Megan winced. Mike was a good man. He was intelligent and he had a good paying job. There was nothing wrong with him. But he’s boring. She closed her eyes, willing the unbidden thought away. No, he wasn’t boring. He was stable, secure, predictable…
End it, Megan. You don’t love him. Do you really want to hurt him by marrying him?
She glanced at her mother who was on the other side of her. Maybe she should tell her mother. She took a deep breath. “Mom, I need to talk to you.”
“What is it, Megan?” her mother asked.
“Can we talk in private?”
Her expression uncertain, the woman stood up.
Despite her sudden wave of nausea, Megan got out of her seat, said ‘excuse me’ to Mike who didn’t bother to look up from his paper, and led her mother to a vacant corner of the room. She braced herself. If it were anyone but her mother, this would be easy. “I don’t love him, and I don’t think he loves me.”
The woman sighed. “We’ve talked about this before. Remember? Love doesn’t solve everything. You need to be practical. Will love put food on the table? Will love pay the bills? No, it won’t. Besides, you might grow to love him.”
“What if I don’t?”
“Then you can at least be content.”
Megan cringed. Content? That sounded…boring.
Her mother opened her purse and pulled out a piece of paper. Opening it, she asked, “Do you remember this letter you wrote me after Shane broke your heart? Hmm?”
Oh no. The letter. The one Megan wrote when she was thirty. The one that now sealed her fate.
Her mother read it to her. “Dear Mom. I don’t know why I always end up picking such losers. It seems that no matter what I do, I end up with someone who can’t take responsibility for his life. As it turns out, I found out that Shane is still living with his parents and his big goal in life is to play video games all day while I support him. I ended the engagement tonight. What am I going to do? I need your help. Please help me pick the right one. I’ll do whatever you say this time. Love, Megan.”
“I know what the letter says.”
“Apparently, you needed reminding.” She tucked the letter back into her purse and gave her a sympathetic look. “Marrying a man who is the life of a party isn’t the way to go. You’ve spent your life so far dating men who were exciting and fun. Where did that get you? Heartache and disappointment. Just like with Shane. Now, let’s not repeat your mistakes again. Looks and personality aren’t everything. You need a man who is secure, who has a strong work ethic, and who acts like an adult. Megan, look. I want what’s best for you.”
“I know.”
“Sweetie, it’s already April. You’ll be thirty-five in July. That’s only three months away. Remember how much you told me you wanted children?”
Megan blinked back her tears and nodded.
“Well, you’re not going to get them unless you settle down and get married. When you were in your twenties, you had time to be patient and wait for the right one. But this is real life. Your fairytale prince isn’t coming. You need to start using your head instead of your heart. And if you don’t love or feel loved by Michael, then put all of that love into your children.”
“You and dad loved each other.”
“Yes, we did. We were lucky.” She smiled at her. “I want what’s best for you. Michael is a good man. He’ll treat you well.”
“You’re right, Mom. I can’t do better than him.”
“Give it time. You’ll be happy with him.”
The Amtrak pulled into the station.
“Now, when you get to Seattle to see his parents, be sure to agree with them. You want to start your relationship with them on the right foot. In-law problems are one of the main causes of divorce.” She hugged her, and Megan hugged her back, taking comfort in the warm embrace.
“I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too.”
“Thanks.”
She smiled. “What are mothers for?”
Megan returned her smile. More hopeful, she turned back to Mike and picked up her purse and said good-bye to her mother. From here on out, she’d find reasons to appreciate Mike instead of comparing him to what she typically found appealing in men. Her mother was right. She was thirty-four and needed to be serious about life and marriage.
Mike folded the paper and stood up. “Are you ready?”
She nodded and followed him onto the train.
***
That evening
Present Day
Minneapolis
Ted set his suitcase down and knocked on Amanda’s apartment door. When she opened the door, tears were running down her cheeks.
“Oh Ted, thank goodness you’re here.” She pulled him in and shut the door behind him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her, immediately concerned. He glanced in the direction of an older woman who stood in the living room, a frown on her face and her arms crossed. He looked for five-year-old Benjamin but didn’t find him. He tensed. “Is it Benny? Is he sick?”
“No. Benny’s fine.” Amanda took a kleenex from the coffee table and blew her nose. “He’s spending the week with his father.” She motioned to the woman. “Mrs. Stone wants the rent and I don’t have the money. Can you help me out?”
He knew Amanda had just spent the last evening out with her friends at a bar. She had money then. Instead of saying this, he dug into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. It looked like he would have to put his train ticket on the credit card.
“Will this cover it?” he asked the apartment manager.
The woman still looked upset but took it. “This will pay for it.” She nodded. “But son, maybe you’d do better to find another girlfriend.”
He watched as the woman left.
“Thank you, Ted. You’re like a guardian angel.”
“I wanted to make sure that Benny had a home to come home to,” he notified her. “I thought you said you had enough money for rent and going out with your friends last night.”
“I thought I did. Honest. Ted, are you mad at me? You know, I can pay you back once Nick sends the child support check.”
“No. Don’t worry about it. I just want you to have enough money to pay your bills in the future.”
She smiled. She seemed a little too eager to agree with him, and he wondered why. She’d been agreeable when they were friends, and he’d bailed her out a couple of times, but he’d never paid her rent. Maybe she was embarrassed.
His heart softened. “You need to take care of you and Benny. Okay?”
“Of course,” she sweetly said. “You’re a good man, Ted. I’m looking forward to introducing you to my family. I know they’ll love you. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be seeing more of them in the future.”
He wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he didn’t.
She picked up her tote bag and flung it over her shoulder. “This should be fun, huh?” She gave him a sly look. “You know, we do have an extra half hour before we have to leave.” She walked over to him, letting her hips sway a little more than usual. When she reached him, she pulled on his jacket. “I could make paying my rent worth your while.”
He shoved her hand away. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m not Nick.” He couldn’t believe she even made the offer. That never happened before, and it only angered him that it happened now.
Her eyes grew wide and she backed off. “I’m sorry. Please don’t be upset. I won’t do it again.”
Maybe she didn’t know better. Maybe all the men had treated her that way. “Look, that’s not what I’m about, okay? I’m Ted. The same guy who’s been your friend for the past year. I haven’t changed.”
She blushed, looking contrite. “I’ll remember that in the future.”
Feeling better, he nodded. “Are you ready?”
She said yes and they left for the train station.
Chapter Two
An Hour Later
Train Station
Minneapol
is
Cole lowered the red cap over his forehead and stood on the platform with the other passengers, doing his best to blend into the background. His fake brown beard itched, but it did the trick. He wore thick glasses and a plaid red and white shirt with blue jeans. The time travel device was safe in his pocket. Time. He just needed to buy some time. He chuckled at the irony. Here he was, in the possession of a time machine, and he was desperate to buy enough time to figure out Christian’s password.
Again, he cursed his luck. Leave it to Christian Jacob to program a security code into the device before the contract was even signed. What did it matter to Christian anyway? The man was a millionaire. He had a mansion, lots of cars, his own tennis court, a pool, and everything else a rich man could want. He even had a wife and two kids. How he managed to be rich and happily married, Cole didn’t understand. Some men just had the luck of the draw, he guessed.
Some men were born into privilege and wealth and enjoyed the happily ever after fantasy. But then there were other men. Men like Cole who struggled to make it but got tripped up when he realized that his wife played him for a fool. Cole’s frown deepened. Not everyone could have it all. And apparently, that sentiment trickled right down to a single password to stop Cole from achieving happiness.
No. Not this time. This time Cole was going to get lucky, even if he had to make his own luck. He wasn’t going to shrivel up and cower in the corner anymore and watch while other men enjoyed their lives. This time, it was his turn.
The train pulled to a stop and he stood back while a familiar man boarded the train with a woman. The man wore a JIC jacket. No wonder he looked familiar! Cole had bumped into him yesterday afternoon in his pursuit to escape Blake who’d discovered that the JIC Time Machine was missing. Cole thought he’d lost Blake by going down some stairs and up the elevator and running through different floors, but he hadn’t. Blake had managed to keep up with him up until midnight when Cole finally hid in a dumpster.
He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. So this was what his life had come to. Being a fugitive and hiding in trash. Well, so be it. Once he discovered the secret code, he’d type it in and then he’d be right back on track. He just had to figure out how.
Opening his eyes, he followed an elderly couple onto the train and handed the conductor his ticket.
***
On the same train
Megan came out of a fitful sleep. Despite the silence around her and the darkness outside, she couldn’t get comfortable. She turned in her seat. Her neck ached in protest.
“Ow.” She jerked up and rubbed her neck, hoping to massage the kinks out.
As she did this, she noticed that the seat next to her was empty. Where had Mike gone? It wasn’t like him to leave without telling her where he was going.
The train came to a stop, and all she saw was a small train station with a few people on the platform. There wasn’t even a sign telling her where they were. She pulled out the purse next to her and took out the itinerary. Checking her watch, she saw that it was two in the morning. She read the itinerary and saw that she was about an hour outside of Fargo, North Dakota.
She put the itinerary back in her purse and wondered what to do for entertainment. She’d brought a book, but it turned out to be a dud so she really didn’t feel like reading it. She stood up, her back and bottom sore, and stepped into the aisle. She held onto the seats so she wouldn’t lose her balance. Looking down at her wrinkled black shirt and navy blue cotton shorts, she smoothed them out the best she could.
Her stomach growled, and she knew she’d better take care of that problem before she looked for Mike.
She made it to the snack car and approached the counter.
The skinny young man hopped off the stool and smiled at her. “What can I get for you?”
“I’ll take Seattle at the next stop,” she said.
He gave her a look that told her he didn’t get her joke.
That was just as well. It was lame. Clearing her throat, she pointed to the chips. “I’ll take one bag of those and a soda.”
He nodded and retrieved the items she requested.
She handed him some money before she turned her attention to the tables and chairs. There were four tables altogether, and two were taken, so she opted for the vacant one that looked the cleanest. She sat down. Sometimes wearing shorts was a liability, like in this case when the cold chair touched the back of her thighs, making her momentarily shiver.
Opening the package of potato chips, she scanned the other people in the small car. At one table, an elderly man read a book, and at another table, a man and a woman sat across from each other and talked.
Though she tried not to listen, their conversation was much more entertaining than staring into the darkness outside the window.
“If you don’t want to check out the Libby dam, that’s okay,” the woman said.
“You didn’t give me a chance to answer the question,” the man replied.
“Ted, it’s okay. We don’t have to go there.”
The man named Ted had his back turned to Megan, but Megan could tell by his stiff posture that his companion annoyed him.
“I was going to say that I want to see it,” he assured her.
“Really?” The woman’s eyes widened, as if she was surprised.
Megan had to admit that the woman had terrific green eyes, unlike Megan’s boring brown ones. Then again, Megan enjoyed being a blond, so she’d have dull brown eyes if it meant she could be a sunny blond. A momentary longing came over her. Her father nicknamed her ‘sunny girl’ when she was a child. She wished he was still alive. Taking a deep breath to steady her emotions, she tuned into the conversation at the other table. Fine. So it made her an eavesdropper. At least it took her mind off missing her father. For some reason, knowing he wasn’t going to be at the wedding to give her away made her want to cry.
The man named Ted set down his soda. “I’ve never been to Montana. It’ll be nice to check out the scenery.”
A huge smile lit up the woman’s face. “Well, great!”
Megan’s attention shifted to the old man as he stood up. He exited the car, leaving the styrofoam cup on the table.
To her surprise, Ted stood up, picked up his wrappers, torn up napkin, and soda cans, and tossed them in the trash. After a glance at the styrofoam cup, he disposed of that too. That was nice of him. It wasn’t often she saw someone cleaning up after someone else. On his way back to his seat, she noted the light stubble on his strong jaw. A blue JIC cap covered most of his brown hair, and he had broad shoulders and narrow waist. Tearing her gaze from him before he noticed her staring at him, she turned her attention back to the bag of chips and finished eating. She shouldn’t be attracted to another man when she was engaged.
After he sat down, he asked his companion, “Where do you want to go?”
The brunette shrugged as she twirled her hair around her index finger. “Where do you want to go?”
“We’ve already done the stuff I want to do. Now it’s your turn.”
“But I’m happy to do whatever you want. I’m not picky.”
Megan bit back her chuckle at his loud sigh.
“Please make a decision,” he softly said. “You used to do that when we were friends.”
“But I’m fine doing anything you want. Really.”
Megan drank the rest of her soda before she got up and placed her items in the trash. It was time to find Mike.
She made her way back to her seat and frowned when she realized that Mike hadn’t returned yet. She wondered where he could be. She tapped her fingernails on the seat next to her. She thought of all the places he might go. He liked the observation lounge. Maybe she’d find him there.
***
Cole found an empty seat and sat in it. He’d been moving all over the train car, finding a place where he could hide out. Once settled into his seat, he pulled out the handheld travel device to make sure everything worked as it should. All he
needed was the password. He glanced at his watch. Thirty minutes outside of Fargo. Taking a deep breath, he noted the tension in his muscles. Drumming his fingers on the armrest, he ran through a list of possible passwords that his employer might plug into the device.
A movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. He glanced up. His breath stuck in his throat. How did Blake Landon track him down? Sliding the device under his jacket, he turned his face to the window, hoping his partner wouldn’t notice him. Cole relaxed as Blake moved further down the aisle.
The kid in the seat across from Cole sneezed.
Blake glanced over his shoulder.
Cole froze. The moment spanned into an agonizing minute as Cole watched Blake frown in his direction. He held his breath, praying that Blake would turn and continue his search down the train car.
But Blake didn’t.
To Cole’s horror, Blake spun on his heel and hastened toward him. Cole jumped out of his seat and rushed down the opposite side of the car, his fingers clenching the device. Password. If I can figure out the password, I can escape! Bumping into an elderly fat man, he shoved him into Blake’s path, giving up on any notion of hiding the device or his disguise as his cap fell off.
A woman sitting in a seat pointed at Cole. “Paul? What’s going on?”
“How would I know?” her companion replied. “Maybe he had the special in the dining car.”
Paul. Paul was Christian’s great-grandfather. Could Paul be the password? As Cole made his way down the coach car, he decided to try it.
In the observation car, Megan peered down at Mike and another woman who appeared to be finding immense satisfaction in exchanging spit. Clearing her throat, she waited for them to notice her. She didn’t have to wait long.
Meant To Be Page 2
