Page 86 of Killing Time

“Much longer,” I said, thinking of my weeks in 1926 and 1884…those terrifying days in Flagstaff in the late 1940s.

To my surprise, she grinned. “I like the dress.”

Right. Seth and I were both still wearing our ’40s clothing, all of which I knew was going to be way too hot for a June evening in Jerome.

“The clothes were fun,” I admitted. “But honestly, I’d kill to get into something a little more comfortable.”

“Well, let me take you home,” she said, then looked back over at Seth. “You’re probably going to want some modern duds, too, I would assume.”

His hand brushed against the wool trousers he wore. “I suppose that would be a good idea.”

“Let me see what I can rustle up,” she told him. “You’re too tall to wear either of my dad’s stuff, but I can go through this month’s donations and see if there’s anything that’ll work.”

Seth’s brows pulled together at Bellamy’s mention of her two fathers, but it seemed he decided now wasn’t the time to ask questions about their family dynamics. “I would appreciate that.”

By “donations,” she’d meant the monthly closet clean-out bags the McAllisters gathered before sending them to various charities in the Verde Valley. Although I hadn’t contributed — I’d barely been in town for a month and had left about half my clothes in Flagstaff — I knew the donation bags were probably the best option to put together some sort of wardrobe for Seth without having to go shopping.

Which I assumed we would still do at some point, but for now, it would help to get him out of those heavy 1940s clothesand into something a little more suited to the current weather in Jerome.

“Then let’s go,” I said, and Bellamy nodded.

“You’ll need to talk to the elders,” she warned me.

As Seth and I began to follow her out of the mine shaft, my foot bumped against something solid, and I bent down to see what it was.

My phone, looking a little dusty but otherwise unharmed by its fall. Thank God for phone cases.

After I picked it up, I inclined my head toward Bellamy to acknowledge her comment. I’d already guessed I wouldn’t be able to slip Seth unnoticed into my life, and that the McAllister elders would need to know something about this newcomer in their midst.

All that could wait, though. For now, it made more sense to go home and get ourselves situated, and then decide what to do next.

Well, beyond partying for the next couple of weeks to celebrate our safe arrival in a future we now could share.

“Sure,” I said easily.

Bellamy cocked an eyebrow, telling me she wasn’t sure if she bought my too-casual attitude. However, she seemed to guess that a lot of the explanations could be put aside for now, because she didn’t say anything else, instead touching her key fob so the doors to her car opened and we could climb inside. Seth’s eyes widened as he took in the way they’d obeyed her silent command, but I only gave him an encouraging smile.

“Go ahead and get in,” I said. “You take the front — you’re taller.”

He looked dubious for a moment but then seemed to realize the most important thing to do right then was to get to some sort of home base so we could begin to settle into the reality that wereally had reached my present…and that meant we could begin creating a future of our own.

When he walked into the bungalow, he paused for a moment and looked around, a smile beginning to settle on his lips. “I like it better this way. I wasn’t sure what the place would look like in the future.”

“Yes, someone undid all the damage before I moved in,” I replied, then glanced up at the ceiling. The beams were now the original dark brown they’d been when the place was built in the teens, all the white paint that had been applied to those beams and the trim sometime in the 1930s or ’40s gone as if it had never been there at all. “Although I think you’ll see that the kitchen is a lot different.”

His gaze moved past the living room into that space, and he took a step forward so he could get a better look at the gleaming stainless appliances and the smooth quartz countertops.

“I think I’d need a degree in engineering to use any of those,” he remarked, and I came over and took his hand in mine, then went on my toes so I could kiss his cheek.

“Oh, it’s not as hard as it looks. But we won’t need to worry about any of that for a while, because I’m definitely taking you out to dinner tonight to celebrate being here.”

His eyes lit up. “I think I’d like to visit a twenty-first-century restaurant.” A pause, and he added, “But isn’t it sort of late for that?”

“Not at all,” I assured him. Yes, Bellamy and I had gone up to the mine shaft after we were off work, but it had only been a little past seven at that point, and even though I’d just lived through what felt like months in other times, the hour now was justinching toward seven-thirty, meaning Seth and I should have plenty of time to grab something to eat.

Time. I knew I’d never look at it the same way again. Getting lost in it for all those weeks had given me a much greater appreciation for the here and now…for all the wonderful sights and places the two of us could explore together.

Someone knocked at the door then, and I hurried over to open it. Bellamy stood outside on the porch, a large plastic trash bag hanging from one hand.

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