Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
The next morning, Fiona woke to her cell phone buzzing against the nightstand.
She reached for it, eyes still sticky. A text from her mom glowed on the screen, too bright in the dark room. She squinted to read it.
Made it to Phoenix. Your father is already breathing better. We’ll call tonight. Love you.
Thank heavens. Dad breathing easier was the point, the reason they went, but a deep sense of sadness rolled over her. They would move to Arizona permanently. She felt it to her core.
And where would that leave her and Jamie?
Every routine, every responsibility, every moment of her son’s day without them.
She typed, erased, retyped. Nothing sounded right. At last, she tapped out:
Glad you made it safe and sound. Love you too.
After that, she turned her attention to the school closing. Sure enough, their school was open, just as she suspected. You couldn’t keep Evergreen Springs down for long.
She dropped the phone, swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and planted her feet on the vinyl flooring. She brushed her teeth, got dressed, and hurried to the living room.
Rhett was not asleep on the couch. Just a neat pile of folded blankets topped with a pillow. Nor was he in the kitchen. His hat and coat were missing as well. Where had he gone?
A startling thought occurred to her. Had the card called him back to 1878?
Disappointment dug in deep. She went to the door and peered out. Footprints in the snow walked away from her entryway, but there was no sign of Rhett. Had he left of his own accord?
Puzzled, she went to the only remaining room and found Jamie sitting cross-legged on his bed, backpack beside him, straps facing outward the way he always positioned them.
He glanced up fast, hair jutting at angles. “School today?”
“Yes. School.” She crossed to the bed and tugged the quilt smooth. The snowflakes printed on it were faded from years of washing. “Did you see Rhett this morning?”
Jamie shook his head.
“Okay, come on. Let’s get breakfast.”
In the kitchen, she set out toast, apple slices fanned across the plate, and yogurt in his blue bowl. Her hands moved on instinct, built from hundreds of mornings.
Only this morning wasn’t like those. Her parents weren’t downstairs. They weren’t coming up in an hour to take Jamie to school.
And Rhett was gone.
Jamie perched at the table, eyes fixed on her hands. He tracked each step, waiting for the order to hold. When she spread butter to every edge of the toast, his shoulders released their tight hunch.
The door opened.
Fiona’s heart leapt. She dropped what she was doing and raced to the hallway.
He stood there in his black duster and cowboy hat, looking good enough to eat.
“Where have you been?” she asked, then worried she was coming on too strong. “I mean, I was worried. 2025 is complicated and not something you should tackle alone.”
He grinned, and her silly heart melted. “I went out to clear the snow away from your car so you wouldn’t have to.”
“Oh…aww, that’s sweet. Thank you.”
She had covered parking, but residents did have to remove the snow from behind their cars to the driveway to get out. Dad usually did it for her. She was spoiled, and she knew it.
A tip of his hat. “No problem, Miss Fi.”
“How did you manage it?”
“Saw that shovel you keep mounted on the wall in front of your car and just went to shovelin’.”
“Well, aren’t you industrious.” If he wanted to stay in 2025, he could adapt rather easily, she decided. “I’m making breakfast. Are you hungry?”
“Sure am, and I’d love some more of that mighty tasty coffee of yours.” He stomped his boots on the welcome mat, dislodging chunks of snow.
She waved him to the kitchen, utterly relieved he wasn’t gone. Stop being so needy.
“Have a seat, and no, you can’t help,” she said to him.
“Yessum.” His smile curved all the way to those gorgeous blue eyes as he sat next to Jamie at the bar.
“That’s where Pap sits,” Jamie said.
“Oh?” Rhett hopped up. “I can move.”
Jamie studied him for a long moment. “No, you can sit. Pap wouldn’t mind. He won’t be back until spring.”
Rhett gave a surprised look to Fiona and eased down into the seat.
Hmm, she didn’t know what to make of that announcement. Was Jamie already adapting to life without his beloved Pap?
It’s only because Rhett is here.
Fiona brewed coffee and cooked fried eggs for herself and Rhett to go along with the toast and apple slices.
“I have to work today.” She settled a plate in front of him and sat beside him with her food. “I have so much to catch up on since I missed two days. Jamie’s off to school. I was thinking…”
He turned and pinned those blue eyes on her, giving her his full attention.
“There’s nothing for you to do here at the apartment. Would you like to go hang out with Wyatt at the bakery?”
“Yes!” He straightened, instantly at attention.
“Maybe Wyatt can help you get some new clothes. You can’t keep wearing the same thing.”
“I wear this every day at home.”
Hmm, she supposed cowboys didn’t change clothing all that often in 1878. But this was 2025.
“Wyatt should be able to fill you in on a lot of things.”
“I’d be tickled pink to see him.”
They finished eating, did the dishes, and hurried out the door. Jamie sat in back, Rhett in the passenger side.
He rode silently, fidgeting with the seat belt strapping him in, his gaze shifting from her hands on the wheel, to the passing world as if he was figuring out how driving worked. Traffic lights, buildings, cars zooming by. Things a man from 1878 had no reference for.
In back, Jamie recited, his voice the soundtrack to their morning routine. “Necessary. N-E-C-E-S-S-A-R-Y. Necessary.”
“Good,” she said. “Next.”
“Separate. S-E-P-A-R-A-T-E. Separate.”
The word hung between her and Rhett. Separate. That’s what she needed to be. Separate from him, from the dangerous warmth that kept pulling her closer.
At the curb, she twisted in her seat and smoothed Jamie’s hair. “Go on. Bell’s about to ring.”
He grabbed his backpack and got out. She watched him trudge up the sidewalk. A side door swung open, and Megan rushed toward her car in snow boots and a parka, travel mug in hand, coat half-unbuttoned.
Fiona’s pulse jumped. Uh-oh. She had Rhett in the passenger seat still in his old west garb, and Megan did not know anything about time-traveling cowboys. She wanted to pretend she didn’t see Megan, put the car in gear, and zoom off.
She did not.
“Fi, hey.” Megan waved as she reached the vehicle.
Reluctantly, Fiona rolled down the window. “Hi Megs. Did you enjoy the snow day?”
“Good grief, no. I’m twice as behind as I was, and I swear that Christmas pageant is going to be the death of me. I don’t understand why Mom loved it so much.
Megan’s mom had retired as the principal of Evergreen Springs Elementary two years before she passed away last Christmas, and Megan had taken her mother’s job.
Fiona often wondered what it was like to fill such big shoes.
Even though her friend was career-focused and ambitious, it couldn’t be easy living in the shadow of her mother’s legacy.
“I just wanted to check that you were doing okay with your parents’ sudden departure to Ari—” Megan bent lower, her gaze landing on Rhett.
“Megan, meet Rhett.” She flopped a hand in his direction. “Rhett, Megan is an old friend of mine and the principal of Jamie’s school.”
“Howdy, ma’am.” Rhett nodded his head, and she had no doubt he would have tipped his hat if it hadn’t been sitting in his lap.
“Where did you come from, cowboy?” Megan asked.
Rhett looked at Fiona. He looked a little befuddled.
“He’s a friend of Wyatt’s.” True enough.
“And yet, he’s in your car.” A teasing note came into her friend’s voice. “The day after a snow day.”
“I…er…”
Megan’s mouth curved into a grin edged with mischief. “I say it’s about time you let yourself have a little fun.”
Heat streaked up Fiona’s neck, and she didn’t dare look at Rhett. “It’s not—”
Megan glanced back at Rhett, her unabashed expression appraising him. “Richard’s been gone a long while. Honestly? Good for you.”
Fiona’s face scalded hot. The words she needed—it’s not what it looks like—stuck in her throat. Because what it was couldn’t be spoken. This is Rhett; he’s from 1878, pulled through a magic Christmas card when I couldn’t handle my own son’s meltdown. Right.
Megan’s grin flattened, and her eyes narrowed. She lowered her voice. “But Fiona, you know Jamie. Change rattles him. You have to think about that.”
The words cut. As if Fiona hadn’t been thinking of nothing else since Rhett appeared. As if she didn’t spend the nights cataloging all the ways this could hurt her son.
“He’s fine. Jamie’s fine.”
Megan studied her for a long moment. She’d known Fiona since before high school, had walked with her through her marriage and divorce, through every turn. She saw too much now.
“First Eliza with Wyatt,” Megan said. “Then Tessa with Cade. And now you.” Her tone lightened, but not her eyes. “I don’t know what’s happening in Evergreen Springs, but don’t think I’m not noticing.”
She reached through the window, gave Fiona’s arm a quick squeeze—half affection, half dismay—then straightened. “You two have a fun day.”
Fiona sat stunned. She knew Megan well, but her friend just hadn’t been the same since her mother passed away. Did Megan really think she and Rhett were… Oh heavens!
Rhett hadn’t said a word.
Evergreen Springs rolled past in soft white drifts, the post office, the coffee shop, the bank, each window glowing with garlands and light. The town looked exactly as always.
Only she was different.
She parked in the bakery lot. “Here we are. I’ll take you in to see Wyatt, then I have to go to work. I’ll come get you when I’m done.”
They got out, stepping around the piled snow.