But now they had one major issue they flat couldn’t figure out how to handle.
Bonnie and Duster would be returning.
Bonnie and Duster were married, but not to each other in this timeline at the moment.
Dixie’s Bonnie was married to a Duster still doing dishes back in the cavern.
Brice’s Duster was married to a Bonnie also doing dishes back in the cavern.
They needed to figure out a way to tell their bosses when they returned.
But mostly, she and Brice had started working on how to meet each other in their own timelines in 2016. They had decided that doing that could very well end up being the hardest thing they had to do when they returned.
Neither could even begin to guess what they would be doing after a year of teaching.
They both knew they were the same person in the other timeline, but they just both hoped their counterparts hadn’t met someone else and gotten married.
If that turned out to be the case, they had worked out a few times to return to and meet and live lifetimes in the past.
But more than anything, they decided they both wanted to be a couple in 2016.
The only problem was convincing the other two parts of themselves in 2016 that was a good idea.
And both of them were sure that their counterparts were going to think the other person completely crazy. Just as they both had thought Bonnie and Duster crazy when they told them of the lodge.
It was just after eight in the evening, as they sat talking about how to make their future selves fall in love that a knock came at the door.
In over a full month, that had been the first time that had happened.
Brice grabbed his journal and dinner tray and moved quickly to the bedroom area.
“Who is it?” Dixie asked, moving toward the big door to the hallway. She could feel her stomach twisting. Had someone discovered them and were they going to be tossed out of the hotel?
Or something worse?
“It’s Bonnie,” the voice said from the other side of the door.
Dixie laughed and looked back at Brice who only shrugged and smiled.
It seemed it was time to face the boss, at least her boss.
Dixie moved over to the door and unlatched it, then looked out carefully at Bonnie, who smiled.
There was no one in the wide hallway behind Bonnie, so Dixie indicated Bonnie should come in.
Bonnie looked tired and dusty. She had on her riding clothes and clearly had just arrived, since her saddlebag was still in her hand.
Dixie quickly closed the door behind Bonnie and latched it, then hugged her boss.
“Great seeing you as well,” Bonnie said, smiling. “How did it go? Are you all right?”
“I’m wonderful and we made progress on the lodge problem,” Dixie said. “I think we have it solved.”
“Wonderful!” Bonnie said, smiling. Then it clearly sunk in what Dixie had said.
“We?”
Dixie nodded. “I had a little help.”
“In 1901 you had higher level math help?” Bonnie asked, a worried and puzzled look crossing her tired face.
“Did you know,” Dixie said, smiling at her boss and friend, “that in other timelines in 2016, you didn’t hire me. You hired a wonderful man by the name of Brice Lincoln.”
“I know,” Bonnie said, still frowning. “It was basically a coin flip between the two of you. How did you know that?”
Dixie could see the light starting to dawn on Bonnie.
“Nice meeting you, boss,” Brice said, stepping out of the back room behind Bonnie. He was wearing only his running shorts and tee shirt and looked like he was completely from 2016. “I’m the guy that lost the coin flip in your timeline and seemed to have won it in others.”
Bonnie spun around.
Then when she saw him she said simply, “Shit.”
Dixie laughed. “That’s exactly what I said when I realized who he was.”
“I think I’m starting to get a complex,” Brice said, smiling.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
September 26, 1901
Brice’s Timeline
THEY CONVINCED BONNIE to go get a bath and some sleep and they would talk about it at breakfast.
Dixie had said to her, “We worked out the reason mathematically this happened. We’ll explain it all, honest.”
“Is your Duster back yet?” Bonnie had asked Brice.
“Not yet,” Brice said. “You get to be the first one to hear all this.”
Bonnie had nodded and said she would meet them at breakfast.
After Bonnie left, Brice and Dixie sat in the living room area, her tucked against him, talking. He loved that she was sitting beside him like this, her legs curled up, the side of her face against his chest. He didn’t want to lose this, and right now, for the first time, he was afraid he might.
Dixie was clearly thinking the same thing. “I don’t want to lose you,” she said, hugging him.
“We might be able to just talk Bonnie and Duster into staying for a lifetime,” Brice said. “They’ve clearly done that a number of times.”
“So you want to spend a lifetime with me?” Dixie asked.
“As many lifetimes as I can manage,” Brice said, surprised that he felt that strongly. “Either in our timelines or back here the two of us.”
“I agree completely,” she said, again hugging him.
They spent the next hour setting exact times to return to the past and locations in the crystal room to hook to on the wall in order to increase the chances of hitting the same timeline again.
Brice knew their chances were very good to spend time together that way, lifetimes together.
But what he was worried about was Dixie convincing her future Brice to join her while he failed at convincing his future Dixie.
Dixie said she was worried about the same thing, only the other way around.
They finally decided if that happened, they would still return to a point in the past and meet to at least tell the other person what happened. But the thought of that made Brice really sad.
He was in love with a person in his own time that he hadn’t met yet. The Dixie of his time might not love him. He knew that in an infinite number of universes, she wouldn’t.
And in an infinite number of timelines she would.
Nothing was for sure when it came to relationships. And that scared him more than he wanted to think about.
They finally went to bed and made love passionately, as if it might be their last time.
And then the next morning, he went back to his own suite, changed clothes, and went down to the dining room first as he had done for a month.
A few minutes later Dixie joined him. And right behind her came Bonnie.
Brice had tipped the waiter to not seat anyone close to them so they could talk. So after they were all seated, Dixie asked Bonnie, “How was your trip to San Francisco?”
“It was wonderful and sad,” Bonnie said, a haunted look in her eyes. “I didn’t want to leave. I never do.”
Brice glanced at Dixie who was frowning. “I assume that’s not something you want to talk about just yet.”
“Maybe never,” Bonnie said as the waiter came up to take their order.
After he was out of earshot, Bonnie looked first at Dixie, then at Brice. “So tell me how this happened?”
Together they relayed the events of their first five days and how Dixie had seen Brice working on the math in his journal.
“And you’ve been a couple ever since I assume,” Bonnie said.
“We have,” Brice said, smiling.
“We were very careful,” Dixie said.
Bonnie laughed. “I’m sure you were. But I’m sure all the hotel staff knew what was happening. You will discover that people are people no matter what time. And western people in this time were very forgiving of some things for a certain class of people.”
Dixie blushed and Brice just laughed. He still loved how Dixie
blushed at the drop of a hat. Actually, he loved just about everything about her.
“So after breakfast you want to show me the math on all this?” Bonnie asked, “Or wait until we get back?”
“I think showing it to you now, together, would be a good idea,” Dixie said.
“And also showing it to Duster when he gets here,” Brice said. “When we go back, we won’t be together.”
“I agree,” Dixie said. “Since we worked this out together, better to present it together.”
Bonnie nodded. Then after the waiter brought their coffee, she looked at both of them. “Have you thought what you are going to do when you get back?”
Dixie looked at Brice and he nodded and answered her question.
“We have,” he said. “And we are hoping you will hire the loser of the coin flip in both timelines. So we can continue to work together.”
“And if that person won’t come on board?” Bonnie asked.
“Then we will meet here if you don’t mind,” Dixie said, “in the past, and be together as much as we can, as many years, as many lifetimes, as we can be.”
At that Bonnie smiled and patted Brice’s hand. “I think we can make the offer good enough that you’ll come work for us and with Dixie.”
“Thanks,” Brice said. “But I have a hunch it might not take much more than a smile from Dixie.”
Dixie blushed and Bonnie laughed.
Bonnie then looked at Dixie. “He’s a romantic. Who knew?”
And at that Brice could feel himself blushing.
CHAPTER THIRTY
October 4th, 1901
Dixie’s Timeline
“FIGURES THAT DUSTER would push the limits of when he could return,” Bonnie said at breakfast as the three of them sat at their normal table. For Dixie, the last week or so since Bonnie showed up had been wonderful.
The three of them ate meals together and then after breakfast they worked on the math of the various issues facing them.
Then they had lunch together and worked through the afternoon as well.
For the first time, Dixie was seeing how amazing Bonnie’s math mind really was. And during the week Bonnie had helped them fine-tune a number of theories.
Then Bonnie would leave them and let Dixie and Brice have their dinner together and the evening alone.
Dixie had loved those evenings as well as they talked about everything they could think to tell the other person about their lives to help that person when they went back to 2016.
But after a few days they had decided that the best way to get the other person on board was the Roosevelt Lodge, just as Bonnie and Duster had done.
They asked Bonnie and she agreed.
So by breakfast that morning they had their plan worked out.
“What do you mean push the limits?” Dixie had asked after the waiter left from delivering their coffee.
“It’s going to snow in the mountains around Silver City in three days,” Bonnie said. “Makes getting back in there tough after that.”
“Not that tough,” Duster said as he walked up toward them, smiling.
Dixie was surprised and pushed back slightly from the table.
Brice looked surprised as well.
Duster had on his normal suit and vest and the long oilcloth duster and cowboy hat. He looked freshly bathed and as if he had a night’s sleep.
He leaned over and kissed Bonnie on the cheek and then sat down in the empty chair as the three of them stared at him.
“What? You weren’t expecting me?” Duster said to Brice, who still looked stunned. “I got in late last night, didn’t want to bother you.”
Then he turned to Bonnie. “What made you decide to join the fun and who is this wonderful young woman who has joined us?”
Dixie reached out her hand and shook Duster’s firm hand. “I’m Dixie Smith. Remember, I lost the coin flip and you hired Brice here.”
Duster opened his mouth to say something, then closed it as a look of puzzlement came over his face.
Dixie knew that Duster suddenly not only remembered her, but realized that Bonnie, in just over two minutes, could not have brought Dixie to the past.
Bonnie laughed, but said nothing, just letting Duster figure it out for himself.
Duster waited as the waiter brought him a cup of coffee as well, then leaned forward. “I think a few words on what the hell is happening might be helpful.”
Dixie and Brice both just eased back slightly from the table. Dixie figured it was time for the grown-ups to talk.
Now Bonnie really laughed. Then she smiled at Duster and said, “Thank you for the nice greeting kiss, but the woman you meant that for I understand is back doing dishes in the mine in your timeline. I promise to not tell my husband, who also claims he would do the dishes in my timeline while we were gone.”
Duster looked at Dixie and she smiled. Then he looked at Brice who only shrugged.
Then Duster said simply, “Oh, shit.”
“That’s it,” Brice said. “I now officially have a complex.”
Dixie and Bonnie both laughed. Dixie so wanted to go kiss Brice, but remembering what year she was in, she just sat there and smiled at him.
“This is all a good thing,” Bonnie said, smiling at Duster, who looked flat-out confused. “Not only together have they mathematically solved our lodge problem while we were off traveling this last month, but they also explained mathematically how all this could happen. The equation alone fills pages of their journals.”
Duster just nodded.
“And they came up with a few other nifty things,” Bonnie said, “we might want to play with when we go back and can crunch some numbers on a major computer or two.”
Duster just shook his head and sat back, obviously trying to clear his head and think.
Dixie remembered that feeling after she had realized who Brice actually was.
Finally Duster looked at Brice. “I assume you two are a couple, right?”
He indicated Dixie with a nod.
Dixie smiled at the man she had fallen in love with over the last month as he smiled at her.
“We are,” Brice said, turning to face Duster. “As much as two people can be in love who are not from the same timelines.”
“They hope to solve that problem when we all return,” Bonnie said.
Duster nodded and looked at Bonnie, then at Dixie. She could see a slight smile forming on his face.
Duster turned to Brice. “I take you into the past and leave you for a month and what happens? You change a few billion timelines.”
“For the better I hope,” Brice said, smiling back at his boss.
“Sure looks that way,” Duster said, laughing.
Then he turned to Bonnie. “I suppose this means we’re hiring another assistant in a massive number of timelines?”
Bonnie nodded. “Think of it more as us being mentors for a short time. I have a hunch these two together are going to leave us in the dust mathematically.”
“That good, huh?” Duster said.
Bonnie nodded. “That good. Wait until you see the equations these two came up with here in 1901 in journals.”
Dixie smiled and could feel herself blushing.
And across the table from her, Brice was smiling and blushing as well.
Now he and Dixie just had to figure out a way to make sure they were a couple in 2016.
And to do that, they had to meet again.
And fall in love again.
Twice.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
October 6th, 1901
Brice’s Timeline
“EVERYONE READY?” DUSTER asked from beside the brown mare he was going to be riding. The sun hadn’t come up yet and the morning was cool and damp. They were outside the stable behind the hotel and Dixie was already mounted. Brice mounted up and then turned to wait for Duster to pay the bill with the stable and tip the man who took care of the horses.
They had decided to not take much of the clothi
ng they had bought, just a few of the suits and each woman had a few of the dresses, all packed in saddlebags they could carry.
Around Brice the trees along a few of the wide side streets were already turning fall colors or orange and gold and browns. He looked up at the four corner towers of the red brick and stone Idanha Hotel and knew, without a doubt, he was going to miss the place.
He had really fallen in love for the first time in this hotel. That made the hotel a very special place that would always remain special in his mind for as long as he lived.
When he got back to the present, he would have to go downtown and see how they did with the renovation.
“It’s actually getting cold out here,” Bonnie said.
“It is,” Dixie said.
Brice didn’t mind. After being so warm for the last two months, being able to bundle up and be slightly chilled felt almost good. And he knew he was going back into early July heat in 2016. So being chilled for a little bit felt right.
Duster mounted up and indicated they should start down the nearly empty street headed west.
Brice looked over at Dixie who was looking up at the hotel as he had done.
“We’ll be back,” he said.
“I know,” she said, smiling at him. “I might be with a different Brice and you with a different Dixie, but we’ll be back.”
“It’s still us,” Brice said. “That’s the key to remember. We are the same in every timeline.”
She nodded and said nothing.
She looked as worried as he was feeling.
Taking a break every hour, they rode easily for the first day, not pushing.
Brice was surprised that the saddle and riding wasn’t bothering him as much this time. He mentioned that to Bonnie on one break and Bonnie had said it was because they were riding flat and that Brice had had two days of riding on the way here to get the muscles toned some.
Mostly, when the road allowed, he rode beside Dixie, but they didn’t talk much. They both just wanted to be close to each other as long as they could.
Smith's Monthly #12 Page 17
