Lightning Only Strikes Twice (12 page)

Annie closed her eyes and put her hands over her face. In one short month, an ancestor she’d never met would be born. She’d see her great-grandfather as an infant. How could any of this be possible?

Luke touched her arm. “Are you all right?”

She shook her head. “I feel dizzy again,” she said. “Every time I think about what you’ve said, about me—us, going back in time…” She dropped her hands as her whole body began to shake. “I’m overcome with this strange vertigo.”

He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Come over here and sit down.”

Warmth curled inside her as he guided her to an old stump. She didn’t know what was happening to her and she hated feeling so frail.

He lowered her to the stump. “I’ve experienced the same dizziness you’ve described,” he said crouching beside her.

“Does it go away?”

“It hasn’t for me. It’s been constant since I arrived.” He chuckled. “That’s why I regularly visit the doctor’s office.”

“Has he been able to help? Can he make it go away?”

Luke stared out through the trees. “No. I’ve never actually told him about the vertigo. He thinks I’m addicted to his coffee and, oddly enough, it seems to help. I know Doc suspects something, though. I can tell by the some of the comments he’s made. So far, he’s kept his questions to himself.” He frowned. “Now that you’re here, I’m afraid he’ll become more suspicious.”

“But you told him I came to White Rock to locate my relatives.”

“He found you right here in the grove,” Luke said. “Just like Paul found me.”

Annie looked at the tree. “Over there?”

Luke nodded. “That’s why I brought you here. To see if you remembered anything else.”

“I don’t know if I can think straight, let alone recall what happened.” She shook her head. “Don’t you remember?”

“No. It took me days to grasp what I experienced,” he said. “Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I’m disoriented. I have to remind myself I’m not in my own house. Or my own time.”

“What are we going to do?” She couldn’t stay here.
They
couldn’t stay here. They didn’t belong in this time.

He took her hands carefully in his. His long fingers curled to touch the inside of her palms.

She felt a slight tremor in him, but as he held her, his trembling stopped.

Her
trembling stopped. A sense of calm settled over her.

She lifted her gaze. “This is a punishment for us,” she said. “Isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

She smiled at her thought. “You. Me. This.” She freed a hand and gestured toward the mill. “We’re here because we’re supposed to learn what life was really like in this time.”

He sat back on his heels. “You think so?”

“Maybe this is to prove to you that the town was worth remembering and shouldn’t be bulldozed into oblivion,” she said.

He looked surprised at her assessment.

“I’m right, aren’t I? Hasn’t life been simpler here?”

“Oh, it’s simple all right.” He stood and brushed off his pants. “The first couple of weeks were survival at its very basic. Sheer hell!”

She gazed at the stubble on his chin. His face tanned from hours in the sun. She wondered if he knew how well his innate ruggedness blended with the primitive environment.

“You said Paul found you. Didn’t he take you in, like he’s done for me?”

“Not at first,” Luke explained. “He thought I had lost my mind. I spent the first three days in the jail because they thought I was a drunk. When I finally accepted what had happened, however crazy it seemed, I decided to keep a low profile until I could confirm my suspicions.”

“How’d you do that?” Annie asked.

“I hitched a ride to Boise—”

“You’ve been to Boise?” She stood. “I want to go!”

“It takes almost three days, over treacherous mountain passes, to get to the city. It’s not what you think, Annie. It is not the Boise we know.”

“How did going there confirm your suspicions?”

“The city was celebrating the first anniversary of statehood,” Luke said. “Remember your history? Idaho received statehood in 1890.”

The dizziness started again. Not as intense, but still strong enough to force her to sit.

History had only been a so-so subject in school. It always seemed too impersonal. She had liked the way her grandfather told it. “Why didn’t you stay in Boise?” she asked. “Surely it would have been easier to make a living there.”

“I was tempted,” Luke admitted. “Boise is more modernized than White Rock. It wouldn’t have been as hard to blend in. Except, I was drawn to White Rock. I realized if I had truly traveled back in time, that maybe I could still find a way home. If I stood a chance of returning, the logical place to live was where the incident occurred.”

He crossed to the pine tree and stared up at it as though it held the answers to their dilemma. “Before I left Boise, I set up an account with the little money I earned working in the livery. I invested in a few stocks. Over the last couple of months, it’s turned a small profit. It will provide some income if history stays on track and White Rock’s mining goes bust.”

“We could prevent that from happening.”

He spun around. “No. We can’t.” Crossing to her, he crouched down, an intense gleam in his eyes. “I don’t think we can change
anything
that happened here. This community is fated to live out its history. Exactly like it did the first time.”

She cocked her head. “How can you be so sure?”

“The mineral vein played out. I can’t change that fact.” His expression turned somber. “While we’re on the subject, there’s something else.”

“What’s that?”

“I may have made a mistake by going to Boise like I did. I can’t change what I did then, but going forward, we can’t act on anything we know about the future. What you know about this town’s past, your family’s past, you have to keep secret. Can you do that?”

Annie thought she understood what he was asking. “You mean if I say something, besides being sent to the crazy house, it might destroy…what? The timeline?” She tugged on the cotton-polyester material of her slacks. “Haven’t we already done that?”

“I’m not sure. That’s why we need to be careful. I’m hoping if we’ve triggered anything, that it’s not critical. Otherwise, I think we’d have felt more serious effects than headaches and dizziness. From now on, we have to blend in.”

“What am I supposed to do for a living? If I remember my history correctly, there weren’t that many occupations for women in mining communities that didn’t involve slinging mugs or working on their backs.”

She caught Luke’s sideways glance.

“If you did either of those, your income would far exceed what I can expect to earn,” he said.

“Excuse me?” She stiffened. “Are you suggesting I earn my keep by—”

“The idea has its appeal, but no. I’m not suggesting it.”

Luke Maxwell had a way of keeping her off balance. She opened her mouth to object, but no words came out.

Instead taking offence at Luke’s comments, part of her was flattered by his directness. In her own time, she was awkward and tongue-tied around men. She hadn’t dated much in her twenty-seven years. Her only serious relationship ended unpleasantly with a disagreement about having children.

She’d wanted a family. Her fiancé hadn’t. He’d resented the time she spent nursing her grandfather. Ultimately, she’d decided to end the engagement.

With no experience to handle Luke’s innuendos, she opted to change the subject. “Do you think we can get back?”

****

“Honestly, I don’t know.” Luke was grateful Annie redirected the conversation. His comment had been out of line. It wouldn’t help his case to have her upset with him.

Since she arrived, he hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything but her appearance and what it might mean. She was the only person who could understand what he’d been through. The only person he could confide in. Besides, he couldn’t deny the fact that every time he saw her he simply felt better.

He gazed at her with the same rush of relief he’d felt yesterday. “Until you arrived, I believed I was here for the rest of my life. Now, I’m just not sure.” He took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. “Your arrival has actually raised more questions.”

“Like?” Annie asked, encouraging him to continue.

“Like why didn’t
you
appear when
I
did? And why am I living in
your
history instead of my
own
?”

Now that she was here, those questions were more relevant than when he’d thought about them two months ago. Also, when they held hands, his trembling stopped. He didn’t know what that meant, but suspected it might be symbolic of reconnecting to something from their own time.

“Those
are
good questions.” She lifted her eyebrows. “Any theories?”

“None yet,” he said. “I don’t even have a good idea as to how we ended up in 1891.”

“But you blame me,” she said.

“I didn’t say that.”

“You did—yesterday,” she said. “That much I do remember.”

He looked at initials carved in the young pine. “You have to admit it’s an interesting coincidence. Of all the places we could time travel to, we came here, to White Rock.”

Annie stood and walked over next to him. “Oh, I don’t know. If it really
is
time travel, then the place makes sense.”

He looked at her. “What do mean?”

“Examine the circumstances. We didn’t travel through space, only time.” She ran her hand along the trunk. “My ancestors are from here. This was my family’s land. I suppose in some way I am to blame.”

“So, how did I get here before you?” He gave her an indulging smile. At this point, he was ready to entertain any theory.

She pursed her lips, drawing his attention to their softness—reminding him of their sweetness. He was tempted to lean in, try another taste.

She snapped her fingers and pointed at him with a triumphant look. “I remember something.”

He forced his attention back on their conversation. “What?”

“You stumbled and your head struck mine before you fell to the ground!”

He frowned. “So?”

“Don’t you see? You lost consciousness first.” She pivoted, looking at the forest around them. “This is the very ground where we stood while carving my initials into the tree. There was the storm…”

“Don’t forget how much you wanted to keep something of the past alive,” he added, trying to keep up with her theory.

“Well….maybe you were right. I willed it all to happen. Your brain and mine made a connection as the lightning struck!”

He laughed at the outrageousness of the logic. “Now that’s the stuff of science fiction.”

Annie placed her hands on hips and glared at him. “Okay, Mister Maxwell, then let’s hear
your
theory.”

He shrugged.

“Then maybe all this happened to teach you a lesson.”

He started. “Why would I need to learn a lesson?”

“You were going to destroy the entire forest.”

“I intended to plant new trees.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “That’s not the same thing.”

Luke admired the spark in her eyes and the glow on her cheeks when she argued. He also liked the way her firm stance showcased her slim figure, rounded in all the right places.

“What are you grinning at?”

He hadn’t realized he was smiling. Now that he’d been caught, he let out a laugh. “You,” he said. “This was the same conversation we had before the storm.” He looked up at sky through the trees. “Maybe if we can get here when the next storm comes along, something might happen to transport us to our own time.”

Excitement lit her face. “Do you think so?” Annie peered up through the trees. Her voice sounded so hopeful.

“No.” He hated shattering her hope.

Annie looked back at him. “Why not? It’s as logical as anything else that’s happened.”

“Because I spent every rainy day my first month, right here in this spot, waiting for lightning to strike.”

“It didn’t work?”

He raised his eyebrow.

“Of course, it didn’t work,” she muttered to herself. “Otherwise you wouldn’t still be here.” She bit her lip, a charming tell that made him think about kissing her again.

He took a step toward her, then stopped. He was too distracted by her charms. “We should head back.”

“Wait a minute.” She grabbed his arm. “What about those gold medallions we had?”

He let out a slow breath. “I wondered the same thing. I was holding them when the lightning struck, but I don’t know where they’re at now. I’ve been back here several times to look for them. I don’t think they made the trip through time.”

“Honestly?” She frowned.

“I haven’t lied to you about any of this, Annie. If those medallions were some sort of device that sent us here, they must have stayed in the future. Unless you have them?”

“No. I don’t.” Disappointment shadowed her face.

Luke wished he could have given her more hope, but he’d been working the problem for two months with no solution. However, Annie’s imaginative ramblings had given him more to think about.

He glanced around at the growing darkness in the grove. “Come on. I promised Paul I wouldn’t keep you away too long.”

They walked back to the grazing horses. Luke held the reins while Annie climbed into the saddle. For all that had happened to her in the last twenty-four hours, she’d taken in the entire situation without major hysterics.

Most of women he’d known would have been bedridden with a nervous breakdown. Emmaline, in particular, would have come unhinged.

It was strange he hadn’t thought about Emmaline until now. Hadn’t missed her at all in the last two months. And to think he’d considered proposing to her once. He could have chalked it up to the extraordinary events, but he realized now, something else had interfered with his memory of Emmaline. Actually, someone else.