Sierra's Homecoming
Page 23
Then, smiling, she sat down to write.
Present Day
Travis lay sprawled on his stomach in Sierra’s bed, sound asleep. She sat up beside him, stroked his bare back once with a gentle pass of her hand. In the three days since he’d moved out of the trailer, he’d been back several times, on one pretext or another. Finally Meg had packed some of her things and some of Liam’s, and the two of them had gone to stay in town with friends of hers.
“You two really need some time alone,” she’d said, with a wicked grin lighting her eyes.
Sierra smiled down at Travis. So far they’d made good use of that time alone. They’d talked a lot, in between bouts of lovemaking, and they still had plenty to say to each other—maybe enough to last a lifetime.
She switched on the lamp, took Hannah’s remembrance book from the bedside table, and opened it. Her eyes widened, and she drew in a breath.
Beneath her own entry, in the same stately, faded writing as before, Hannah had written:
It’s nice to know there’s another woman in the house, even if I can’t see or hear you, most of the time. We must be family, since your name is McKettrick. Maybe you’re descended from us, from Doss and me. I told my son, Tobias, that your name is Sierra. He said that was pretty, and he’d like the new baby to be called that, too, if it’s a girl…
There was more, but Sierra couldn’t read it, because her eyes were blurred with tears of amazement. She bounded out of bed, not caring if she awakened Travis, and hurried downstairs, switching on lights as she went. She had the album out and was flipping through the pages at the middle when he joined her, blinking and shirtless, with his jeans misbuttoned.
“What’s going on?” he asked, yawning.
Sierra’s heart thumped at the base of her throat.
She forced herself to slow down, turn the pages gently. And then she found what she was looking for—an old, old photograph of two children, smiling for the camera lens. The little boy she’d seen in Liam’s room, with Hannah, holding a baby wearing a long, lacy gown.
Beneath the picture, Hannah had written Tobias’s name and the baby’s.
Sierra Elizabeth McKettrick.
Sierra put a hand to her mouth and gasped.
Travis drew closer. “Sierra—”
“Look at this,” Sierra said, stabbing at the image with one finger. “What do you see?”
Travis frowned. “An old picture of two kids.”
“Look at the baby’s name.”
“Sierra. You must have been named for her.”
“I think she was named for me,” Sierra said.
“How could she be named for you?”
“Sit down,” Sierra told him. She reached for Hannah’s remembrance book, offered it when he was seated. “Read this.”
He read. Looked up at her with wide eyes. “You don’t really think—”
“That I’ve been communicating with a woman who lived in this house in 1919, and probably for years after that? Yes, Travis, that is exactly what I think!”
“But, how?”
“You said it yourself, when I first got here. Strange things happen in this house.”
“This is beyond strange. Are you going to tell anybody else about this?”
“Mother and Meg,” Sierra said. “Liam, too, when he’s a little older.”
He reached for her hand, wove his fingers through hers, squeezed. “And me. You told me, Sierra.”
“Well, yeah.”
“You must trust me.”
She grinned. “You’re right,” she said. “I must trust you a whole lot, Travis Reid.”
“Can we go back to bed now?”
She closed the album and tucked Hannah’s remembrance book carefully inside. “Race you!” she cried, and dashed for the stairs.
ISBN: 978-1-55254-733-5
SIERRA’S HOMECOMING
Copyright © 2006 by Linda Lael Miller
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