Oh, God, she thought.Time travel.
She remembered clearly the faint smile on Jacob’s face when he had told her of his current experiments. But that didn’t mean— No. She took a steadying breath, determined to control her wandering imagination.
It had to be some sort of joke. People did not, accidentally or otherwise, zoom through time and fall in love. Jacob was from Philadelphia, she reminded herself as she gulped down brandy. He was a scientist with a bad attitude, and that was all.
“You don’t believe me,” Libby said with a sigh.
Care and patience, Sunny told herself as she dragged a hand through her hair. Her sister needed care and patience. “Honey, let’s just take this slow.”
“You think I’m making it up.”
“I’m not sure what I think.” She took a cleansing breath. “Okay, you’re trying to tell me that Cal, a former captain in—what was it?”
“The International Space Force.”
“Right. That he crashed his spaceship in the forest, after being sent through time by an encounter with a black hole.”
She’d hoped that when she said it herself, when Libby heard it repeated, her sister would come out of whatever spell she was in. But Libby just nodded. “That’s fairly accurate.”
“Fairly accurate.” Sunny tried again. “And now Jacob, going about it through more organized methods, followed the same route so he could visit with his brother.”
“He wants to take him back. I could see it by the way he looked at me.”
The misery on Libby’s face had Sunny reaching out a hand. “Cal loves you. Nothing J.T. did or didn’t do could change that.”
“No, but... Sunny, can’t you see? He didn’t pop up here on impulse. He must have worked for months, even years, to find the way. If a man’s obsessed with something—”
“All right,” she interrupted. “He didn’t pop up here on impulse. For reasons I’ve never fully understood, he’s angry that Cal married you and decided to live in Oregon.”
“Not just Oregon,” Libby shot back. “Twentieth-century Oregon.”
“Now, take it slow, honey. I know you’re upset, but—”
“Upset?” Libby countered. “Damn right I’m upset. The man traveled over two hundred years, and he’s not going to want to go back without Cal.”
At a loss, Sunny flopped back on the bed. “Libby, you’ve got to get ahold of yourself. You’re the sensible one, remember? You have to know this is all nonsense.”
“Okay.” Deciding on a different tack, she took a deep breath. “Can you tell me, honestly tell me, that you haven’t noticed something odd about J.T.?” She held up a hand before Sunny could answer. “Not just eccentric, not just endearingly different, but downright odd?”
“Well, I...”
“Ah.” Taking her sister’s hesitation for agreement, she pressed on. “How did he get here?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean... did he drive up in a car? I didn’t notice one.”
“No, he didn’t come in a car. At least...” She rubbed her suddenly damp hands on her thighs. “He walked out of the woods.”
“Walked out of the woods.” Libby nodded grimly. “In the middle of winter.”
“Lib, I’ll concede that J.T.’s a little unusual.”
“The way he seems fascinated or puzzled by ordinary objects?”
She remembered the kitchen faucet. “Well, yes.”
“The way he doesn’t always understand colloquialisms or phrases?”