Page 44 of Borrowed Time

It would be amazing to see those things for himself.

“And avoid a Flagstaff winter,” he added with a grin, and she smiled in return.

“I’d say I’m used to it, but honestly, I don’t know what it’s like to deal with real cold when you don’t have central heat or hot running water. Already it’s not the most comfortable thing in the world, and we’re only just past the beginning of November.”

And the coldest months in northern Arizona were usually January and February. Seth knew he wanted to be long gone by then…and it seemed as though Devynn felt much the same way.

“Well, I suppose we’ll have to see what Jeremiah has to say about that thing,” he said with a nod of his head toward the amulet, still innocently lying on the night table as though it was nothing more than a simple piece of jewelry.

They both knew better, though.

“Here’s hoping he’ll be able to tell us what we can do with it,” Devynn replied.

For a second, their eyes locked.

The draperies were shut.

They leaned in toward one another in the same instant, lips touching, then parting. She tasted as sweet as ever, sweet as the fire that burned in him the second their mouths brushed against one another.

Her arms went around him, and he pulled her in tight. Yes, it would be much better to be someplace where her slender body wasn’t encased in a cage of whalebone and heavy silk, where he could truly feel her as she pressed against him, alive and eager.

No one had seen them come in here.

But even as that treacherous thought entered his mind, Seth knew he couldn’t act on that impulse. Just because there hadn’t been any witnesses in the upstairs hall to see her enter his room, that didn’t mean someone might not come along at exactly the wrong moment to see her emerge with her hair disarranged and other telltale signs that she hadn’t just spent an innocent hour in her brother’s room discussing their day.

Gently, he ended the kiss and then backed away. Her big blue eyes met his, confused, and then she seemed to understand why he had stopped.

“This brother and sister thing is a real pain,” she remarked with a rueful smile. “Jeremiah should have just told everyone we’re married.”

What would it be like, to be married to Devynn Rowe?

Seth thought he would like to find out…one day, when all this was behind them.

“Unfortunately, he didn’t,” he replied. “I suppose I can understand his reasoning, but still, it’s definitely caused a few more problems than I would have liked.”

Once again, her gaze slid to the amulet where it rested on the tabletop. “Well,” she said, voice a little too hearty, “I suppose we’ll just have to see what Jeremiah has to say about that thing. Who knows? By this time on Monday, we may already be gone.”

Seth didn’t think it would be quite that easy…but he also didn’t want to discourage her, not when she was looking so hopeful, lips full and rosy from the kiss they’d just shared.

“I suppose we’ll just have to see.”

12

A TIMELY MEETING

“Interesting,”Jeremiah commented as he turned the amulet over in his hands. The cabochon garnet set into the bronze mounting glowed like old blood against the flames leaping in the hearth, just a few feet behind where he stood.

I wanted to snap,That’s all you have to say?,but I managed to remain silent. Yes, I knew I was feeling frustrated, but getting all up in Jeremiah’s business wasn’t going to hasten things along. Not that I knew him well, but I could tell he was a man who went at his own pace and no one else’s.

It probably didn’t help that I was already restless after the way Seth and I had to cut our kiss short on Saturday night, or how we had to spend all day Sunday looking as though we were enjoying ourselves as we explored Flagstaff when every cell in my body seemed to be crying out for him that much more. The novelty was wearing off by now, and I just wanted to go back to a place where, if not precisely my home, at least the people around me seemed to be just fine with the two of us getting together.

Well, now that he knew he wasn’t his cousin Abigail’s consort…and they had no idea I was half Wilcox.

A bridge we’d have to cross at some point, I supposed, but I figured I’d worry about that later…if we even ended up back in 1926 at all. From the way Seth had spoken on Saturday night, it halfway felt to me as if he might be perfectly okay with jumping right past the Roaring ’20s and ending up in a place with central air conditioning and driverless cars and all the other creature comforts of the twenty-first century.

True, I hadn’t told him about social media and the way some people seemed to be glued to their phones twenty-four/seven; according to my mother, things were better now than they used to be, but we still had a ways to go. All the same, I had a feeling if Seth and I sat down and weighed the pros and cons, he’d probably decide that my future had more to offer us than his past.

Except for the part where he’d have to leave everyone he knew behind.

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