Monumental Summit Read online

  “If it were anyone but four of the top western historians in the world and Duster and Bonnie,” Ryan said, “I wouldn’t believe a word of any of it.”

  “Even after they showed us Silver City in 1887? And transported us back into that fantastic cavern? And people seemed to appear out of nowhere?”

  “Yes, even after that,” he said, nodding. “That all could have been faked, but there is no reason they would go to such lengths to fool us.”

  “And give us all the money and the business,” she said. “Just to plan a lodge that would be impossible to build at this point.”

  “So even though it’s all impossible,” he said, “Every bit of it, I am trying to believe it all.”

  “So you believe we could live three or four or five hundred years, build that lodge a dozen times, and be back here tomorrow night eating dinner again?”

  He opened his mouth and then closed it and just shook his head.

  “I want to believe it’s possible, don’t you?” she said, squeezing his hands and letting go as their water and Diet Cokes arrived.

  After the waitress had taken their order for bacon and eggs and toast, he looked at her.

  “I want to believe it more than anything.”

  “So do I,” she said, nodding.

  “So we go get some underwear and supplies and meet them in the morning,” Ryan said, “and see if all this is real. I really want to build that lodge on that ridge.”

  “What happens if we can’t get along for decades?” she asked, suddenly very worried.

  “We’ve been friends now since this project started,” he said. “We’re always going to be friends, I promise you that.”

  She looked at the man she was falling for faster than she had ever fallen for anyone. “You don’t think sex might spoil the friendship?”

  “Who said anything about sex?” he asked, smiling at her.

  “I did,” she said, smiling back. “As soon as we’re out of here and you are packed and we are back at my place.”

  He raised his arm in the air and said, “Check.”

  And they were both so tired, they laughed at the old joke.

  And that felt great.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  July 20, 2015

  BY THE TIME they finished with their late meal, it was almost one in the morning.

  As they left the restaurant, April took Ryan’s hand and they walked slowly along the sidewalk on the summer night that now had a slight chill to the air. She had really come to love Boise and the weather here during the summer. Dry and warm during the day, yet it cooled down in the evenings. Right now the air almost felt too cold.

  Perfect and refreshing after the day they had had.

  Even though they didn’t have many hours, they walked slowly, enjoying the moment and not really talking. It must have taken them a good fifteen minutes to make the short walk.

  She had been inside Ryan’s apartment a few times and it felt like him, with a wall of books on varied topics and an old-fashioned draft table against one wall. A large computer with three screens filled one side of the main room of the apartment. The computer looked like an exact match for the one he had in his office at work.

  She knew he had done a lot of designing in the evenings here on the lodge.

  The furniture was newer and in brown tones and all cloth. She thought about dropping into one of the more comfortable-looking chairs and then decided not to since she was afraid she was so tired at this point, she might not get out of it.

  It only took Ryan a few minutes to load a backpack with a change of clothes and a bunch of underwear. He had changed into a different shirt with a light sweatshirt over that and clean jeans. He also brought modern gloves and some heavy socks.

  He showed them to her and said, “If we’re going to be up there for a while on that mountain while we are building the lodge, it’s going to get really cold.”

  “Very good thinking,” she said. “I wouldn’t have thought to bring any of that now in the summer.”

  She could feel herself growing more tired by the moment, clearly letting down from the very long day. She had been so afraid their presentation wouldn’t go well this morning, she hadn’t slept well at all last night. And then with everything up in Silver City this afternoon and evening, she felt like her mind was shutting down.

  Ryan put the backpack over one shoulder and locked up as they went out.

  “Strange,” he said. “It feels as if I’m going to be gone a long time, yet more than likely, if Bonnie and Duster are telling us the truth, I’ll be back here tonight, or in a day at most.”

  Her tired mind just couldn’t hold that idea.

  She put her arm though his and they walked the four blocks to her place, again not talking.

  Ryan tossed his pack on her kitchen table as she headed for the bedroom. The clock on her microwave said it was almost two in the morning. They had to be back at the office in six hours.

  “Change clothes and pack,” he said. “We’re both going to be so tired when we have to go, you don’t want to trust anything to the morning.”

  She could feel the disappointment at his words, and her relief. She really wanted to make love to him, but right now she wagered neither one of them would stay awake for very long if they tried.

  She stopped in the door to her bedroom and looked back at him standing beside her kitchen table.

  He smiled at her. “When you are ready and your stuff is here on the table, we’ll sleep until our alarms go off.”

  “Rain check on my suggestion at the restaurant?”

  “I have a hunch we’re going to have years and years to work on that rain check.”

  She smiled. “That sounds wonderful.”

  He smiled back. “It does, doesn’t it?”

  It took her longer than it normally would to pack underwear and change clothes into what she would wear in a few hours.

  Then she decided she didn’t want to sleep in her clothes. She wanted to sleep beside Ryan in her bed. If something happened, so be it.

  So she took off her clothes and put them on her pack and then walked out into the living room completely nude.

  Ryan was asleep sitting on the couch.

  She was standing there nude and the guy she wanted to seduce had fallen asleep on her. If she wasn’t so tired herself, she might have taken it a little personally. Now she got to tease him about it later.

  She went back into her bedroom, set her alarm, then set the alarm on her phone.

  Then she pulled down the covers on her bed went back and rousted him.

  He blinked twice, then he clearly woke up and stared at her.

  “I’m dreaming and your body is better in this dream than it has been in all the others.”

  “You dreamed about me being nude?” she asked, helping him to his feet and leading him into the bedroom.

  “I take the fifth,” he said. “But this is far better.”

  She worked to help him out of his clothes.

  His body was better than she had dreamed as well. Solid and firm.

  And he was clearly aroused.

  She pushed him back onto the bed and climbed in beside him. “I thought we were going to sleep?”

  He kissed her, pressing his body against the full length of her body.

  And she kissed him back, pressing back.

  He had to be the most handsome man she had ever known. And the most sexy.

  She wanted him and she wanted him now. Two months of waiting had been far, far too long.

  She pushed him on his back and climbed on him and a moment later he was inside her.

  And that felt about a thousand times better than she had ever dreamed it would feel as well.

  She never took her gaze from his eyes and he stared right back as if he was seeing into her very soul.

  They started slowly, but pretty soon their movements, because they were so tired and had put this off for so long, were hard and quick and intense.

  They
came together.

  After a moment, he pulled her down close, kissed her lightly, and then rolled her over on her side, still inside her, her legs wrapped around his waist.

  That felt so natural, she couldn’t believe it.

  He kissed her long and gently, the most wonderful, passionate kiss she could remember.

  Finally she pushed him back slightly and looked into his eyes.

  “You still want to live with me in a big lodge in the past?”

  “More than ever, now,” he said, smiling.

  She kissed him long and hard, then said, “Sleep.”

  They cuddled down together, her legs wrapped around him, his hardness still inside her.

  That was the last thing she remembered until her alarm was going off and he was kissing her cheek.

  She blinked her eyes open to look into his wonderful gaze.

  “You really are the most beautiful woman I have ever met,” he said. “Even waking up.”

  She kissed him and then he rolled away and off the bed.

  She watched him walk toward the bathroom. His butt was even better naked than in pants. How was that possible?

  The next thing she knew, he was gently rousting her again.

  She glanced over at her bed clock. They had twenty minutes to get to the office.

  “Take a quick shower,” he said. “You have anything in the kitchen we can grab to eat and walk?”

  “Pop Tarts,” she said, slowly sitting up and trying to rub the sleep from her eyes.

  He smiled and stared at her.

  “You are so damn good looking, I could look at your body forever.”

  “Let’s go for a hundred years first, shall we?”

  He laughed and helped her to her feet, then kissed her. “You have Pop Tarts? Really?”

  She managed to nod.

  “A woman after my heart,” he said, kissing her again and then giving her a gentle push toward the bathroom.

  “You chose Pop Tarts over this naked body?” she asked, smiling at him. “Now I see how you are.”

  They left her apartment fifteen minutes later, Pop Tarts in hand, backpacks over their shoulders.

  And as she locked the apartment behind them, she felt as Ryan said he felt last night.

  It would be a very long time before she returned here later tonight.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  July 20, 2015

  RYAN SLEPT all the way from the edge of Boise to the restaurant along the Snake River they had stopped at for lunch yesterday. As Duster pulled into the parking lot and shut off the car, Ryan noticed that Bonnie and April were both still asleep.

  They had a groggy breakfast and in another two hours were bouncing once again through the rough climb and parking beside Janice and Steven’s Jeep. By that point Ryan felt almost awake and was both excited and scared to face the day.

  At the office before they left, he had put all the plans for the lodge in his backpack and given a set to Duster as well. April had picked up all her plans and lists for the furnishings, keeping one set and giving another to Bonnie. So they were clearly thinking of building the lodge today.

  But over a number of years and a long time in the past of another timeline.

  Going into the mine again brought up all the fear Ryan had felt yesterday. And April took his hand the moment the big rock slid aside outside the mine entrance and they went inside.

  From what Ryan could tell, she was feeling it as well.

  When they reached the central cavern, the smell of hamburgers reached them and Madison shouted from the kitchen area. “Welcome back. Lunch is almost ready.”

  Ryan and April put their backpacks on a table near the period clothing and followed Duster and Bonnie to the kitchen. They sat down at the kitchen table in the same two chairs they had yesterday.

  There was no sign of Steven and Janice and Dawn.

  “So, how’d it go?” Duster asked Madison.

  “Interesting,” Madison said, smiling. “Seven trips back for me. Got more than enough material for that book I’ve wanted to write about the great fire up in Montana and Northern Idaho. It damn near caught me once near Wallace.”

  “Ten trips for us,” Dawn said as she and Janice and Steven came out of the tunnel to the crystal room. All three of them were wearing clothing that Ryan dated from around 1950 or later, which seemed very odd to him.

  Dawn came up and wrapped her arms around Madison and kissed him long and hard. “I missed you more than you can imagine.”

  Ryan glanced at April and she just shook her head.

  “First shower,” Dawn said, giving Madison one more kiss and heading for the back room.

  Janice and Steven finished putting some of their clothing and saddlebags on the tables and came over.

  Duster just looked at them and shook his head. Clearly how they were dressed surprised him as well.

  “Interesting last three trips,” Steven said, dropping down into a chair at the table. “All three trips were into the same timeline.”

  “How?” Duster asked and Bonnie sat forward, looking intent.

  “We went to 1946 first,” Steven said “and stayed five years, establishing ourselves in Boise.”

  “We bought a beautiful home out on the River,” Janice said, her voice wistful.

  Ryan wanted to ask which one, but kept silent.

  “So after five years,” Steven said, “I came back up here and brought us back, but didn’t disconnect the crystal, only one wire off the machine.”

  Duster nodded and waited for Steven to go on.

  “So we set the return time for three months later and went back,” Steven said.

  “And?” Duster asked.

  “Everyone recognized us,” Steven said, “and asked how our trip to Alaska had been, which was our cover story.”

  “So we stayed another five years,” Janice said, “and then repeated it one more time.”

  “Again,” Steven said, “we still owned the home and all our accounts were in place. So we stayed until right after Kennedy was killed and jumped back.”

  “Our repeated visits didn’t seem to change any history that we could see at all,” Janice said.

  “I’ll be go to hell,” Duster said, looking at Bonnie.

  “We knew,” Bonnie said, “since we were all traveling back at varied times, that it might be possible. But that messes up a few math problems we thought we had solved.”

  Duster nodded, his mind clearly off into another place.

  “So,” Ryan said, glancing at April first, then looking at Steven, “this means that if we build the lodge in a timeline, we can keep returning to it?”

  The idea that they could enjoy the lodge for a very long time made him feel better.

  “Exactly what it means,” Steven said, nodding, “as long as Duster and Bonnie tell us the math is clear.”

  “It seemed to work,” Duster said, clearly off in his own head still.

  “It did,” Steven said and Janice nodded.

  “After us going back and finding Dawn and Madison on that first trip,” Janice said, “we figured it might be worth the test before you got back.”

  “That opens up all kinds of possibilities,” Madison said as he turned over some wonderful-smelling hamburgers.

  “And problems,” Janice said and Bonnie nodded. “Not aging on this first experiment got mentioned by a few people around us.”

  “Cover stories will be more important,” Bonnie said. “And pretending we are our own children at times.”

  “And not trying to go back into a timeline where you are already at,” Duster said. “We’re going to have to figure out a way to mark crystals and date trips to them.”

  Ryan again looked at April who hadn’t said a word. She was just sitting there beside him looking a little stunned.

  He took her hand and smiled at her as the rest got into a conversation on how to keep track of trips and mark crystals without actually putting anything on them.

  “Easy to mark th
e crystals,” April said, speaking up and stopping the conversation.

  “You hold the wires to the crystal with a flexible rubber clamp of some sort, right? One that can expand?”

  Duster nodded.

  “Just produce a lot of them with two wire connections on them. Each one is numbered and logged as to the trip and dates and who went where.”

  Duster nodded. “That would work.”

  Ryan patted April’s leg and then looked at Duster, “You ever done a time-recording in the crystal room of the area around a crystal while someone is in the past? See how many crystals nearby change and how far the influence of someone in the past spreads?”

  “Wow,” Madison said. “Great idea.”

  Duster just looked at April and then at Ryan and smiled. “Am I glad you two with common sense have decided to join us.”

  Bonnie laughed. “Four historians and two mathematicians sometimes just miss the obvious real world things.”

  “Oh, trust me,” April said, indicating the cave around her and smiling. “There is nothing real world about any of this.”

  Ryan could only agree with that.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  July 20, 2015

  IT TOOK THEM AN HOUR to eat lunch and then get ready to go. April got more and more nervous as the time went on. She almost decided to just let them go ahead, but then Ryan came over to her while she was standing in the cavern, staring at the saddlebags on one table that she had packed with clothing she wasn’t sure she would be able to wear.

  She had enough modern feminine products hidden in there to last for a number of months, at least through the first summer. And Duster had hidden enough gold in her saddlebags to make her feel very rich. And she would be in 1900 where they were headed.

  “Scared?” Ryan asked, taking her hand.

  “Terrified,” she said, looking up at his wonderful face and eyes.

  “Me too,” he said. “But I want more nights like last night. And I want to work with you more like we did these last two months.”

  “So do I,” she said, nodding.

  “So we have an adventure,” he said, smiling. “The ultimate camping trip.”