Timeless

CHAPTER 35

Q uinn’s body was on fire in a way it had never been before. She’d heard Abby when she told her that she wasn’t ready for more tonight, and Quinn wasn’t, either, but her body had other designs on how they could spend the rest of their night. She was having a difficult time holding it back because she’d never really made love before. Sex? Yes. She’d had sex. But she’d never made love with a woman, and she wanted that with Abby. She wanted it right now.

“God, that’s good,” Abby said when Quinn sucked on her pulse point.

“Yes, it is,” she replied and continued doing what she was doing. “Do you own a turtleneck by chance?”

“No.” Abby chuckled. “But I rarely leave the house, and most of my sweaters have hoods, so I think we’re all right.”

Quinn laughed silently and grazed her nose over Abby’s neck.

“You’re so beautiful, Abs. I’m going to exhibit some self-control here, but you should know that I don’t want to.” She pulled back a little and looked into Abby’s eyes. “Just so pretty.”

Abby tilted her head and gave it a shake.

“So are you. And I don’t want to stop, either.” She let her hand slide down and rest between Quinn’s breasts over her shirt. “Your heart is racing right now.” She pressed her palm in a little harder.

“Isn’t yours?”

“Yes, it is,” Abby replied. “I want to, Quinn.”

“I know. So do I. But it should be right, and I doubt that doing that for the first time against my shipping counter in the back of the shop qualifies.”

“We’d give that old lady, who’s probably still watching over this place, quite a show, though.”

Quinn laughed and said, “Well, in that case… ”

She made a move toward Abby.

“Hold on there, stud.” Abby laughed wildly and kept her hand pressed against Quinn’s chest.

“Oh, there’s a way we could get to know each other.”

“What?”

“Sex.”

“You want to do that now ? When we’re not having any?”

“Well, you did just call me ‘stud.’ Are you interested in my studly–”

“If you say ‘services,’ this date is over.” Abby laughed again. “And we’ll talk about that another time.” She winked at her.

“Wait. We will? Like, you…”

“Quinn, I think we both know you’re a top. Not like I even need our past lives to tell me that.”

“So, are you a pillow princess?”

“No, I’ll happily…” Abby leaned in and pecked Quinn’s lips. “Be…” She kissed her again. “On top.” She moved her mouth to Quinn’s neck. “Under you.” She kissed her there. “Behind you. In front of you. And anywhere else…” Abby sucked on her neck. “You want me.”

“Oh, fuck,” Quinn let out.

“Not tonight.”

Quinn laughed a little and said, “Then, you have to get away from me.”

“Really? You drove me here, and now you’re kicking me out?”

“No, but you would need to stand on the other side of something sturdy that I can’t toss. The desk should work.”

“You’re exaggerating.” Abby laughed.

“Abs, the pull is strong. I know you’ve felt it. It’s why it felt so good to hug each other earlier.”

“Like we’re magnets. I know. I feel it, too. And I want us to do that, but–”

“No, it’s okay. You’re right.” She rubbed Abby’s arms up and down. “We know we want to, and that’s enough for tonight. Besides, we have a book to read, and that’s probably going to take some time.”

“We don’t have to read the whole thing tonight.”

“You’re telling me that once we start, you’ll be able to stop?”

“No,” Abby said with a smirk. “You know me so well already.” She kissed Quinn quickly before she turned around and moved the book more toward the middle of the table. “Are you ready?”

Quinn removed her blazer, tossed it over the stool, and moved to stand next to her.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“Did you do that on purpose?”

“What?”

“Take off your jacket?”

“It got hot in here.”

“Sure, it did,” Abby replied, looking down at Quinn, who was now just in a V-neck T-shirt.

“Hey, I’m not lying. And if you want to take off your sweater for the same reason, I really wouldn’t mind.”

Abby laughed and said, “Hold me while we do this?”

Quinn smiled before she stood behind her, wrapped her arms around Abby’s waist, rested her chin on Abby’s shoulder, and said, “Okay. Ready.”

Abby opened the old book to the first page, which was blank, so she turned it again.

“What we know so far,” she read the only text on that page out loud before turning the page again. “Oh, wow. It’s the list.”

“The one they made?”

“It’s all the names they knew or the timeline, at least, if they didn’t know the names. This one just says, ‘Women in maybe Germany or Switzerland.’” Abby pointed to a line item on the list that didn’t have any names. “There are no dates, so they must not have known for sure and just tried to slot them in.”

“There are forty-five lines there, Abs.”

“I know… Wow!” Abby leaned back against Quinn’s bo dy. “We’ve lived at least forty-five times before now?”

“Some lives were shorter, too. Look at this one.” Quinn pointed at number thirteen on the list. “Looks like they had less than a year together.”

“Why would that happen?”

“I don’t know. But people did die young a long time ago. Maybe it was a war or disease.”

“This one, too, looks like they only had a few years, but the one below it, they had a few decades, at least.”

“What I wouldn’t give to have decades with you…” she whispered into Abby’s ear.

“Which one of them said that in a vision?” Abby asked.

“None. That’s me saying that to you.” Quinn pushed some of Abby’s hair away. “Does that scare you?”

“Yes,” Abby admitted. “But you can see that I’m not running right now, right?”

“Well, I am holding on to you, so I assumed that had something to do with it.”

Abby chuckled, and Quinn kissed her neck.

“If the list is all on one page, though, why is it a book instead of a note?”

Abby turned to the next page.

“1507.”

“What?” Quinn looked down at the book.

“That’s what it says. And it looks like Cheryl typed…” Abby flipped a few pages. “Yeah, she typed out what they remembered about each of them. That’s probably the rest of the book: all the visions and things they can remember seeing.”

“Should we be doing that, too?”

“I don’t think there are any rules. But, wow, Quinn… The first entry is from 1507.”

“Do you think that’s all they could remember, or that that’s the very first version of us?”

“I don’t know. I guess we’d have to read what she wrote.”

“Abs, let’s go home,” she suggested.

“You don’t want to–” Abby went to turn in her arms, but Quinn held on to her, keeping her in place .

“No, I do. But let’s go home first. Let’s get into bed and get comfortable. We can read it there.”

Abby did turn in her arms then and said, “You act like we live together and have one home and one bed.”

“We can go to your place. I don’t care which. I just… I don’t want to sleep alone tonight.” She leaned in and kissed Abby on the forehead. “Please don’t make me drop you off and go home alone.”

“Do you need to stop by your place to pick anything up?”

“Can I borrow stuff from you?”

“Yes.”

“Then, no,” Quinn replied.

“Okay. Let’s get out of here. We can eat blackberry pie in bed and read this together.”

Quinn cupped her cheek and said, “You’re really going to let me eat pie in your bed?”

“Are you a messy eater? If so, then, no.”

Quinn chuckled, and they left the shop with the book. As she drove them to Abby’s house, she held her hand the whole time until she had to let it go because they’d arrived. Then, Abby unlocked the door for them, and Quinn followed her inside. It was strange to her how simple everything was with this woman. While the circumstances surrounding their meeting might have been complicated, actually being with Abby was easy.

They worked in the kitchen together seamlessly as they prepared pie plates and got themselves some coffee before they walked to Abby’s bedroom. After they set everything, including the book, down, Abby pulled out some clothes for Quinn to sleep in, and they changed in separate rooms. When Abby came out of the bathroom, Quinn was already lying on the bed above the blanket.

“I was thinking you could sit between my legs, and I’d hold you again. Is that okay?” she asked.

“You’re lying in my bed,” Abby replied.

“Yes. Was I not supposed to be? ”

“No, you are. It’s just that no one’s been in that bed.”

“Ever?”

“I bought it when I moved. I sold my old bed before I left LA.”

“Are you okay with this? Need me to go, after all?”

“No, I’m okay,” Abby said. “It’s nice, having you here.” She then climbed on the bed and added, “We should eat first, though. I don’t want to spill anything on the book.”

“Okay.”

Abby got comfortable beside her, so Quinn shifted up herself, and they both picked up their plates.

“My favorite book is yours,” she said after a minute.

“What?”

“Earlier, you asked me about my favorite book. It’s yours. Your first one, anyway. Although, I will say that your second one might be my favorite now.”

“You don’t have to say that, you know?” Abby replied.

“It’s true. Everything you write will be at the top of my list, Abs. Even if you and I weren’t doing this, I’d still love your book.”

“I think you’re a little biased, but I’ll take it.”

Quinn looked down at the piece of pie in her hand and said, “Hey, question.”

“Hey, answer.”

Quinn looked at her and smiled. God, she really, really liked this woman. While she knew that everything about their shared past meant that she’d been in love with her over and over again before, Quinn herself wasn’t ready to say that just yet. Still, she could admit that she’d never met anyone like Abby and that she could fall for her easily.

“It’s a big one. Are you ready?”

“Did we somehow segue into talking about your studly services again?”

Quinn laughed and said, “No. Big as in serious. Important. Or thought-provoking.”

“Okay. Well, I guess I’m ready, then.” Abby took a bite of her pie .

“If you could wave a magic wand and forget it all, would you?”

“Oh. Damn. Yeah, that is a big one.” Abby left her fork on her plate. “You mean, forget that we knew each other in another life altogether?”

Quinn nodded.

“But would we still meet like we did, or some other way, at least?” Abby asked.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m asking in either scenario. We’ve both freaked out about this more than once now, and I was just thinking about this blackberry pie, wondering if I like it because I like it or because Harriet made it for Deb. I was asking myself that question and figured I’d ask you, too.”

“Did you come up with an answer?”

“Not yet, no.”

“So, you want me to go first, then?”

Quinn chuckled and said, “I guess so, yeah.”

“Okay.” Abby sighed. “I think I’d say no. I wouldn’t want to wave that wand in either scenario.”

“Why not? It’s crazy, what we’re dealing with. We’re having actual visions of past lives, hearing their voices, feeling like we have kids who aren’t really ours, and it could all go away with a wave of that fake, magic wand.”

“I know. But it would be too risky.” Abby picked up the fork again.

“How so?”

Abby went to take a bite but put it down.

“Well, what if we still met, but the connection wasn’t as strong? I know myself, Quinn. I moved back here to get away from everything. I don’t know that I’d given up on love entirely when I did that, but I know I wasn’t planning on meeting anyone or even looking. If I would’ve bumped into you somewhere, I might not have given this a shot. And that’s assuming we would have met. In the other scenario, we didn’t, and I don’t like that, either. Had you asked me this when it first started, I might have answered differently, but I know what it’s like to kiss you now. The fact that we saw all of their first kisses when our lips first connected, doesn’t matter to me. It was after that… After that…”

“That the kiss got really good?” Quinn guessed.

Abby smiled over at her and said, “Really, really good.”

“Yeah? You want to do it again right now?”

“Yes. But you are not staining my comforter with blackberries, Quinn.”

Quinn set her pie on the table next to the bed by the coffee she hadn’t yet taken a sip of, and she took Abby’s plate from her and set it next to her own. She turned back to Abby and watched as the woman moved to slide down until her head was on the pillow.

“I thought you wanted to read this book tonight,” she said as she scooted over, resting her elbow on the bed and her head in her hand as she stared down at her.

“It can wait until tomorrow, can’t it?” Abby asked.

Quinn smiled at her before she leaned down and kissed her.

“Yeah, it can wait until tomorrow.”

◆◆◆

Hours later, long after they’d fallen asleep but before the sun was up, Quinn’s eyes opened. At some point at night, Abby had been lying against her, and Quinn’s arm had been around her middle while they’d been asleep, cuddled together, but her arm was now flat on the bed, and Abby wasn’t there. Quinn rolled over, checked the clock on Abby’s table, noticed that it was only four in the morning, and sat up to see if Abby was in the bathroom. With no light under the door and the door closed, she guessed that she wasn’t.

“Abs?” she asked softly into the room, knowing that she’d get no answer.

Then, she slipped out from under the blanket, stood, ran her hand through her sleep-mussed hair, and made her way down the hall. She saw a light under one of the other rooms with a partially opened door and realized that she’d yet to get an actual tour of the house. She moved by the door and peered inside, finding Abby behind her desk, with only a small lamp providing light outside of the light given off by her laptop. She appeared to be in the zone, typing.

Quinn leaned against the wall next to the door and just watched her work. Abby was really beautiful when she concentrated, and Quinn wondered if this could be her future, her life. Days spent at her shop, doing the job she loved; nights watching Abby work, making out or, one day soon, making love, and talking about what they wanted for themselves and together.

After a minute, she decided to leave Abby alone and headed back to the bedroom, where she climbed back into bed, smelling blackberries and honeysuckle before she fell asleep once again.