by Bella Street
Lani. Her sparkling eyes were at odds with the thumping in his head.
Next to him, Addison sat up, rubbing her face and looking as groggy as he felt. “Holy hell, they did it. But how do we know if we're in the right time-line?”
Lani's smile faded. “I don't know.”
“Let's go to our house,” Gareth said. “Maybe Seffy is there waiting for us.”
Addison stared at him, her face pale.
He shook his head in confusion. “What?”
“Gareth.”
He got to his feet. After helping Addison up, he led the way to their house.
As they passed all the people, the cars, the houses, everything he thought he'd never see again, he wondered why anxiety still sat in his gut like a lead ball.
Things were looking up. They seemed to be in the right place. They were away from the godawful compound, with its Fenns and Fionas and Eugenes and circular hallways.
And other things. He scowled as Trent came to mind.
Fifteen minutes later he was striding up the ivy-draped steps to their Elysian Park house.
He tried the door and was surprised it was unlocked.
Inside, he called out for Seffy. On the small table next to the front door, he saw the house key.
Addison hurried past him and ran up the stairs to the bedrooms. He looked around the living room while Lani peeked in the bathroom.
“Everything's exactly as we left it,” she said. “God, it's good to be home!”
“Yeah,” he said distractedly. He went to the bottom of the stairs. “Is she up there?”
“No.” Addison came trotting down the steps, her face a mask of frustration. “This is our place though. This is our time. Things are the way I left them before we ended up in the desert.”
She headed to the kitchen. Gareth followed.
“Omigoodness, a note!”
Addison said something to the same effect, but it didn't make sense because Lani was sliding something out of her back pocket as Addison was pulling a piece of paper off the fridge.
“It's from Malone!” Lani covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes tearing up as she scanned a piece of paper.
She folded the note with shaking hands and returned it to her pocket. “I was right. He does love me.”
And yet her stark expression didn't match her words.
“Gareth,” Addy said in a low voice. She showed him the paper she held.
He read the words.
Down but not out. See you in another time.
I hope.
S
“What does it mean?”
“I'm not sure,” the redhead said carefully, “but I think it means she won't be coming back to be with us here.”
“Why? She was obviously here just a little while ago.”
Addison blew out a breath. “I'm trying here, I'm really trying, but Gareth can you really be in that level of denial?”
“The TV works!” Lani said, her voice wobbly as if she was looking for a distraction. When she turned to them, she said, “I just wanted to make sure the electricity hadn't been shut off.”
Addison released another sigh. “I'm pretty sure we were 'gone' just the one day on this timeline.”
“Oh.” She turned back to the TV and began flipping through the channels.
“Addison,” Gareth said in a near-whisper, “I'm sorry I don't seem to be following all your hints and clues. Why don't you just come out and say it?”
“Omigod!” Lani exclaimed. “You guys, come here! Look what's on the news!”
Addison took the out and went around him. At length, he followed. The girls stood in front of the TV screen, which showed a fiery cloud of billowing smoke.
“Guys, this is the tanning salon where Seffy and Verity always went. They're saying there was some kind of explosion.” Lani looked up at Gareth. “How weird is that?”
Addison's eyes grew large in her face.
Gareth spun on his heel and ran back into the kitchen. He grabbed his car keys off the hook and burst out the back door to the alley. By the time he fired up the Saab, both girls were inside, latching their seatbelts.
The trip to the tanning salon was surreal. All he could think of was the knowledge that Seffy had been at the salon when she first time-traveled. And it had been the portal when she'd returned from the tangent.
This just couldn't be a coincidence, could it?
Because much of the area was blocked off, they couldn't get close enough to park. Unexplained adrenaline surging through his system, Gareth maneuvered the car onto someone's lawn and jumped out onto the sidewalk.
The girls followed, and together they rushed to where the fire department had cordoned off the area.
One fireman was talking to a reporter with a camera trained on his face. “Preliminary reports are showing a wiring issue was the problem, but we won't know for sure until an extensive investigation is completed.”
“But why the explosion if it was started by a simple electrical fire?”
“Again, we can't be sure until further investigation. There might be many factors contributing to the explosions. There were oxygen tanks on the premises as the owners had started an oxygen bar on site. Tanning beds with burned out lights or bad wiring, or compressors used for the spray-on tanning could also be a factor.”
“Was anyone hurt in the explosion?”
“We'll have to get the fire under control before we can be sure. But witnesses have told us a woman in a pink tracksuit came in the salon and told them to leave the building because a man was there with a gun. Because of this most, if not, all of the clients escaped the blast.”
Lani gasped. “No way.”
Gareth felt like someone had taken a two by four to the back of his head.
“A lot of people wear pink tracksuits,” Lani said, her breath coming in short puffs.
He looked at Addison. Her pinched face said it all. She knew. Son of a bitch, she knew and hadn't told him.
He turned and walked closer to the cordon, searching through the billows of smoke for some figure to emerge.
Broken glass crunched under his feet, the acrid smell of smoke burned his lungs.
Where was she? Why would she decide to get a tan the moment she got home? Where was Verity?
A metallic sound under his shoe caught his attention. He looked down and his heart skipped a series of beats. An encrusted gold necklace glittered in the flashing red and blue lights of the engine trucks. He gingerly lifted it off the ground and could only stare at the pink J—many of its rhinestones now missing. A small key had fused onto the back of the zipper pull. The wedding ring was gone.
Gareth slipped the necklace into his pocket and walked back to the girls, disconnected from the noise and chaos around him—as disconnected as if he were in a whole other time.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The day was too sunny for a funeral. Too bright, with too many birds swooping among the trees, singing their songs as if their hearts would break.
Despite conclusive DNA evidence that Seffy's body was among the blast's victims, he still could not comprehend she was gone. He understood the how. Just not the why.
There had been one other victim. A female. But the DNA testing had been inconclusive. Verity had left no identification, no paperwork, and no dental or hospital records came up when they tried to make a match.
It was like she never existed.
But there was no doubt in his mind Verity was the second victim. Seffy had told him what happened in the tangent universe. That had to be the reason why she went to the tanning salon. But had she been trying to get back to Montana? That was the part that still didn't make sense.
That and the fact she was dead.
Addison came abreast of him, her head down. “Everyone's gone,” she said quietly.
Gareth looked up as cars began to pull away from the side of the road. He hadn't been able to speak or give any kind of eulogy.
There had been no family to alert. The do
ctors and staff at the clinic where Seffy had worked showed up, and with them an impressive floral display.
A few of his friends from the Gap attended, along with some people from the gym and spa. But that was about it.
He'd noticed a small blonde middle-aged woman who remained at the outer edges of the service, crying into a handkerchief.
He closed his eyes, wondering how his heart and lungs continued to perform. How his muscles kept him upright. “I could've done more for her. I tried, and she resisted, but I could've tried harder.”
“She made her own decisions, Gareth.”
He shook his head, wondering if he would ever be free of the guilt that he was somehow responsible. “I tried so hard to protect her. It's all I ever wanted.”
Lani wiped her streaming eyes. “I miss her so much. She was so sweet at the end, telling me what a good friend I was.”
“She knew,” Addison said in a low voice. “I think that was her way of saying goodbye.”
“How could she have known?” Gareth asked, discouraged because the answers remained beyond his reach.
“I think it had something to do with correcting the time-line. I'm pretty sure she was in some kind of collusion with Fenn.”
“I doubt Seffy would knowingly go to her death for a time-line correction, Addy.”
“Gareth, we've been over this. There have to be other elements we simply don't know about. And I can pretty much guarantee they had more to do with Trent than anything else. He was what motivated her.”
Gareth shoved his hands in his pockets, wishing Addison would stop rubbing his nose in Seffy's marriage.
“I would do anything for Malone,” Lani said on a hiccup. She turned her tear-stained face toward them. “In fact, in that note I found in my pocket, he said he wanted me after all. But the tragedy is I can't go to him. I'm stuck here.”
Gareth refrained from rolling his eyes. He sent a sidelong glance at Addison. “What about you? You have some crush on a guy that you'd be willing to waste your life on?”
“Gareth,” Lani groused.
Addison turned her mossy green eyes up to his, her expression sad. “Maybe.”
Gareth sighed. What had happened to their group? Where would they go from here? Would their paths diverge? Or were they bound forever by dark secrets and disappointments?
He felt the chain and pendants in his pocket and pulled it out. The bright sunlight brought out sparkles despite its damaged appearance.
“Where did you get that?” Lani said on a gasp.
“I found it on the ground near the scene of the blast.”
“Are you sure it's Seffy's?”
“Yes, it has the rhinestone J zipper pull and the same key I saw on it back when we were still in Montana. The only thing missing is Trent's wedding band.”
“Oh, my God.”
Addison frowned. “Why didn't you tell us earlier?”
“I didn't know how.” He walked over to the floral display. There was no grave. No urn. Just a place on a marble wall where her name would later be etched next to a flower holder. He draped the necklace on the display and stared at the last remnants of the girl he loved.
But apparently not enough.
Addison stepped forward and tucked a bunch of poppies in with the other flowers. Lani walked over to add her bouquet of lilies. The girls had chosen what flowers they wanted to bring.
He'd purchased the space on the marble. It was somehow easier than flowers.
Gareth touched Addison's back, ready to go home. He looked behind for Lani and saw her fussing with the lilies in the display.
As he tuned back, a flash of gold caught his attention. Lani slipped her hand in her pocket and quickly joined them.
When she saw him watching, she lifted her chin. “A girl can dream, can't she?”
Epilogue
1997
“Look who I found!”
Sera sent a shy glance at the gregarious brunette herding her toward a redheaded girl and boy-band-handsome guy who sat at one of the long cafeteria tables populated by about a hundred noisy high-schoolers.
The boy smiled at her as she arrived at the table. “Who did you find?” he asked the brunette.
“The new girl! Today is her first day. I'm introducing her to everyone.”
The redhead sent a polite smile and scooted closer to the boy. “That won't take too long in a school this size.”
The brunette pointed to her chest. “Like I said, I'm Lisa, and that's Amy and Gary. Guys, this is Sera!”
“It's great to meet you,” Sera said, setting her tray on the table and easing down onto the bench. Her nervous fingers went to the rhinestone J zipper pull of her hoodie.
Lisa sat on the other side of Gary and clasped her hands under her chin. “So, tell us everything about you.”
“Um...”
“Love your tracksuit,” Amy said. “What's it made out of? Velvet?”
Sera lowered her hand from the zipper pull. “Velour. It's a Juicy Couture.”
“Whoa. I've never seen anything like that.”
“It's from my great aunt for my birthday. She's a doctor in L.A. and likes to say she's ahead of the times.”
“I love it,” Lisa said. “I hate the grunge look right now. Not nearly enough pastels!”
“That's because you're still stuck in the 80s,” Amy said, wryly. “Especially the movies and music.”
Gary smiled. “I tried to get Lisa to come to the Pearl Jam concert with me and Amy, but she turned up her nose. Can you imagine?”
“Maybe if Vedder wore leg warmers.” Amy said and snorted.
Lisa shook her head, unaffected. “Silly people. So what kind of music do you like, Sera?”
“I—”
“My favorite soundtrack of all time is Zannytu,” Lisa said, her blue eyes alight.
Sera kept her face as expressionless as possible. “Yeah, that's my mom's favorite movie, too.”
Amy raised a brow. “Just like I said...”
Lisa ignored her friend. “Really! That's so cool! Do you like the music? Do you like to sing?”
Finally a safe topic. “I love to sing.”
“Omigosh, you have to join choir. It's so much fun.”
“Nerd alert,” Amy quipped.
“Go easy, girl,” Gary said. He looked at Sera, his face darkening slightly. “You can join any group you want. I'm in the chess and science clubs.”
“You're the president of both,” Lisa said. “And the football coach is begging you to try out for the team. I don't know why you're so humble about your accomplishments!”
Gary sent an embarrassed smile to Amy. “If I make the football team, you have to try out for cheerleader.”
The redhead rolled her eyes. Then she focused on someone across the room. “Oh, great. Look who's here.”
Sera followed her gaze and saw a striking boy enter the room, flanked by two other boys—all wearing flannel shirts and ripped jeans, and looking like trouble.
“I don't get why he hangs out with those guys now,” Lisa said. “He was a good student last year.”
“And now he's a couple F's away from getting expelled,” Addison said.
The middle boy paused mid-step when he saw Sera.
With his unkempt dark blond hair and intense expression, he wasn't so much a heart-throb like Gary. More like heart-pounding. And apparently he wasn't Mr. Popular if Amy's tone was any indication.
He resumed making his way in her direction, never taking his eyes off her...until he tripped over someone's shoe and landed on the floor.
Sera pressed a hand to her mouth to stop a laugh as he righted himself with huffy movements. His friends snickered, then peeled away to join the lunch line.
“Serves him right,” Addison quipped. “Oh...crap, he's coming to our table.”
“He must want to meet the new girl, too,” Lani said. “He's really not that bad, Sera. We've known him since first grade.”
“Past Trent is not the problem,” Addiso
n said. “Present Trent has turned into a real piece of work.”
The boy in question plopped down beside Sera on the table bench. “They put the whammy on me and made me fall.”
“Who?” she ventured, feeling a little less nervous after seeing his clumsy display.
“The lunch ladies,” he said, as if it were obvious. “Everyone knows they're evil.” He peered at her with gray eyes. “You're new.”
“Way to make an entrance, Ellison,” Gary said, apparently not amused.
Sera wondered if she should be concerned at the newcomer's continued perusal. But he didn't seem dangerous. And he was really, really cute.
Before she could offer her name, Amy spoke up. “This is Sera. Be nice to her. Sera, meet Trent.”
Sera straightened. “Trent?” Her dad once told her that was a name they'd considered if she'd been a boy as it was one of his favorites.
“What?” he said, his gaze curious. “You don't like my name?”
She cleared her throat. “It's nice to meet you, Trent.”
He leaned close. “Don't believe anything these guys told you about me. All lies.”
“Uh, they didn't really—”
“You're done here, right?”
“What?”
“You're done eating? I can show you around, you being new and all.” He lowered his voice as he stood. “And we can ditch these guys.”
“Classy, Trent,” Amy said.
Sera glanced at her uneaten salad. Then back at her new friends.
“He's only kidding,” Lisa said. “And he really does know his way around.”
“Must be from all those hours of detention,” Amy said, earning a dark look from Trent. She sent him a squinty smile. “Have fun 'showing her around.'”
Sera sensed a dismissal in the air, so she got up.
Gary jerked his head toward Trent. “Watch out, he bites.”
Trent didn't disagree as she headed out of the cafeteria with him. Sera hoped it wasn't rude to just leave like that, but she found herself compelled to follow.
He waved to a couple of girls who wore hairnets and plastic gloves as they helped serve lunch to the other students. “Cindy and Emily. Lookin' good.”
