Out of Time (Lovers in Time Series, Book 1): Time Travel Romance

by Marilyn Campbell

  "Did you know Junior Ramey?" Jack asked quickly, before she nodded off.

  Mary Beth raised her head and squinted at him. "What a silly question. Course Ah did. We all went to the same high school... but he was a couple years behind us."

  "We?"

  "He always had the biggest crush on Ginger—most of the boys did—but once, in tenth grade Ah think it was, she agreed ta go ta the movies with him. You see, he was also gonna inherit lots of money one day, so she thought he might be her answer, even though he was younger. She figured she could snag him early but she couldn't stand the sight of him. Even in the dark theater, she knew what he looked like. How could someone who looked like her be seen in public with a creature like him? No matter how much money he would have when his daddy died, it would simply be too embarrassin'."

  Kelly had to restrain herself from reacting to that important bit of news. "I read that Junior was later arrested for breaking into a woman's home. Do you think he might have actually been the Lake Sidney Lanier rapist all along?"

  Mary Beth frowned and shook her head. "Naw. He was always terribly shy with girls and when he did speak to one of us, he was very polite and respectful. Ah remember thinkin' that he would have made someone a good husband... if he hadn't been so hard to look at."

  "Do you know where he is now?"

  Mary Beth held up a finger then stood up and walked over to a desk on the opposite side of the room with more grace than her inebriated condition warranted. "Now Ah know why Ah saved this," she said and brought a booklet back to Kelly. "When our school had its last reunion, they combined several graduatin' classes. They made this up, so everyone would know what everyone else was doin'."

  Jack looked at the booklet without crowding Kelly this time. When Kelly found the paragraph about Beauregard Ramey, Jr., she and Jack received another shock. Junior Ramey was still living in the area and was managing the O'Neill's store in Buford! The plot was getting muddier by the minute.

  Kelly made a note of Junior's home address and phone number then asked, "Just one last question, if you don't mind. Do you think the Ku Klux Klan could have been involved in Jack's frame-up and Junior's being let off on the attempted rape charge?"

  Mary Beth's head popped up with a jerk. She looked panic-stricken. "Ah did not say that. Ah never said that!" She rose to her feet and rubbed her arms as if the room temperature had suddenly dropped. "Y'all had better leave now. Jimmy Joe will be home soon and he would not like it if he knew Ah had company here this afternoon. He gets very unhappy with me when Ah socialize too much."

  Not wanting to run into Jimmy Joe any more than Mary Beth wanted them to, they thanked her for her time and were pulling out of the driveway minutes later.

  "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Kelly asked as she drove down the street.

  "Considering all the thoughts bouncing around my head right now, I'm sure some of them would match up with yours."

  "First, Ramey. What Mary Beth said about him could tie in with the profile of the rapist but when you add in unrequited love for Ginger..."

  "He sounds guilty as hell, on all counts."

  "But now we know for sure that Reid had something huge to gain from Ginger's death."

  "He got all that money and his revenge against me personally. So, we still have two prime suspects, either of whom probably had the clout to have me framed. Back to square one."

  "I was in that store in Buford," Kelly said. "That's where I bought your clothes. Ramey might have even been there when I was there."

  "It doesn't sound like you could have missed him if he was there. It would probably be best if you didn't go back there again though."

  She shot a sideways glance at him. "Why? Because he might think I'm Ginger and try to kill me again?" She pulled into the parking lot of a shopping center, came to a rough halt then lashed out at him. "What kind of game are you playing with me?"

  Chapter 14

  Jack gaped at her. "Wh-what are you talking about?"

  "You did your damnedest to get me to cancel this appointment and now I know why. It wasn't sex. You didn't want me to find out about Ginger, did you?"

  His voice raised in defense. "I have no idea what you're getting at but maybe you'd like to explain about some of those leading questions you were asking. I thought you were convinced that I was innocent."

  "I was! Until I found out that I'm Ginger's mirror image and you just happened not to mention it. What did you do, search the country for a redhead with big tits who was gullible enough to believe anything you said just so you could have some more sack time with your dead lover?"

  He grasped her shoulders and gave her a shake. "Listen to yourself! You're talking crazy."

  She knew he was right but she wasn't entirely wrong. "So what? You lied to me and I don't understand why."

  He loosened his grip on her shoulders but didn't let go. "Tell me how I lied to you." She looked away. "Kelly, how can I explain if I don't know why you're upset? Do you think I lied to you about being electrocuted and traveling through time?"

  She sighed and shook her head. There was too much evidence backing up that part of his story.

  "Do you think I lied about not committing the rapes or Ginger's murder?"

  Again she shook her head. She believed in his innocence even more so after listening to Mary Beth.

  "Then what?" he begged, guiding her face back toward him.

  She met his eyes then lowered her lashes and quietly spelled it out for him. "I thought you wanted me. But it was only because I reminded you of her."

  His expression remained one of pure bewilderment. "How in God's name did you come to that conclusion?"

  She huffed. "I'm very practical, remember? I saw the photos. I heard what Mary Beth said about how it was love at first sight for you and Ginger and how—"

  "Excuse me but if you were really listening to Mary Beth, you would realize she was talking about lust at first sight, not love."

  "What's the difference? The point is when you were with me last night and this morning, it could have been her you were thinking of and that makes me feel like—"

  "Stop this. You're being completely unreasonable. I told you—No, I believe I confessed to you last night what my weaknesses are when it comes to women. I don't see why you're upset now. I was electrocuted and by some weird miracle, I got dropped at your cabin. I didn't pick you out of a line-up of women because you resembled Ginger."

  "I know that," she admitted, though it put a large dent in her accusation.

  "So what if I'm attracted to a certain... appearance? Aren't there certain physical characteristics that attract you to a man?"

  She was losing ground and knew it. "But I look so much like her."

  "Only in a very general way," he said, stroking her cheek. "Do you remember what I said the first day? About you being different from any of the women I knew?" She grudgingly acknowledged that she did. "That wasn't a lie. Yes, when I got a good look at you I noticed the similarities but on every single physical aspect, you outshine her. What was more impressive to me, however, was what I heard coming out of your mouth and how you thought and acted.

  "You heard Mary Beth and she was Ginger's best friend. She was shallow, self-centered, money-hungry and needed a man to lean on."

  Kelly clucked her tongue. "If she was so bad, why did you—" She rolled her eyes. "Never mind. Big boobs, long red hair, who cares about her personality."

  He shrugged sheepishly. "What can I say, I'm a man and most of the women I knew were like her. But I must have known that what attracted me to her wouldn't last because I couldn't bring myself to ask her to marry me."

  Or tell her you loved her, Kelly added to herself, recalling what else Mary Beth had revealed.

  "What it all comes down to is this. I'm attracted to you for more than the obvious reasons. I like you. And you like me. Okay?"

  "I guess, but it still gives me a strange feeling."

  He eased back into the passenger seat. "I see. Well,
I don't know what else I can say. Do you want me to move out?"

  "No! Of course not."

  "Do you want me to go back to keeping my distance?" When she didn't answer immediately, he sighed. "I don't suppose it has occurred to you that you weren't the only one who took a punch in the gut back there."

  "What do you mean?" she asked, her mind still on his previous question.

  "I may not have asked Ginger to marry me but I was pretty nuts about her. The photos Mary Beth took of us on the beach—I kept one of them in my wallet. It was passed around at my trial, as proof that we'd been having an affair. I wasn't exactly doing cartwheels the day she told me she had a husband and preferred to go back to him. But today, I found out her reason for leaving me wasn't even that good. She chose money over me."

  Kelly covered his hand with hers and gave it a sympathetic squeeze. "I'm sorry. You're right. I was only thinking about my feelings. But now that we're talking about yours, there was something you said that I thought you might need to examine. You haven't said much about your parents but from what you have, I've gotten the feeling that you were close. Aren't you curious about whether they're still alive?"

  He slipped his hand away from hers and looked away. "Even if they were, they'd be in their late nineties. My showing up now would hardly be a blessing, unless they were wishing for a heart attack. I have thought about contacting my sister, though." His expression softened with memory. "Shirl's married name was McCoy and they'd had two daughters before I moved away. While I was in jail, she had a baby boy. That's why she couldn't be here for the trial.

  "Anyway, that's how I came up with the idea of a nephew named McCoy; I really do have one out there. But then I thought about how old Shirl would be now and I decided to forget it. If you're right about my having to go back, what good would it do anyone for me to pop in for a few hours then disappear again? Nobody in their right mind would believe my story anyway."

  "I did."

  He grinned. "I'm not sure we've established your sanity yet, Miss Kirkwood."

  "Smartass," she muttered with a smirk. "Just for that, maybe we'll skip the Braves and go to the opera instead."

  He perked up instantly. "I almost forgot about the game. What time is it?"

  "A little after five and that means rush-hour traffic. The game doesn't start until seven but it's clear on the other side of town. How do you feel about a picnic dinner in the car along the way?"

  "Whatever it takes to get us there on time. I don't want to miss a minute."

  Picking up a full chicken dinner without leaving the car led to a discussion of the popularity of drive-thrus.

  Jack emitted a grunt of disapproval. "Everyone seems so obsessed with doing things faster and saving time. What are they saving it for?"

  "Is that a rhetorical question or are you asking my opinion?"

  "Opinion, please."

  "I'd have to say we're saving time on mundane things in order to have time to do whatever we individually find interesting. Since most women work outside the home, a lot of the time-saving is aimed at helping working mothers juggle personal responsibilities with a career."

  "What about you? Are you planning to be a working mother some day?"

  She had once assumed she would eventually have children but she was no longer sure being a mother was in her future. Will certainly hadn't been father material and the idea of raising a child on her own seemed—

  "Hello? Is anybody home?"

  Kelly smiled. "Sorry. I was just thinking—I'm not actually planning on being a mother at all. But even if it happens, it's different for me. I can continue to write without leaving the house on any regular basis. Now I'd like your opinion on something."

  Jack's brows raised with interest. "Anything."

  "Mary Beth said something that I never considered. What do you think about reincarnation?"

  He shrugged. "Buddhist beliefs were being talked about—helped along by the hippies—but I guess my Catholic background was pretty deeply ingrained. Under the circumstances, however, I'm pretty much open to any possibility. I know I'm the original version of Jack Templeton but are you thinking you might have been Ginger O'Neill in a past life?"

  "I know it sounds farfetched. I wouldn't have given it a second thought but that picture of you and Ginger was such a shock—"

  "I told you—"

  "No, no. I'm not talking about that. The weirder part was that I recognized her. Remember how I told you that I was in somebody else's body in those two dreams? It was her. I'm sure of it."

  Jack twisted his mouth from side to side then rubbed his jaw. "Okay. I guess that could fill in some blanks, like how I landed in the exact spot where you just happened to be researching my case. Ginger was dead long before you were born, so that makes it chronologically possible. And since part of the belief has to do with karma, it could be why you're so determined to get me to set things right."

  He paused for a moment of consideration. "But there's one big problem that stops me from accepting it as the whole explanation. If it was all about reincarnation, I would have been reborn after my electrocution, sometime close to your rebirth day, not transported through time."

  Unable to come up with a rational explanation for that, Kelly turned on the radio and chose an oldies station for him.

  "Hey!" he exclaimed as Louie, Louie resounded from speakers all around him. "I know that song! It was a huge hit last year."

  Kelly laughed. "By last year, I assume you mean 1964. Wasn't there some big scandal around it that made it so popular?"

  "Oh yeah. The rumor was that the lyrics were purposely garbled to hide obscenities. It was banned in Indiana but the FCC couldn't confirm the rumors because they couldn't understand the words at any speed."

  She shook her head with another chuckle. "Wait until you hear some of the lyrics to today's songs. Anything goes, from the 'f' bomb and chants to the devil to the virtues of cop killers."

  "That doesn't sound like progress to me," he said, making a face.

  A love song came on next and the mood in the car shifted with the melody. "Do you dance?" she asked, thinking how long it had been since she'd slow-danced with a man. It was her wedding day, a lifetime ago.

  "I can move to the beat."

  "Of that, I have no doubt." She couldn't believe how quickly she could jump back on the sex train. A warm flush colored her face and he brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers.

  "I hope you never stop blushing when your mind goes downhill. It helps me keep up."

  The way her stomach fluttered at his small touch brought her back to an earlier question of Jack's. Did she want him to go back to keeping his distance, or not? His fingers moved to the back of her neck and lightly kneaded. She had her answer.

  "You have a choice. Either you keep your hands to yourself while I'm driving or I pull into the nearest motel and we forget the game."

  He pretended to pout as he withdrew his hand. His lopsided grin let her know he appreciated her admission.

  They arrived at the stadium early enough to get a good parking space, buy a program and souvenir book and observe the players warming up. Kelly's heart swelled as she watched Jack study the program. Wearing his new Detroit Tigers cap, he looked like a little boy, sitting on the edge of his seat.

  But he was certainly no little boy. He was all man. A handsome, hot, hunk of a man who, despite all the things she should be thinking about, had her wondering how long it would be until she could get him naked again. As if reading her mind, he leaned close and whispered in her ear. "I don't know if it will make any difference to you now but last night, when I told you it had never happened for me like that before, that was God's truth. One of my, um, talents was that I never lost control with a woman, including Ginger." He leaned back so she could see the sincerity in his eyes.

  "Really?" she asked unnecessarily.

  He grinned. "Yep. You're the first woman who made me forget my good manners."

  Her mouth curved into a smile and
she gave him a brief kiss. "Thank you."

  "All better?" he asked hopefully.

  "All better. In fact..." She drew his head back down so she could whisper in his ear. "I once wrote this very hot scene where the couple had wild sex in the passenger seat of a sports car. Of course, she had to straddle his lap and do all the work, raising herself up and down and up and down and up and down until they both..." She uttered a low moan into his ear. "But you may not want to do that one since I had that dream of you and Ginger in that position on a chair... But I've always wondered if the sports car-fuck was actually possible."

  Jack burst out laughing, much to the amusement of the people around them. As the pitcher hurled the first ball over home plate, their personal game was restarted.

  At the end of the first inning, he repaid her opening pitch. "Remember what I did when we were in the Johnson's driveway? I'd really like to do that again—put my hand under your skirt and pet that pretty pussy of yours—in public, where anyone might see." He nipped her earlobe. "I can almost feel you getting wet against my fingers. But I'd rather not get thrown out of here. On the other hand, I'm betting if you just think about that..."

  Her little shiver gave him that inning but she was ready with her rebuttal when the teams switched places again. "You were right. Thinking about your fingers inside my panties got me all wet again. But at least no one else can see how turned-on I am. All anyone would have to do is glance at your lap and they would know you're dying for me to unzip your jeans and take that big joystick into my mouth." The way he clenched his jaw in resistance to her words gave her that round.

  By the bottom of the fifth, she simply said the words "peacock feathers". Each time it was his turn, he managed to make her blush and with every one of her suggestions she managed to make him increasingly uncomfortable in his fitted jeans. At the seventh inning stretch, he chose not to stand up with her. She made it worse by leaning down to whisper to him, making sure her breasts nearly spilled out of the top of her sundress an inch from his face.