, then handed me my cell phone and her keys. “Don’t make me regret this. And stop insulting my husband.”

I took the keys and gave her a quick hug. “You’re going to be such an excellent mother.”

“If you were my child, I would staple you to your bedroom wall.”

I blew her a kiss and shut the door softly behind me.