Page 11 of Kiss Across the Universe
He nodded and strode toward the archway into the dining room, and the entrance to the kitchen on the other side.
Alannah waited until he was safely in the kitchen, then moved into the dining room. She would help with the tables and settings, as she was the least cooking-oriented member of the family. She burned water. Literally. She had let a saucepan boil dry once, and warped the copper-bottomed saucepan to the point where it was useless.
You help out in the kitchen every year, anyway, a snide voice whispered in her mind.
The inconvenient truth annoyed her.This year, I will help out here, she told herself firmly and forced the snide voice into silence by counting places and toting up who was in the house and if there were enough place settings, and keeping herself busy enough that the voice couldn’t intrude any more.
Chapter Four
Aran surprised Alannah a fewminutes later, when he moved into the dining room, wiping his hands on a kitchen towel, wearing a broad grin.
He surprised her because for the first time, Alannah noticed just howoldhe seemed. She wasn’t yet thirty, while her twin looked like he was in his forties.
“You’ve been hanging around in history too much, brother,” she murmured in his ear as he hugged her. She kept her voice very low, even though there was no one else in the dining room right then.
“Which is how one makes money,” Aran murmured back. He let her go and stepped back, examining her. “You look fabulous as usual.”
She grinned. “I’m barely adequate compared to most people in Hollywood.” It was an old riposte.
“While Washington makes ugly a selling point,” Aran replied, completing the habitual sequence.
“You haven’t been near Washington for four years,” she pointed out.
Aran’s smile grew broader and warmer. “You try having five kids inside two years, and see if you can keep up a demanding career.”
Alannah froze, riding out her dismay. That was what she had done a week ago. She had put her family first and got fired for it. “I see what you mean,” she told Aran, but her voice came out flat and indifferent.
His smile faded. “Has something happened?” he asked, his voice even lower. “You look…pinched, somehow.”
She fought to smooth out her betraying brow. “I’m fine,” she said shortly. She would not ruin Aran’s Thanksgiving with bad news. “I saw one of the triplets trying to stand up, a few minutes ago.”
Aran sighed, even though fatherly pride made him glow in a way that Alannah always found disconcerting. He’d become so domesticated, since he and Jesse had married.
But he was still clearly using time to his financial gain.
Aran pushed a hand through his thick black hair. “The twins are already walking, the triplets are working on it. Jesse is terrified that one or all of them will be jumpers and will suddenly disappear on us.”
“Welcome to my world,” Taylor said from the archway. She came over to them and rested her hand on Aran’s shoulder for a moment. “I lived with that fear foryears. And you two nearly made it a living nightmare. Do you remember that jump back to the fifth century? Panormos? You took your cellphones with you and took photos, and you dressed in bed sheets.”
Alannah glanced at Aran, who wasn’t smiling. Their teenaged adventure had been a standing joke in the family for years but now he had kids of his own, he’d lost his sense of humor over the incident.
“We were dead lucky,” Alannah said truthfully. “But we didn’t figure out how to jump until we were teenagers. Marit was jumping before she was five, but she’s a polytemporal. Maybe Aran’s kids will be older before they figure out jumping, too.”
“Please, universe, hear that wish,” Aran muttered. “Older means time to train them, so they have at least a miniscule chance of making it home again.”
Taylor gripped their arms gently and shook them. “Stop it, both of you. This family is stuffed full of jumpers and people who can see the timescape, or shout across it.”
Jesse was the one who could send out broadcasts across the timescape, so thateveryonecould hear her. She didn’t do it often, because it left a lot of people with massive headaches. But it was a useful gift, one that had pleased Jesse enormously. “I’m not a jumper, but I can at least dosomethingwith the timescape,” she’d explained to Alannah shortly after her wedding. That had been the same day she and Aran had announced she was pregnant, and Jesse had been just as frank about that. “A baby surprised the shit out of both of us,” she had admitted in her usual directly honest way. “I don’t think either of us had given it a thought until the double line showed up.”
The reminder of the talents and expertise in the family made Aran’s shoulders relax. He nodded. “You’re right.Someonewould be able to find our kids, no matter where they ended up.”
Alannah smiled at him. Aran was her twin, but he felt more like an older brother, these days. “By the way,” she added, glancing at Taylor. “WhereisMarit? I thought she would be in the kitchen, directing everyone, but I haven’t heard her voice yet.”
Taylor’s face shadowed. “She went to lie down a little while ago. Migraine. A severe one.”
“Farcould give her something, couldn’t he? Or Alex? He always brings a kit along,” Aran said. A furrow formed between his brows and Alannah knew that it was the same as hers.
“Veris did give her something,” Taylor said. “Sixty minutes ago. It didn’t help.”
