Timeless

EPILOGUE

Two Years Later

A bby sat on the front porch with her cup of hot decaf coffee and their dog, Honey, a one-year-old golden retriever who couldn’t keep still to save her life. Whenever the squirrel that liked to taunt her took off across the driveway and into the tree in front of the house, Honey took off after it, barking at the base of the tree.

“Honey! Come on!” Abby yelled half-heartedly but made no attempt to actually stop her.

“Squirrel again?” Quinn asked when she emerged from the house with a blanket and a picnic basket.

“Yeah. And what’s all that?” she asked, referring to the items held in her girlfriend’s hands.

“Want to go on a picnic with me?” Quinn asked hopefully.

“No, it’s going to be six soon. The sprinklers will go off again.”

Quinn laughed and said, “Not at the park. Come on, babe.” She nodded toward the field.

“You want to sit out there and eat?”

“Not there. Just trust me.”

“Is she coming with us?” Abby nodded toward their silly dog.

“Not this time. Honey, come inside!” Quinn yelled.

Honey stopped barking and rushed toward Quinn. The dog listened to Abby sometimes, but she always listened when Quinn gave her a command.

“Dinnertime!” Quinn announced in a voice reserved only for Honey, and Honey took off into the kitchen to find her meal. Quinn closed the door behind her and said, “She’ll be good in there for a while. I left her one of the big bones, too. ”

“That’s why you’re her favorite. I try to parent her well. You give in. Good thing we don’t want kids. We’d be terrible at parenting them together.”

“No, we wouldn’t.” Quinn laughed. “Did you finish your coffee?”

“Just about.” Abby finished the last sip and set the cup on the porch rail to deal with later. “What’s the occasion? Our anniversary was, like, a month ago.”

“No occasion. We’ve just been spending so much time working on the house, the shop, and your book is coming out; I thought we could do with a little date night,” Quinn replied.

One of the many things Abby loved about this woman was that Quinn loved planning things like this for them. Abby had once worried that because they felt so destined to be together based on some past lives they had no control over, that they might just fall into a relationship and not put any effort into, accepting it more than trying to have the best relationship they could together. Quinn had never let that happen, though. She’d even made Abby better as a result, and Abby liked planning things for them, too, now. She also loved going to the shop, sitting in the newly remodeled back of it, and watching Quinn work while she wrote or edited something in a book. She knew Quinn loved having her there, and she missed Quinn whenever they were apart, so working where she worked was good for both of them.

“Ready,” she announced.

Quinn took her hand, and they walked down the steps of the newly remodeled front porch. They hadn’t wanted to do too much to change the old girl, as they called her, but the porch had been falling apart before they’d bought the house, and there had been a termite issue that they’d luckily caught early. The porch still looked the same. It just had new wood and a fresh coat of paint on it. The rest of the house was much the same, needing fresh coats of paint to replace the old or peeling wallpaper. A new bathtub had been put in the master bedroom and a new shower, too. The old claw tub in the guest bathroom was original, though, and they’d had it deep cleaned and refreshed, but it still remained. They’d updated the stove and had to make some changes with the plumbing and electrical, which had only just been finished, because the house had very few outlets, and none of them had been three-pronged, so she and Quinn had had to use adapters and extension cords or surge protectors to run basic appliances that hadn’t existed when the house had been built.

They didn’t mind doing it. In fact, they’d done as much of the work themselves as possible and had enjoyed working together. Quinn was extra hot walking around in a tank top and jeans with a toolbelt, and those days had led to some pretty amazing sex. Abby liked that they were now a part of the house’s history. At first, they’d worried about the memories hitting them all the time and them not actually being able to just live in it without feeling like Deb and Harriet were there all the time, but shortly after moving in after buying the place from Paul’s daughters, the memories didn’t exactly fade, but they appeared less and less. Now, they only got visions or heard them every so often, and that was the same for all of the women in their shared past as well.

They’d sat down with Simon a few weeks after their meeting to sign the papers on the house. Abby had the money from the success of her first book and the advances for the next two, so they’d been able to afford it, and even though Abby had paid for it, Quinn’s name had been on the deed as well. She’d wanted them to own it together in the way that Deb and Harriet hadn’t ever been able to. Quinn was one of the least prideful people Abby had ever met, and she never seemed bothered about Abby paying for the house when she couldn’t afford to contribute because she already owned one building in the shop. Abby loved that about her, too.

Then, a few months after buying the house, Simon had stopped by the shop and asked for that coffee. With the bitter coffee place up for lease again, they’d gone to the good one on the same street. He was already convinced by then that they weren’t lying or playing some terrible prank on him, and he’d had some questions that they couldn’t answer, but it was a good conversation. They got to know him a little more, and several months after that, they’d been invited to a backyard barbeque with his family and some of his friends, where they’d gotten to meet Diana and Cheryl’s grandchildren. While no one else knew who they were, Simon did, and that was enough.

Abby’s second book, the one about Deb and Harriet, had been published after changing the names of the people involved, as well as the name of the town and more, to ensure no one would put any of this together as a work of non-fiction instead of fiction. It had been a bestseller, just like her first book, and the third one, about Cheryl and Diana, was due out next month. It would also tell more of the whole story of all the women connected to each other, and Simon had agreed that it would be all right as long as the names were changed, which made Abby feel better about doing it. She’d decided to end it with them, though, not adding herself and Quinn to the story and not ending with Cheryl’s cancer or Diana dying shortly after. The last page of the book was Diana tipping her imaginary hat to her son from another life and Paul realizing it. Everyone had loved that ending, and now, the world was about to read it.

With the movie about her first book being optioned and going into production the following year, her publisher was already trying to get these two made into movies as well. Likely, it would be one movie about all of the couples, but Abby wasn’t sold on that yet. What she was sold on was living in this house with the love of all her lives and their puppy who chased squirrels, going to work with Quinn and writing her next book while Quinn sold antiques and collectibles, and going home with her every night, sipping coffee on the porch with her, watching the sunset, smelling the honeysuckle, and making love with the woman who had so quickly managed to capture her heart.

“Why are we going into the woods, babe?” she asked Quinn as they made it to the end of the field.

“I wanted to have a picnic by the river.”

They’d been to the river a few times since they’d moved in, but not often because they’d been so busy. Abby knew that Quinn loved that they lived this close to it and wished they could get out there more, so she just squeezed Quinn’s hand and walked with her through the trees.

“I was thinking that we could maybe clear some of this brush and make an actual trail so that it’s easier to get to,” she suggested.

“We could, but you know kids would find it and start using it.”

“Yeah, true. Oh, well. I’d rather keep this little walk our secret anyway.”

“Me too,” Quinn replied with a smile.

They arrived at the river, and Abby noticed that her mind no longer took her back to the times Harriet and Deb sat out here, hiding from the world, sharing intimate moments, their dreams, and even getting married for the first time in this very spot. As Quinn laid out the blanket, Abby only saw her. She helped set the basket aside and then sat down next to Quinn, who appeared to be making no move to get the food out for the picnic part of their evening, so Abby didn’t, either.

“Will you sit between my legs?” Quinn requested, seemingly nervous for some reason.

“Well, twist my arm,” Abby joked and moved until she was sitting in front of Quinn, being wrapped up in her arms. “It’s peaceful out here. We really should get out here more often now that the big things in the house are all done.”

“I agree.” Quinn kissed Abby’s neck. “I love the sound of the crickets and the water. It smells like pine out here, too, which is nice.”

“Do you think whoever comes after us will smell pine how we still smell honeysuckle?” she asked.

“Maybe if we come out here more, they will.”

“I wonder who they’ll be,” Abby said. “Will they be born with it, or will it just hit them one day like it did with Cheryl and Diana?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we’ll know when we die many, many years from now.” Quinn squeezed her middle. “Maybe they all know about us how we know about them, and we’ll find that out when we die after, like, our seventy-fifth wedding anniversary or something.”

“Wedding anniversary? I don’t see a ring on this finger,” Abby teased, holding up her bare hand.

“That’s because it’s right here.” Quinn held a ring box open in front of her now. “Abby Foster Brennon, I’ve loved every version of you throughout our history, but I love this one the most. I want to be your wife. I’d marry you right here with a twine bracelet, but since we can actually get married in front of our friends and families and celebrate how they all should’ve been able to, I want to do that. Will you marry me?”

Abby covered her mouth with her hand. Prior to today, she’d thought Quinn was going to propose on their two-year dating anniversary, but when she hadn’t, Abby had assumed she might wait for another special occasion. They had been so busy; she figured Quinn just wanted to be a little more settled before she asked, knowing that once she did, Abby would want to start planning as soon as possible.

“Yes,” she said.

“Yeah?” Quinn asked, running her lips over Abby’s neck before she kissed her there.

“Yes,” Abby repeated.

Quinn pulled the ring from the box and then more or less helped Abby put it on her ring finger. It was beautiful. A simple and not overly large diamond in the middle, with a gold band; exactly what Abby would’ve picked out for herself. Abby turned in her now-fiancée’s arms and had Quinn on her back in seconds.

“I have yours at the house.”

“You have a ring for me?”

“Obviously. I bought it, like, six months ago. You said that you wanted to be the one to propose, or you’d have it on your hand already, Quinn Elizabeth.”

Quinn laughed and said, “Well, I’ll put it on when we get home. ”

“Later,” Abby replied and kissed her. “Much later.”

“Abs…”

“Make love to me out here,” she whispered against Quinn’s lips.

“Really?”

“Yes,” Abby confirmed.

“Well, twist my arm,” Quinn joked this time and rolled them over until she was on top of Abby.

“I want to do it here.”

“Yeah, I know. You just–”

Abby wrapped her arms around Quinn’s neck and said, “No, my love. I want to marry you here. Now. Like they did. And then, at our house in the backyard, with our friends and family there. Honey can be our flower girl.”

“I was actually kind of hoping you’d say that.” Quinn chuckled before she reached into the picnic basket and pulled something out. Then, she held them up. “Told you I’d marry you right now with a twine bracelet.” She straddled Abby and slipped one on her wrist.

Abby took the other one from her and put it on Quinn’s wrist.

“I’m yours,” Quinn said and kissed the inside of Abby’s wrist. “Always.”