Timepiece: An Hourglass Novel (18 page)

Chapter 38

I

A month ago, I would have taken off for downtown Nashville, found a bar, and drunk myself into oblivion. Now, instead of holding a beer, I had a measuring cup. And all the ingredients for peanut butter cookies. And chocolate chip.

I fumbled and lost them all when I saw what was on the kitchen island.

A box with the Crown Royal label sat in the exact, dead center. The beam from the pendant light above it shone on it like a spotlight. I dropped the cookie ingredients and picked up the box. Brand spanking new. When I ripped it open, I saw that the seal on the bottle was unbroken.

We had a stare-down, me and that bottle. It won, of course. Whisky doesn’t blink.

I twisted off the top with a snap.

Smelled it.

Got down a glass from the cabinet.

There were so many things to run from.

Things Jack
wanted
me to run from.

I realized then who had left the bottle.

I thought of my dad, and all the things he’d finally trusted me with. Michael, and the understanding we’d come to.

And then I heard Lily’s voice.
“You’re worth more than what you’ll find at the bottom of a bottle.”

I put the glass back in the cabinet and upended the liquor into the sink.

“I question your sanity sometimes, Ballard, but I know you aren’t an idiot.”

“Thank you for the compliment, Shorty.”

I was on the couch in my living room, balancing a full plate of cookies on my chest. Emerson stood over me like some kind of military general, wearing her Murphy’s Law work clothes.

“You kissed a random girl on a street corner? In the middle of the afternoon?”

“It wasn’t what it looked like.”

“I’ve heard that before, maybe I’ve even said that before, and only because in that case, it actually
wasn’t
what it looked like. I’ll listen.” She picked up my legs by the bottom of my basketball pants, dropped onto the couch, and then lowered my feet to her lap. “What did you do?”

I didn’t even bother trying to argue that it wasn’t my fault. “This girl comes up to me out of nowhere, writes her number on my hand, and then lays one on me. Yes, on a street corner, and yes, in the middle of the afternoon.”

“And now we’re going to discuss why this is a problem.”

“Because it happened at the exact same time Lily walked out of Murphy’s Law.”

“And you care about this because?”

“You’re leading the witness.”

She crossed her arms.

I sighed. “I care because I like her.”

“In
that
way?” She sounded like we were in third grade, hiding under the slide on the playground at recess.

“Good grief, Em, yes, in
that
way.”

Her smile almost extended past her ears as she reached out to snag a chocolate chip cookie. “So who was the girl?”

“The one I was with the night before I met you. The night Michael came to rescue me. I didn’t even remember her name.”

“Not knowing her name does
not
make it better. Why didn’t you go talk to Lily right that second? It’s afternoon already. Why haven’t you tried to talk to her today?” she demanded. “Why are you ignoring her?”

“I’m not ignoring her. Ow!” She grabbed a few leg hairs and pulled, and I was quickly reminded that tiny and irritable didn’t make the best combination.

Especially when you poked it with a stick.

“I didn’t. I avoided her because I didn’t know what to say. Did she tell you anything?”

Leaning over conspiratorially, she whispered, “You want to know what she said about you?”

“
Emerson
.”

She sat up. “Fine. She said that the two of you had a weird conversation about feelings, and she told you she wanted to bite you?” At this, she raised her eyebrows. I nodded. “Oof. No wonder seeing you with that girl on the street hurt her.”

“It hurt her?”

“Why do you think she was so mad?” She asked the question like I was an idiot. Which, apparently, I was.

“I don’t really understand how this stuff works.”

“I love you both. You know that,” Em said.

I nodded, and a little bit of the fire in her voice died down.

“If I’ve learned something from all this crap with Jack,” she continued, “it’s that living anywhere other than in the moment is a mistake. Like Michael always says, the future is subjective. The past could be a lie—not just my past—but all of our pasts. Even Lily’s.”

“You still don’t think Lily’s being here is a coincidence.”

“No. Because every time I think I’ve dealt with Jack and all the ways he’s screwed with me, I prove myself wrong.” She shook her head. “Do you have any idea how much it kills me that so many of the good things in my life are there because of him?”

“I’m so sorry I didn’t stop him when I had the chance,” I said. “I’m sorry I didn’t take my dad’s files before he stole them, before he could find you.”

“Where would I be now if you had?”

I sat up and put the plate of cookies on the table, frowning at her.

“If you’d taken the files before he could get to them, Jack wouldn’t have known about me and my ability to travel to the past. I’d still be a crazy lump in a bed. Lily could be living somewhere else. Your dad would be dead.” She gave me a grim smile. “You could chase the circles of consequence for days. If this had happened, then this wouldn’t have. Vice versa. It’s mind-boggling.”

“There are a hundred different scenarios.”

“Exactly, and it proves my point. The present. Right now.” Her eyes were more serious than I’d ever seen them. “The exact spot where the hourglass filters the sand from the future to the past. That’s where we have to live, Kaleb. Before all the sand runs out, or before somebody shakes it all up again.”

“I am so glad I have you in my life, for whatever reason.” My vision was suddenly blurry, so I paused and blinked a few times. “So, Lily. I have your blessing?”

“Treat her right, or I’ll kill you.” She held up a tiny, yet mighty, fist. “I can see how you feel about her. I know how she feels about you. And I guess I wonder … how many times have we had this conversation? What if last time you didn’t listen to me and you regretted it, or I told you not to go after her at all? Wouldn’t you want to do things differently now?”

I ruffled her hair. “Is this what goes on up there in that head of yours?”

“All the time.”
The answer was solemn. Melancholy.

“So I should go clear all of this up and tell her how I really feel.”

Her answering smile was genuine. “Absolutely. But maybe clean up first. You have cookie crumbs on your chin.”

Chapter 39

T

The shop was almost empty except for two girls behind the counter. One almost dropped a tray of mugs when she saw me. The other, who I recognized as Sophie, spoke as if her lips were numb. “Can I help you?”

“I need Lily.” It had taken me well past dinner to get the nerve up to talk to her. Now that I was here, I didn’t want to waste time.

“She’s roasting beans. In the back. Do you want me to—”

Instead of answering, I blew past her and pushed my way through the swinging door. The air smelled like heaven. Em would get a contact high.

“Lily?”

She stuck her head out from behind the edge of a huge metal roaster. One hand was wrapped around a steaming mug of mint tea, and the other held an open book clutched to her chest. As she stepped around the side of the roaster, her index finger slipped into the book to mark her place.

I wanted to
tackle
her.

“Kaleb.” A buzzer went off. She put the tea and book down before flipping a switch on the machine. “Why are you here?”

“I need to talk to you. Please.”

She sighed.

“I’m not going to go away until you talk to me.” I put my hands flat on the counter and met her eyes. “And I’ll follow you if you leave.”

Walking to the swinging door and opening it, she leaned out into the coffee shop proper. “Hey, Katie—you and Sophie shut down and then head home early. No sane person is going to come out for coffee once this rain moves in, anyway. Just put the sign in the window. I’ll lock up.”

The girls on the other side of the door said something I couldn’t hear, and Lily laughed. “He’s fine. Thanks for the concern.”

She came back in the kitchen with a strange expression on her face.

“What?” I asked.

“They were worried. I guess you made quite an impression on the way in.”

“I was kind of in a hurry. I really wanted to talk to you.”

“You’re also as big as a house, tattooed, and pierced. And wearing a black leather jacket.”

“Oh yeah.” I’m a bad ass. A bad ass who bakes when he’s depressed.

“How can I help you, Kaleb?” she asked, the venom finally leaking through the smile.

Two pairs of eyes peered through the circular window that led into the kitchen. “Can we go somewhere more private?”

She hesitated, and then pulled off her glasses, rubbing her face in frustration. “Fine. But make it fast. I don’t want my tea to get cold.”

I followed her out of the impeccable kitchen through a heavy-duty steel door into an alley. Even the trash was organized, the recycling sorted and stored in neat bins.

“What?” She slumped back against the brick wall of the building, putting one foot against the wall and twisting her apron strings around her fingers.

“I think you misunderstood what you saw yesterday.” The wind picked up, and leaves from the red maples that lined Main skittered down the alley.

“What, you mean you and Ainsley Paran?”

“I didn’t even know her last name.”

“That does not make it better.” Em had said the same thing. Lily dropped the apron strings and gestured with her hands. “And, anyway, she acted like she knew yours. And possibly the length of your inseam.”

“We met one night, last summer. Downtown. We danced. I might have kissed her once or twice. That’s it. And that was not … a good time in my life. And as far as the other girl, her name is Ava, and we mostly really dislike each other, but for some reason she rescued me—”

“I know Ava.”

I saw a flash of lightning and heard thunder in the distance. “You do?”

“Yeah. I met her when I met Dune.”

I wanted to ask exactly when she’d met Dune, and why they were so flirty with each other, but all of that fell strictly into the category of None of Kaleb’s Business, especially under the current circumstances. So instead, I just said, “Oh.”

“I still don’t know why you’re here.” She looked up at the sky, pushed off the wall with her foot, and headed toward the steel door. “You don’t owe me an explanation.”

I stepped in front of her. “But I want to give you one.”

“Why?”

I put my hands on her shoulders to stop her from going inside. “Because you matter.”

“Kaleb …”

“That’s what I was coming to tell you yesterday when that girl hijacked me on the street corner. You matter. No one’s ever mattered before, but you do, and I wanted you to know. So now you know.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get anything out, the skies opened up. “I let the back door lock behind me and I forgot my keys.” Lily had to yell over the pounding rain. “We need to go around to the front.”

Lightning flashed again, followed by a huge clap of thunder. This time it was much closer.

“No, come here. The storm’s on top of us.” I led her to my dad’s truck, parallel parked at the front of the alley, and helped her in before hurrying around to the driver’s side.

Rain hammered against the roof, but at least we were under cover. Her teeth were chattering.

“Are you cold?” I asked.

“F-f-f-freezing.”

“Maybe you should get closer to me. Body heat. It’s important in a crisis situation such as this.” She cut her eyes at me and I cranked the engine. Flipping on the heater, I pointed all the vents at her. “But manufactured heat will work, too, I guess.”

She sat cross-legged in the middle of the bench seat with her back to the dash. The air stirred the tendrils of hair that had escaped from her bun.

“I think my dad has a blanket in here somewhere.” When I felt her eyes on me, I stopped shuffling and sat up. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“You’re always taking care of people. You … I don’t know … observe, and then you give others what they need, by instinct.” Her right knee barely touched my right hip, but it made my skin tingle. “It’s not just an empathy thing. Physical actions go with it.”

I shrugged. “If someone needs something and I can give it to them, why wouldn’t I help?”

“You … are so confusing.” She laughed. “And I’m so tired.”

“Of what?”

“Of being interrupted, waiting for the right time, trying to figure all this out.” She leaned forward and slid her hands into my hair, resting her cheek against mine. “Not getting what I really want.”

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.

“What do you really want?”

She placed a gentle kiss on the corner of my eyelid. If I’d closed my eyes, my lashes would have brushed against her lips. Then she leaned over to kiss my left cheek, pressing her body close to mine.

The breathing thing was getting more difficult.

“Lily. You’re messing with me.”

“No. Not yet.” She moved her mouth to my right jaw, then the left side of my neck, then back up to my chin.

As much as I was enjoying the buildup, I was certain that if there was going to be a payoff, it would outweigh it. But whatever happened next needed to be her decision.

“What do you want?” I repeated.

She hesitated for two seconds before I saw the power in her eyes, felt it coming off her in waves. “You.”

Exactly what I was waiting for.

We met halfway. Lips and teeth and the taste of her tongue, the heat of her skin against mine, unexpected through our rain-soaked clothes. Touching her was way more addictive than any substance I’d ever tried.

I wanted to unzip my skin and pull her inside.

Lily twisted her hands in the sleeves of my jacket and pushed back. Her eyes were wide, her voice unsteady. “This is more intense than I thought it would be. And I was banking on intense.”

I unpinned her hair and trailed my fingers over her collarbones, into the hollow of her throat. “How is intense working for you?”

She shuddered and grabbed my wrists. “More, please.”

I kissed her slowly, taking my time. My hands were on her neck, and I could feel her pulse beating in her throat. I moved my mouth across her jawline and felt it speed up.

“Wait,” she gasped.

I stopped, my mouth just below her ear. “I thought you wanted more.”

“I do. There’s just a steering wheel digging into my back.”

“Not enough real estate in here to kiss you.” I scooted over and wrapped my arms around her, cradling her, holding her as tightly as I could. “That’s a damn shame.”

“We could just go up.” She leaned back and pointed to her apartment.

I tried not to get too caught up in what arching her back did to her front.

“Although it might be too much real estate. Especially since Abi isn’t home.”

Lily. Me. Alone. Arching. I groaned.

“What was that for?” she asked.

“The way you feel, and taste, and empty real estate … sounds really tempting.”

“Yes. I’d like to take you upstairs and kiss you cross-eyed.”

“I’d like to be taken upstairs.” And do a whole lot more than kiss.

She read between the lines like a champ. “Then any real estate that involves an empty bedroom and a serious lack of supervision probably isn’t the wisest choice right now.”

“You don’t make me feel like being wise.” I touched my lips to hers again, pulled her body even closer to mine. “I want to be with you.”

“Kaleb.”

“Not because of this.” I gestured to her in my arms. “Because of you.”

A smile teased across her lips. “I have to go close up shop.”

“How long will it take you?” I asked. “I’ll wait.”

She raised one eyebrow.

“Just to make sure you get home okay.” I raised my hands innocently. “Swear.”

“It’s okay. I could be a while.” She bent down to the floorboard to retrieve her apron and slipped it over her head. “I should really do a round of baking prep before I leave.”

“I’m staying. I don’t want you here alone.” I didn’t want to give Jack any openings to do more damage.

“I do this all the time.”

“Now you don’t have to. Please. You know I’m excellent in the kitchen.”

“You’re probably excellent everywhere.”

“I look forward to testing that theory.” I grinned and leaned over to kiss her again.

“Stop,” she protested, but she was teasing. “I will resist your charms. For now. But if you want to help me bake, come on.”

“Wait.” When my phone rang, I grabbed her apron strings, not ready to let her go yet. It was Dune.

“Yeah?” I held up one finger when she giggled.

“Get over here. I managed to access the Skroll.”

The call disconnected. “I’ll help you close up shop, but no baking today. We have somewhere to be.”