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  “Otherwise we just get bumped to a new timeline,” Bonnie said. “One without Carson.”

  Sherri just shook her head and watched the freeway flash past. It seemed like such a simple idea when she thought of it. But with time travel and alternate timelines, nothing was simple it seemed.

  “If we can’t get to him before we need to leave,” Dawn asked. “Then what?”

  “We back up to the previous fall and try again,” Bonnie said. “But that’s farther away from our first trip and has more problems with it.”

  “Like Carson believing any of this,” Sherri said.

  Bonnie only nodded.

  “The math we did trying to figure out why that Monumental Lodge is sitting there says this will work,” Duster said, “But I have no idea why we didn’t think of it before Sherri came up with it.”

  “Being the dumb new kid on the block sometimes helps,” Sherri said.

  “I think it’s called being in love,” Bonnie said.

  “That too,” Sherri said.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  May, 8, 1902

  Outside of Boise, Idaho

  CARSON HAPPENED TO be walking up from his stable after brushing down his horse Sandy and giving her some food when he looked up to see four riders on horseback turn into his drive off the rutted Warm Springs Avenue.

  The early May afternoon was a perfect spring day, not too hot, but with not real bite to the air. Wildflowers were blooming in various places around the grounds, giving everything a touch of rainbow colors. The oaks and cottonwood trees that towered over his mansion were all in full spring green and shading everything.

  Below the bluff the Boise River was in full run-off, the sounds of the water over the rocks and logs like a faint music to the afternoon air.

  He loved the spring in Boise. More so than any other season.

  He stared at the four on horseback moving toward him. In many, many lifetimes of living here, and in the nineteen years in this timeline, no one had come to visit him since the construction crews had left.

  In fact, no one in Boise even knew he lived here.

  The four looked familiar and he started toward them, reaching the area of the drive even with his front porch before he recognized them.

  Bonnie and Duster Kendal. Dawn Edwards rode behind Bonnie, and a stunningly-attractive woman with long black hair flowing down from a sun hat rode beside Dawn.

  Duster had on his normal cowboy hat and oilskin duster, and the three women all wore riding clothes and sun hats.

  He couldn’t keep his eyes off the stunningly beautiful woman and the closer they got, the more he thought he knew her from somewhere. He just couldn’t place where, but if she was with Bonnie and Duster and Dawn, that meant she was from the future.

  His breath caught in his throat. He just kept staring at her. He had never had a reaction to a woman as strong as this before and he flat didn’t know what to do.

  And she was staring back at him, her dark eyes wide, as if she was staring at a ghost or something.

  He stopped and they dismounted about ten feet from him.

  Duster tied all four of the horses off to a tree while Bonnie and Dawn and the beautiful black-haired woman sort of stood there and stared at him like he was about to do tricks or something.

  He had no idea how they had ended up in the same timeline as he was in. When he left, there had been no one in the cavern or the cave, and in two minutes and fifteen seconds this lifetime was going to last for him in real time, they would not have had the time to join him on the same connection.

  So he had no idea how they got here or even why.

  Duster walked back toward Carson, his hand out, a huge grin on his face.

  Carson had never seen Duster smile like that.

  “I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am to see you,” Duster said, shaking Carson’s hand with more enthusiasm than he could have ever imagined Duster having.

  Carson nodded. “Great seeing you as well. And Bonnie.”

  Carson nodded to Bonnie.

  Bonnie stepped forward and hugged Carson so hard, it almost crushed his rib cage.

  Dawn was right behind her with a hug, and he hadn’t known Dawn that long. In fact, in the numbers of times that he had been with her and Madison, she had never done more than shake his hand.

  As they stepped back, he could see tears in both their eyes.

  He had no idea why. None.

  Something was very wrong.

  “This is Sherri Edwards,” Duster said. “No relation to you at all.”

  Sherri had tears running down her face as well as she stood there, clearly too afraid to move, just staring at him.

  Carson stepped toward the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and extended his hand. He had no idea what was going on, but there was no way he was just going to nod at this wonderful woman. Even if she was crying while looking at him.

  She took his hand, and then without warning, pulled him into the most incredible kiss he had ever experienced.

  He could feel her tears against his cheek and he flat didn’t care.

  He just kissed her back and never wanted to let her go.

  He forgot everything but feeling this fantastic woman against him.

  Finally Duster cleared his throat and said, “I think we need to go inside and explain why we are here.”

  Carson broke the kiss and stepped back, not letting go of Sherri Edward’s hand.

  “That is the most amazing greeting I have ever had,” he said, smiling at her tear-stained face.

  She smiled back, which made him want to just kiss her again.

  “That was only a greeting, remember,” she said.

  Carson flat didn’t know what to say and Dawn laughed. “You are making me hot just watching you two.”

  “More information than I need,” Duster said, waving his hand at some invisible bug in the air and turning and heading for the porch.

  And with that, all tension broke and all three women laughed.

  Carson had no idea at all what was happening. But he had a hunch he was going to find out quickly.

  Then, for the first time in all the years he had lived in this mansion, women walked through the front door.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  May, 8, 1902

  Outside of Boise, Idaho

  SHERRI COULD NOT believe she had just kissed Carson. She had missed him so much, she couldn’t believe he was again standing right there in front of her. She knew that the Carson standing in front of her didn’t know her, hadn’t had a two-month relationship with her, hadn’t been in love with her.

  Or hadn’t yet, as the case was.

  But she had been in love with him, been at his funeral, and lived in his home. She had missed him and at that moment she didn’t care anymore. She had needed to kiss him.

  And from what she could tell, he hadn’t minded in the slightest, although he was clearly puzzled.

  After they went inside, Bonnie asked if they could all borrow his bathrooms to freshen up and get out of the 1902 clothing for a time. Sherri was very glad she had asked that, since they had ridden fairly consistently from near the Snake River this morning, starting a little before sunrise. She felt coated in road dust and in a few places the riding clothes were starting to really scrape at her skin.

  Carson had nodded to Bonnie, then glanced at Sherri. “Sure, let me show you where the bathrooms are at.”

  “Oh trust me,” Sherri said, smiling to him. “I know where they are at. I am the one who remodeled this wonderful mansion in 2017.”

  The look of recognition crossed Carson’s face. “I saw your picture and an article about you in the paper. That’s where I had seen you before. Thank you for treasuring my home.”

  “Always,” she said, following Bonnie and Dawn back out to the horses to get clothes. Duster than took the horses around to the back while Dawn and Bonnie headed for the main floor bathroom off the hallway.

  “Mind if I use your master bath?�
�� Sherri asked. “It’s the one I’m the most used to living in.”

  He blushed and nodded. “Pardon the mess.”

  “Honestly,” she said, “I will welcome the mess. You’ll understand shortly.”

  After a moment, she found herself stripping out of her clothes and washing up in her own bathroom. The same blue tile, the same mirror, the same mahogany shelves. Only it wasn’t yet her bathroom, but Carson’s bathroom over a hundred years before. But she had matched so much in the remodeling that only the fixtures were different, and there wasn’t a large walk-in shower cut into one wall.

  So it felt like her bathroom. Only shifted slightly.

  And having Carson’s stuff scattered around the bathroom instead of her stuff just made her smile.

  Then suddenly she began to cry again. She really, really needed to get hold of herself if she was going to save his life.

  And her life and future in the process.

  She spent an extra minute splashing cold water on her face, getting herself under control, and combing her hair and tying it back.

  Twelve minutes after she had climbed the big staircase, she went back downstairs and into the kitchen, now dressed in her most comfortable jeans, a Stanford t-shirt, and tennis shoes.

  Carson was there alone, fixing a tray of iced tea with real ice, just as he would do for her in August.

  He turned and saw her and smiled, just staring at her.

  “You look radiant,” he finally said after a long moment.

  She could feel herself blush. “Thank you. I can’t begin to tell you how good you look.”

  He nodded to her t-shirt. “Stanford grad?”

  “A couple of the degrees,” she said, shrugging.

  “I assume we have a history, or a future, or something,” he said. “Or at least I hope we do.”

  “We do,” she said, smiling at him. “I promise we’ll tell you all about it shortly.”

  He nodded. “In the remodel, did you find the hidden room upstairs?”

  “You showed me where it was at,” she said, smiling. “Part of our future or history or whatever.”

  “Timelines and time travel can give a person a headache, can’t it?” he asked, laughing.

  “Without it, we would have never met, you wouldn’t have built this wonderful mansion, and I wouldn’t be here now either, so I like the headache.”

  He laughed. “Actually, so do I.”

  At that moment Duster came in from the back and took off his coat and hat and from down the hallway Bonnie and Dawn were laughing about something as they moved toward the kitchen.

  “How about we set up on the back porch in the shade,” Carson said. “The weather is perfect there.”

  Sherri loved that idea. She had spent many a late afternoon after Carson was killed on that porch. Sitting back there with him would erase some of those dark moments.

  Especially on such a perfect spring day.

  And especially with Carson at her side.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  May, 8, 1902

  Outside of Boise, Idaho

  CARSON COULD NOT believe how attracted he was to Sherri Edwards. In all his time, in all the marriages and relationships he had had over the last eight hundred years of living in the past, he had never felt like this for a woman.

  It was as if he couldn’t imagine her not being there, and yet he had only met her, and kissed her, just twenty minutes before.

  But he didn’t want to fight the feeling. It felt wonderful. And she had to be the most attractive woman he had ever seen. Ever.

  And her kiss was something to desire again and again.

  They all got settled on the back porch on chairs he had pulled outside from his kitchen table. They all sipped at their tea for a moment, then Carson decided to get the ball rolling. He could tell they were suddenly uncomfortable.

  Carson turned to Duster. “Time for a story I would think.”

  Duster nodded. “This time we came back from September 20th, 2017, to about four days ago. It took us a couple of days to walk out of Silver City to find horses and get here.”

  Carson felt surprised as he glanced at Bonnie and Dawn and Sherri. A hike like that in soft, muddy ground or snow could not have been fun.

  “Why did you come in so early?” Carson asked.

  “Because on September 20th, 2016, we came back here to this timeline. I came in early on May 24th, so we have to be here and be back in the cave and gone by May 23rd to preserve that trip as best we can.”

  “You came here from 2016 later this summer? Carson asked. “But you didn’t know me then. I hadn’t been recruited.”

  Duster nodded. “Sherri was having trouble with your recorded ghost, so we decided to come back and meet the ghost before he killed himself.”

  Carson glanced at Sherri. “The batteries lasted that long?”

  Sherri nodded and smiled at him, but there was worry in her eyes, so Carson turned his attention back to Duster.

  “Bonnie and Dawn and Sherri came through in early August and we all met a few days later,” Duster said. “You two fell in love and you decided to cut your trip short and head back.”

  “I came through to here on June 9th, 2017. That’s over eight months later.”

  Duster nodded and all three women nodded, but no one was saying a word. Something had happened.

  “Sherri fixed up the mansion and was waiting for you to arrive on June 9th, but you never showed up,” Duster said.

  Carson could feel his stomach twisting in to a knot. “What happened? What did I do?”

  “You missed a curve coming over the top of War Eagle, on the old road out of the Silver City valley.”

  “I died in 2017?” Carson asked, his stomach completely twisted up.

  Duster nodded. “It was an amazing funeral.”

  “Oh, shit,” Carson said, standing and moving to the railing to look out at the river and the wildflowers. He wanted to just throw up. He had died a number of times on his thirty plus trips into the past because he had been researching World War One. It was a dangerous time. But after every death he always had ended up back in the crystal cavern just two minutes after he left.

  He didn’t like the pain of dying, but he didn’t fear it anymore.

  At least not in the past.

  But Duster had just told him he had died in 2017. That meant this was his last trip back.

  Sherri moved up and put her arm around his waist as if she had been doing that over and over for a long time.

  “I know this is a lot to take,” Sherri said. But you have time to understand it. Listen to why we are here. Listen to the experts in time and timelines.”

  Carson forced himself to take a deep breath of the wonderful afternoon air and nod. He looked down into her deep eyes and knew there had to be something.

  And he knew this woman loved him.

  He nodded and let Sherri turn him around and they both went back to their chairs.

  “So I die going off a cliff on June 9th, 2017, trying to get back to this wonderful woman who has restored this wonderful home. That right?”

  Duster nodded.

  Carson turned to Sherri. “I am so sorry. I can’t imagine what that put you through.”

  Tears instantly formed in her eyes and she nodded. Then she managed to say, “Listen to Duster.”

  Carson turned back to Duster, whose dark eyes were intense and very worried.

  “You died on June 9th, 2017,” Duster said. “On September 19th, Sherri reminded us of Monumental Lodge.”

  Carson suddenly felt very confused. He had never really understood the story of the big lodge up on the edge of the primitive area in Central Idaho. It had just always been there in his lifetime.

  But Bonnie and Duster and Dawn and Madison said they had built it. But he knew and they knew that wasn’t possible because when traveling, a traveler always went to a different timeline. Almost identical, but yet different.

  Yet the lodge existed and those who had gone ba
ck remembered it always being there while remembering building it. He never understood that.

  “Not sure how that follows or has anything to do with my death,” Carson said.

  “Sherri said she wanted to live in a different timeline,” Duster said, “one where you were not killed.”

  Carson nodded, still not following.

  “Bonnie and I grew up in a world where the Monumental Lodge did not exist and that part of Idaho was completely forgotten,” Duster said. “We remember that timeline clearly. Yet we live in a timeline where the Monumental Lodge exists. And always existed. And since that is the case, we would have had no reason to go build it in the past.”

  “We want to live in a timeline where we have a memory of you dying,” Sherri said, “but one in which you are very much alive.”

  Carson looked at the tear-filled eyes of Sherri, then back at Duster. “Is that possible?”

  Both Duster and Bonnie nodded.

  “The math says it is,” Duster said. “But getting through the next four months until September 20th might be the most impossible four months you have ever lived if you are going to make this work.”

  “Why?” Carson asked, once again feeling panicked.

  “Because you need to do everything, and I do mean everything,” Bonnie said, “that you did before we came and warned you.”

  “If you don’t,” Duster said, “you will split off new timelines where you didn’t die, but in our timeline you will still be dead.”

  “If you don’t slip,” Duster said, “then we believe all the timelines will merge back together into timelines where you did not die, but the four of us will have memories that you did. No one else will know, just as you don’t know in our future timeline when the Monumental Lodge existed or didn’t exist. To you it was just there as part of your life.”

  “No slip in four months,” he said.

  Duster nodded. “Nothing, not a one.”

  “We’ll train you,” Sherri said, tears falling down her face. “We’ll make sure you save your own life.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE