Page 6 of Killing Time

“Hate ’em,” she said cheerfully. “It’s been torture not being able to take a shower. So, while I can’t say I approve of repainting the woodwork…or that awful floral print in the living room…I have to say the shower more than makes up for it.”

Despite everything that had happened over the past hour, he couldn’t help but feel his spirits lift as he looked down into her cheerful face. Yes, they had entered a dark and dangerous time, but sometimes it was the small things that got you through it all.

“Then I’m sure you’ll have fun with it in the morning,” he replied.

She nodded, still beaming, and followed him into the master bedroom. It didn’t do much to earn that title except to be slightly larger than the guest room, but at least it overlooked his tiny yard with its patch of grass and single oak tree, now glowing gold with autumn color. Here, too, much had been changed, with wallpaper striped in green and blue on all sides and dark blue velvet curtains at the window, but he was glad to see whoever had lived here had left the bed behind.

He wasn’t much in the mood to sleep on the floor.

Devynn began to walk over to the closet, then paused and gave him an uncertain glance.

“Maybe I’m assuming too much,” she said. “I just figured we’d be sharing this room, but if you want me to sleep next door — ”

No way would he let her go any further than that. He set down the bags he’d been carrying and went to Devynn so he could pull her into his arms.

“I want you here,” he said, a little surprised by the ferocity in his voice. “I don’t ever want to be separated from you again.”

“You won’t be,” she replied, then tilted her head up at him so he could bend down and kiss her, could taste the gorgeous lushness of her mouth against his and could finally feel her body again, lithe and curvy at the same time, with no corset and heavy gown between him and the woman he loved. After they pulled apart several minutes later, she added, “We’re in this together, you know.”

Yes, they were. Whether in his time or the past or whatever future might become their home, the one thing he knew was that Devynn would always be there for him.

“I know,” he murmured, and then pressed a kiss against her throat. “For now, let’s just see about getting settled.”

She grinned up at him and touched a finger to his mouth. “Might want to wipe that off first. One of the hazards of red lipstick, I guess.”

Seth reached up and passed his index finger over his lower lip. Sure enough, he had a red smudge on his fingertip.

“What, you don’t want me to impersonate a clown?”

“I love you any way you are,” Devynn responded at once. “Still, it’s probably better to get rid of that, just in case we end up going out to eat or shopping or whatever.”

All those options sounded reasonable. Maybe they could make a dinner of canned beans and Spam — whatever the hell that was — but he thought they needed something a little better than that to celebrate their arrival in the twentieth century. Yes, they hadn’t ended up where they’d meant to go, and their appearance here had directly led to Ruby’s kidnapping, and yet he had to believe he and Devynn would find a way out of this somehow.

They’d escaped 1884 Flagstaff, after all, so he could only hope they’d come to this time and place for a reason.

“Okay,” he said. “Let me find a washcloth, and then we can get on with getting settled.”

The closet had been expanded somehow — maybe by taking a little space from the bathroom — so there was plenty of room for their clothes. He and Devynn got their new acquisitions either hung up or placed in the chest of drawers opposite the bed, and then they headed out to retrieve their groceries from the trunk of the big Chevy he’d been given. Seth would never admit such a thing to anyone, but he had to acknowledge to himself that thecurvy coupe was a far superior vehicle to the Dodge he’d driven in 1926.

Once the cans had been safely stowed in the pantry and the dry goods had been put away, he turned toward Devynn.

“I was thinking we could go down to Cottonwood for dinner.”

Surprise flickered across her face. “Really? I’d think you’d want to stay here in Jerome and refamiliarize yourself with the town.”

That might have been what a lot of people would have done, but Seth couldn’t help being depressed by all the changes in the place he’d always called home, how sad and empty it now felt. Maybe Cottonwood had suffered the same fate, although he didn’t think so. Some of the miners had lived down the hill, but a great many more of Cottonwood’s residents had nothing to do with the mines, were either ranchers or farmers or small business owners. He supposed some of the business owners might have lost a percentage of their customers when so many of the miners left as the places they worked closed, but there was only one way to find out how the town had fared.

“It doesn’t look like there’s a lot left here in Jerome,” he said. “I noticed the English Kitchen seemed to be open, but I’d rather have something a little more substantial.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that,” Devynn replied. “It’s been hours and hours — and eighty-plus years, I suppose — since I last ate, so I’m ready for something to fill me up.”

That seemed to settle things. They’d get away from this sadly diminished Jerome, and find a cozy table or booth in a restaurant in Cottonwood where they could both eat their fill and have a chance to talk over their situation in some depth…and hopefully come up with a solid plan that would allow them to get Ruby back before the dark of the moon.

“All right,” he said. “Better grab a sweater — it’s going to get cold once the sun goes down.”

“And I need to refresh my lipstick,” Devynn responded with a smile.

Seth managed to keep himself from grimacing. While he had to admit that the red color looked beautiful on her full lips, he couldn’t say as much for the way it got smeared all over both of them when they kissed.

---