Timepiece

Chapter 14

Lily burst through the front door of Murphy’s Law. “Was that…?”

“Yes.” I shoved the napkin with the cryptic message into my pocket. I didn’t want her to see what Jack had written, or the threat it implied. That he was everywhere.

“I looked right at him. Served him coffee. I touched him.” She shuddered and rubbed her upper arms. “But I didn’t recognize him.”

“He’s playing a game. It’s what he does. Exposes weaknesses and dangles possibilities.” I leaned against the window. The coolness of the plate glass on my back was a welcome relief. But the second I started to relax, Lily’s tension jumped up and punched me in the gut. “Something else is bothering you. What is it?”

She leaned against the window beside me. “Did you just read me?”

“Like I could help it.” I gave her the side-eye. “You’re shooting off anxiety like fireworks shoot off sparks.”

“Your dad called earlier.” She sighed. “I wasn’t going to tell you.”

“Uh-oh.” I turned my head to look at her. “Which one of us is in trouble?”

“I tested positive for the time gene.” Her laugh was short and bitter, and she dropped her face into her hands. Her fingernails were short, perfect ovals. “This day. What’s next? Blood-filled water? A plague of locusts?”

“Apocalyptical references?” I crossed my arms and stared back out into the afternoon traffic. A red sports car kept driving around the town square, either on a joy ride or lost. “That bad, huh?”

“I think I’ll classify you in the boils category.”

“Ow.”

“Okay,” she said, relenting. “Maybe frogs.”

“You know what happens when you kiss a frog, don’t you?” I asked, appreciating the moment of levity in the middle of disaster.

“I think they pee.” She stepped forward into my line of vision, her hands on her hips. “Your dad’s phone call didn’t surprise you.”

I shook my head. “Nothing does anymore.”

“Why?”

“Something’s… off. In our world.” I didn’t want to say “wrong,” because that would be like saying “Welcome to hell, now with hotter fire.”

“Off? That’s all you have to say?” She threw her hands into the air in defeat. “That’s sad. I thought you and I’d come to an agreement.”

“What kind of agreement?” I couldn’t understand why she felt so let down.

“That you’ll tell me the truth.” She pursed her lips.

Even though we didn’t like each other, that bottom lip was still tantalizing. “I’m not exactly known for honesty.”

“This is different. We’re working together for a common goal. I’m not a conquest,” she said, “or even a possibility, so please be real with me.”

Uncommon request. “Okay.”

“I think my Ivy Springs as Freak Magnet theory is correct,” she said. Her hair was twisted up into a sloppy bun. “Three people from the same hometown with a time gene?”

“Technically, my hometown is Memphis.”

“Really, Kaleb?”

“Just keeping it specific.” I made a motion of surrender.

“It doesn’t matter if we were physically born here, we were attracted here. Magnet.” Lily drew the word out, speaking with precise enunciation as she touched her pointer fingers together.

I tried not to laugh. “What’s the other possibility?”

“I’m here because of him. Here in this situation and here in this town. Because of Jack.” When I didn’t answer, her hands dropped limply to her sides. “Why would any of you keep that a secret?”

“Because we don’t know anything for certain.” I couldn’t answer her truthfully. I didn’t want to give her any information that wasn’t absolute.

“If he isn’t found, and time goes into rewind, it could affect me.”

“If you’re here because of him, yes, you’d be impacted by a rewind.”

“Which means my grandmother would be, too.” I heard the realization dawn in her voice. “Possibly my extended family.”

“Possibly.”

“This throws a whole different perspective on things.” She took a deep breath, and I could feel her mind shifting to accept the truth. “I really am the only option for finding Jack.”

“No. If my dad can re-create the formula needed to time travel, it would provide a really easy fix. Intercepting Jack at a known place in his past would be the fastest way to find him.”

“How’s that working out?” she asked, her eyes steady on mine.

I frowned. “It’s not, exactly.”

“His past,” she mused. “What about his past?”

“If they make the formula work, I’m not sure where they’ll go to find him-”

“I’m not talking about the formula. Jack’s stirred up all this trouble because he wants something changed. He wants a ticket back to his past.” She almost bounced as she asked her next question. “Has anyone ever asked why?”

I sat at our table with my back to the kitchen door. Sophie had been assigned as the lookout for Abi. Even so, Lily stood with an order pad in her hand, leaning against the table instead of sitting down with me. Her apprehension at being caught by her grandmother made me a little afraid. Abi appeared to be the kind of woman you didn’t want to mess with, and I was helping her granddaughter break a huge rule.

I wished I could see enough to keep an eye out for Abi, too.

“We’ve never tried to figure out why he wants the past changed,” I said, continuing our conversation from outside. “Just why Jack didn’t change his past himself, and why he needed Em to do it for him.”

“No one knows the reason?”

“There are a couple of theories. Em thinks maybe there’s some reason he didn’t want to mess with his own time line, but I don’t think Jack cares about breaking rules. Michael thinks it’s because the exotic matter formula was unstable, and Jack couldn’t travel far enough to do what he wanted.”

“I have no theories. Time travel makes my head hurt.” She bit her bottom lip. “How old is Jack?”

“Midthirties.”

“Your dad is in his midforties.” She made a note on the order pad. “And Jack’s known your dad how long?”

“About fifteen or sixteen years. That’s when Jack became Dad’s lab assistant.”

“Fifteen years is a long time,” Lily observed, still writing. “And a lot of memories. Not to mention how hard it would be to keep track of who knew what. Lots of people are involved at the university level. Staff, students, colleagues at other schools.”

“Keep going.”

“I agree with you. I don’t think Jack cares about rules, which makes me think what he wants changed didn’t happen recently. I think it happened way before he came to Ivy Springs. Maybe even before he started college at Bennett.”

“We don’t know where he came from.” I rubbed my temples. “Our friend Dune’s been researching, but we don’t know anything about his background.”

“But someone has to, somewhere.” She leaned one hand on the table and tapped the end of the pen against her lips. “He could erase memories, maybe even find someone to help him erase complete computer databases, but not paper trails. Not every single one. Think about all the things that were on paper twenty-five years ago that are on computers now. Report cards, school records, annuals.”

I gave her a sarcastic smile. “I’m sure Dune’s taken all that into consideration.”

“Don’t condescend to me, Kaleb Ballard.” Lily snapped to attention, standing straight up. “I’m thinking out loud, and you’re supposed to be helping me brainstorm, not making judgments.”

I sat back in my chair and laced my hands around one knee. “Sorry.”

“We’ve established that you’re sorry.” I caught a hint of amusement under the harshness of her words. “I’m only saying, there’s no harm in asking Dune if he’s thought of that angle, and if he has, to ask if he has a plan for how you guys are going to approach it.”

“Lily,” Sophie whispered urgently over the counter. “She’s back.”

“So,” Lily said brightly, pen poised over the order pad with efficiency. “That’s two cheese and tomato paninis, a side order of sweet potato fries, another side order of pasta salad, and two vanilla cream cupcakes? What can I get you to drink with that?”

I stared at her. “A water tower?”

“Coming right up.” She smiled, ripped the paper off the pad, slammed it down on my table, and walked toward the kitchen. She called out something in Spanish as she walked through the swinging door.

I looked down to see what the order ticket said. She’d written down the entire list she’d rattled off to me, with the addition of water tower.

And below that, Twenty-five percent tip included. XOXO, Lily.