Lightning Only Strikes Twice (17 page)

He caught a flash of embarrassment on her face before she bent her head to her task.

He stood, taking a step away from the situation, both physically and mentally. “I shouldn’t have kissed you,” he said. “I didn’t expect this to happen.”

“Taking on more blame, Mr. Maxwell?”

He hadn’t known her long, but he could tell she was angry.

“Are you protecting my honor? Well, I’ll save you the trouble. I lost my virginity a long time ago.”

She’d completely misunderstood his reason for stopping. He wasn’t holding her to a double standard. Very few women her age were virgins. Yet the thought of another man touching her triggered an unexpected stab of jealousy.

“I’m sorry I’m not up to your expectations,” she said, clearly drawing the wrong conclusion from his silence. She stood and dusted off her dress. “Would you turn up the lantern so we can see our way home, please?”

He cleared his throat. “Annie, let me explain.” He couldn’t let her think he’d stopped the lovemaking because he didn’t want her. In fact, the opposite was true. Without understanding how, he realized he wanted Annie more than he dared admit. He wanted to see her face—to look in her eyes.

He twisted the wick on the lantern. The light destroyed any sense of intimacy.

“You don’t need to explain,” she said. “Your actions were clear enough.” Annie pivoted on her heel, her skirt flared out, brushing against his legs. She headed for the edge of the grove, her back stiff and proud.

Luke kicked at the dirt. Damn the woman!

****

Annie marched through tall grass toward the clearing at the top of the hill. Once she was out of the forest, she didn’t need the light to guide her. The moon had risen above the trees, bright and nearly full. The path into town was clearly visible.

Behind her, she heard the measured crunch of Luke’s footfalls. He didn’t seem in a hurry to catch up, which was good.

Anger and embarrassment roiled. This was much worse then her reaction to his first kiss. She’d practically thrown herself at him, begging him to make love to her.

Damn that man!

It was lust—a pure physical need—a need for connection. It had to be. If it wasn’t lust, then it was— She suddenly stopped. No. It
was
lust. She wouldn’t consider another explanation.

Anxious to put more distance between them, she started walking faster. She hardly knew Luke. She was nobody to him. Someone he wouldn’t have thought twice about if they’d been in their own time.

“Annie, wait.”

His entreaty gave her pause. By ignoring him, she could ignore her feelings. Feelings that had grown into something she didn’t recognize or fully comprehend. She needed time to figure things out. Without turning around, she continued down the hill.

As she reached the bottom, he caught up to her and grasped her elbow.

She spun out of his hold. Rounding on him she said, “You really don’t want to touch me again. You wouldn’t want me to get the wrong idea.”

He extinguished the lantern and the night closed in around them. “I’d like to explain.”

“No need. Your actions speak volumes. And frankly, Mr. Maxwell, you just aren’t my type.”

He jerked as though she’d slapped him. Good. Let him taste rejection. With his reputation, it was probably the first time.

“The moment caught me off guard,” he said. “It’s not that I don’t think you’re attractive. Things got out of hand. I shouldn’t have kissed you.”

Did he really think saying that made her feel better? She fisted her hands on her hips. “Well, forget it. If you want to pretend it didn’t happen, I can too.”

He hissed in a breath, his chest expanded at if it might explode. “Okay.” He blew out slowly. “This is not going well.”

“You think?” She laughed without any humor. “What isn’t going according to your plans? You lured me up to the grove so we could leap back to the future. I fell for it, like some stupid schoolgirl. Suddenly, you realize you’re stranded in 1891 with someone you don’t even want to seduce!”

“That’s not it at all.” He looked up at the stars, his throat working as he swallowed. “I know I messed up back there. All I can do is apologize. Please, Annie, I don’t want to argue. I just want to ask you one thing.”

She wiped damp palms against her dress, wary of what he might say next. “As long as it’s not about what happened on the hill.”

“It’s not. Exactly.”

“Good. I’d rather forget it.” She folded her arms across her chest, prepared to disagree with his request on principle alone. “What do you want?”

Luke looked down as he toed the dirt with his boot.

What was he so afraid to ask her? “I’m listening.”

His gaze lifted almost cautiously. “Will you meet with me tomorrow night?”

She nearly choked at his audacity. “You’ve got to be joking. After we almost…the way you—” She shook her head and spun on her heel. “No.” Without a pause, she started marching toward the dark street.

In three long strides, Luke was beside her. This time he didn’t try to grab her arm. “Please. Hear me out. Our only chance of getting back to our time is to be together.”

She stopped and stared at him. Surely, he wasn’t serious. She was humiliated and he wanted to go out with her again? “No.”

He rushed on. “I promise there won’t be a repeat of tonight.”

Heat flared over her cheeks. A repeat of his kiss was exactly what she wanted. Her body ached for his touch. She squelched the unwelcome yearning. It was apparent he didn’t feel the same. She wasn’t about to throw herself at his feet. “I said
no
.”

“Please, Annie, we have to return home.”

Did they? If she stayed, she could save Elizabeth. She could protect the baby and her newfound family. Hadn’t she dreamed of moving on, of making a change in her life? So what if time travel hadn’t been part of the plan? Her life was headed a new and exciting direction. Wasn’t that what she wanted?

She hesitated, realizing if she accepted her current situation, she’d allow these bizarre circumstances to dictate her life. She wouldn’t be in charge of her own future.

She’d gone to the grove with Luke tonight because she wanted control over her destiny. He was right. Returning to her life—her own time—was the only way she’d define her choices. She didn’t belong in White Rock any more than she belonged in Luke Maxwell’s arms.

Leaving Elizabeth would be hard. She’d come to love the woman who was her great-great grandmother. Yet if what Luke said was true, she wouldn’t be able to stop Elizabeth from dying. Her heart cracked at the thought.

Maybe it was better not to be here when the tragedy happened. Once she returned to her own time, she could leave Boise. Leave her old life behind. She’d start over while Luke disappeared into his world of wealth and privilege.

If she stayed in White Rock, she had no choices. She and Luke wouldn’t be able to avoid each other. He’d be stranded too.

“Are you sure the only way we can get back is to be together?” she asked.

“I’m not sure of anything.” He took a deep breath. “But it makes the most sense.”

She was helpless against his pleading gaze. “I hope I don’t regret this. Okay. I’ll meet you tomorrow night.”

Luke stared her, his expression unreadable. “Thank you—”

She raised her hand, angry at her weakness for giving in, but feeling she had no option. “I’m just as anxious as you to have things back to normal.”

“I know.”

The look of relief on his face made Annie wonder if she agreed more out of a desire to help Luke or herself. Regardless, she’d given her word and she wouldn’t go back on it.

****

The next five days established a routine. Annie rose early to prepare breakfast. Afterward, her daily chores varied from laundry and general housework to tending the garden. Fortunately, Paul looked after the livestock, gathered the eggs, and milked the cow. The days were busy with little time to think about her predicament.

If it wasn’t for Elizabeth’s comments about scorching one of Paul’s shirts with the iron and a habit of reaching for the light switch every time she entered a dark room, she could almost believe she belonged in this century.

Even Luke’s actions added continuity to her existence.

To keep up the pretense of their dating, he arrived every day for lunch. In the evening, when Elizabeth retired, Annie joined him on a nightly stroll up the hillside behind the mill. They stayed on the hill until well after dusk, trying variations of the event that had triggered their original journey through time.

Luke had held a silver coin while he mimed carving her initials. When that didn’t work, he tried it again with two coins. He even tried using a gold coin he’d won in a poker game during his visit to Boise.

Annie wondered if more minerals would help and borrowed a pair of silver spoons from the kitchen. Once, they tried bumping heads, although Luke was afraid of aggravating her earlier injury, so they didn’t pursue that for long.

They stopped short of actually carving initials in the tree, knowing they would alter the history of the tree. Paul had to be the one to add his son’s initials.

Eventually, after each failed attempt, they’d relax with their backs to the tree talking quietly, reflecting on their daily activities, careful to keep the conversation from straying into personal areas.

In a way, getting to know Luke on an intellectual level made her eager to meet with him at the end of her day.

The more Annie listened to him talk about the progress on the schoolhouse, the more she recognized a man who cared deeply about contributing to his community. The attraction she’d felt for him in the beginning grew to a deep respect and admiration. If his aspirations had been similar in their own time, then the state lost a great asset when they left their own time.

After the daily reports ran dry, Annie would sit quietly beside Luke listening to the breeze moving through the leaves and the nocturnal sounds of the forest creatures.

Memories of the life she’d left behind would creep in during those quiet times. Normally, she didn’t dwell on regrets, but sometimes, when Paul had said something particularly profound, or when she happened upon Elizabeth practicing a lullaby while mending a shirt, nostalgia for her grandfather overwhelmed her.

As she’d grown older, Grandpa had tried to understand a teenage girl’s needs, but she knew she was a mystery to him. When they’d disagree on after-school activities, their arguments tended to escalate, never resolving anything. Ultimately he’d put his foot down. Annie either gave in or was grounded. Those were the times she hated him, hated her life.

Not long after she entered college, Grandpa’s health began to fail. She was relegated to the role of caregiver, driving him to doctor’s appointments, listening with only half an ear to the stories he told over and over. Stories she now wished she’d paid closer attention to.

At least she had something to think about through the long silences while she and Luke waited for an unexplained phenomenon to sweep them back to their own time.

Once it became obvious they weren’t going to transport to the future, Luke would walk Annie back to town. He’d escort her to the door and then ask to visit again tomorrow. The pretense was working. The townspeople thought he was courting her.

The reality was much different. True to his word, he never tried to kiss her again. Reluctantly, she accepted that Luke had no interest in her other than as a means of returning home.

Tonight, as Annie prepared for her nightly stroll, she knew the evening would be just like all the others. She and Luke had run out of things to try. She didn’t know why she was going out again.

Elizabeth hadn’t felt well and spent most of the day rocking in her chair. Doc Smyth had examined her earlier in the day and declared the mother-to-be simply needed bed rest.

Yet, Annie couldn’t shake the apprehension in her chest.

“I don’t think I should go out tonight,” Annie told Elizabeth as she helped her prepare for bed.

“Nonsense,” Elizabeth replied. “I’m going to lie here and read for a bit. You don’t want to disappoint Luke. I have a feeling something special is going to happen tonight.”

She sensed Elizabeth was fishing for more information about Luke’s intentions. After nearly a week of keeping a polite distance, Annie accepted Luke’s only purpose for seeing her was to return to his old life, not the romance Elizabeth anticipated.

Ironically, the fact that he’d backed away from their lovemaking only added to his attraction. He’d ignored every signal Annie intentionally gave to show she was still interested. She’d been left wanting and unfulfilled.

Unable to tell her matchmaker friend that Luke was only using her, she said, “Nothing will be different than any other night.” That was the truth. Annie doubted they’d ever return to their own time.

“I beg to differ. Luke is simply taking his time. He’s working up courage to ask for your hand.”

Annie laughed. If only Elizabeth knew what
really
happened on their walks. “I don’t think Luke lacks courage for anything.” Especially when it came to women.

“He must be interested in you, or he wouldn’t keep coming around.”

His only interest in her was a means to an end. “We’re just friends.”

“Paul and I were friends, too.”

“You and Paul have something very special,” Annie said. “I’m glad I had the chance to meet you.”

Tears gleamed in Elizabeth’s eyes. “Me too.” She wrapped Annie in a hug.

“I still think I should stay in tonight.” Annie kept an arm around Elizabeth as they walked to the bedroom. “I’ll sit with you a while. I could read to you so your eyes don’t strain in the dim lamplight.”

Elizabeth glanced at the oil lamp beside the bed a puzzled expression on her face. “The light is just fine.” She looked at Annie again. “And Luke is on his way. You can’t disappoint him.”

“I’m sure he’ll understand,” Annie said, grateful her slip about the old-fashioned lighting didn’t raise questions. She needed to guard her tongue better.