Chapter 4
Chapter Four
After a restless night thinking of the man in her guest room, Megan woke with a plan.
Answers first, her hurt feelings later. Wyatt and Eliza had some explaining to do. So did Tessa and Fiona, apparently. Time-traveling cowboys, and not one of her friends breathed a word.
She dressed, pulled her hair back, and opened her door. The smell of coffee from the coffee maker she set each night on a timer wafted down the hall.
In the kitchen, she found Holden sitting at the table, hat beside his mug, posture straight as a sermon.
“I helped myself to some coffee. I hope that’s okay.”
She poured herself a cup. “That’s fine. I’ll make breakfast.”
“Can I help?”
The thought of him underfoot rattled her. Cooking helped her think, and if he was standing beside her, well, the man was a distraction. “No, I’ve got it. Relax.”
He appeared as if he wanted to push back but nodded and said nothing.
Fifteen minutes later, she slid a plate of scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon in front of him and another plate for herself. He waited for her to sit before lifting his fork. Respectful. She liked that.
“How’d you sleep?”
“Okay. But everything is too soft. I’m not used to such comforts.”
“You’ll adjust.”
He nodded, but his face said he wasn’t so sure about that. “What happens next?”
Between bites, she laid out her plan. “Foster’s Bakeshop is closed on Sundays, but we’re going to head over there and intercept Eliza and Wyatt before they head to church.”
“I like that idea. Wyatt always was the smartest of us.”
The casual us scraped across her nerves. “You mean the rest of the men who’ve shown up here from the nineteenth century? The ones my friends forgot to mention?”
His brows lifted. “You didn’t know Wyatt, Cade, and Rhett were time travelers too?”
“I did not.” She stabbed at her eggs.
“You feel hurt.”
“Yeah. Excluded and blindsided by you. If I’d known…”
“What would you have done?”
“For one thing, I wouldn’t have wished on that card.” Her voice came out strident, and that wasn’t what she intended.
He winced. “I imagine they were just trying to protect you.”
That calm certainty disarmed her. It wasn’t condescending, just the way he was. She didn’t know whether to be grateful or annoyed.
Holden finished his bacon, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and studied her across the table. Not prying. Just watching in that quiet way he had, like he was waiting for her to say the truth instead of the things she thought she should say.
She pushed her plate away. “I’m not fragile.”
“I never thought you were.”
“Good,” she said. “Because we’re getting answers today.”
He nodded, slow and certain. “Then we’ll go get them.”
His “we” felt too close, too much, and not enough all at once. She stood, gathering their plates before she could think too hard about it.
Behind her, his chair scraped. “Miss Megan?”
She didn’t turn.
“Don’t be too hard on them. This time-traveling thing is tough on all concerned… you included.”
“What are you saying?” she said, facing him at last.
“You’ve got some pretty high standards not everyone can live up to, but I expect that’s because you hold yourself to the highest standard of all. Maybe ease up on yourself a bit. You don’t have to be perfect.”
That struck dead center in her chest. She set the dishes in the sink. “Come on. Let’s go ask.”
She grabbed her coat.
He followed.
* * *
The bakery sign said CLOSED, but Megan knocked anyway.
Sunday morning stretched quiet through Evergreen Springs, the kind of stillness that made noise feel like trespassing. No cars on the streets. No pedestrians either. People still in bed, too early for church.
She knocked again, harder, guilt twisting. Waking people at seven on their one day off was rude. Waking them to announce she’d summoned a time-traveling cowboy was worse.
Holden stood beside her, waiting.
“What if they don’t answer?” She bit her bottom lip.
“They will.”
“But how do you know?” Anxiety scooped a hole in her gut.
“Because Wyatt’s Wyatt. Reliable as sunrise.”
From inside came the sound of footsteps. The lock clicked.
The door opened. Eliza stood in a bathrobe, hair pulled into a messy bun, eyes still soft with sleep. Her gaze settled on Megan, confusion flickering to concern. “Megan? What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry to wake you. I know it’s early—“
Eliza’s attention shifted past her to Holden, and her eyes widened. “Oh…oh.” She stopped, mouth open, staring at Holden. “Did you find a Christmas card?”
Megan eyed the man beside her and then turned back to Eliza. “What do you think?”
“Come in, come in.” Eliza stepped back and held the door open. “Wyatt. You need to see this.”
More footsteps. Heavier. Wyatt appeared behind Eliza, barefoot in jeans and a flannel shirt, rubbing the back of his neck. His gaze swept past Megan and lighted on Holden. “Reed?”
Holden grinned. “In the flesh.”
Wyatt crossed the threshold, clasped Holden’s shoulders, and pulled him into an embrace. Two men from 1878 reunited in a modern doorway.
Megan stood aside, uncertain. The shoulder clasp, the shared history, pricked deeper than she expected.
Inside, the smell of yeast and cinnamon greeted them. Wyatt threw his arm around Holden’s shoulder and led him to a table covered in a holiday-themed cloth. “When did you get here?”
“Last night. Didn’t see it coming. One minute I was in the line shack, the next, I was standing in her office, light burning behind my eyes.” Holden settled in at the table across from Wyatt.
Wyatt huffed a breath that sounded half laugh, half prayer. “Golden blaze?”
“Yep.”
Eliza tied her robe tighter. “I’ll make coffee. Pastries?”
“Yes.” Megan didn’t know why she said that. They had just had breakfast, but sugar seemed the perfect antidote to this bizarre moment. “Do you need help?”
“No, no, have a seat.” Eliza waved her down.
Holden and Wyatt were already swapping stories, talking about what was happening back in 1878 and Wyatt’s life in 2025, catching each other up.
Megan hovered at the end of the table, the outsider in her own story. It felt like walking in on a conversation that started a hundred years before she was born.
Finally, she sat and folded her hands to keep from fidgeting. “So you’ve both been through this. Someone needs to tell me what this is.”
Wyatt ran a hand along his jaw. “Well, we don’t rightly know for sure. What I can say is it happened the same way for me, Cade, and Rhett. You too, Reed?”
Holden met Megan’s gaze. “It started with a pulling sensation dead center of my chest. Hard to describe. Like a rope cinching tight, only on the inside. Then the heat and the light.”
Wyatt nodded. “We’re breathing good Montana air in 1878, going about our day, and then suddenly we’re standing here in this century wondering what in blazes happened.”
“And the Christmas card activates the time travel?” Megan struggled to piece it all together.
Wyatt and Holden stared at each other and bobbed their heads in unison.
Eliza brought coffee and Danish rolls to the table on a tray and took the seat beside Wyatt. She passed out the mugs.
Absentmindedly, Megan took a sip, her attention captured by the men. “But what triggers the card, and how does it choose who to transport?”
Picking up a cheese Danish, Eliza said, “I can answer that. I found the Christmas card with Wyatt’s picture on it among my grandmother’s recipes when I was at my lowest point.
I had just learned she’d taken out the balloon, and I would lose the bakery if I couldn’t raise forty thousand dollars by the end of December. ”
Megan blew out her breath. “Yes, I was there.”
“What you didn’t know was that in my darkest moment, I wished for help. That’s when the card started glowing.” She broke into a grin and leaned against Wyatt. “And this one appeared.”
Wyatt kissed the top of Eliza’s head, and a pang of envy punched Megan’s heart. Don’t be jealous. They’re happy.
“What about Tessa?” Megan pursed her lips.
“She wished for someone to help her whip those mini horses into reindeer shape at the same time a card fell out of her barn rafters. And ta-da, Cade.” Eliza pantomimed a card drifting down.
“Hmm, so you got a man who knew how to bake, and Tessa got a horse whisperer.” Megan tapped her chin with a finger. “The card is selecting specific men to meet your needs?”
Wyatt shrugged. “Looks like it. It didn’t send Cade to Eliza or me to Tessa.”
Megan shot a glance at Holden. He was watching her. She ducked her head, unable to hold his intense gaze. “So what about Fiona?”
“She found a card inside a box of Christmas decorations when she was trying to help Jamie avoid a meltdown after her parents moved to Arizona. She wished for help and got Rhett, a widower who’d lost a young son about Jamie’s age.” Eliza dusted crumbs from her fingers.
“The card picks the perfect person for whoever wishes on it.” Megan glanced at Holden again.
Their eyes met.
Locked.
Holden placed both palms flat on the table. “What about you? What did you wish for? Why am I here?”
“I asked for help sorting out the truth about the Great Blizzard of 1870.”
Wyatt raised a hand. “Holden is the perfect one to answer that question. He’s the one who saved Evergreen Springs.”
Megan felt her pulse pound at her throat. “How does he get back?”
Three sets of eyes turned her way.
Wyatt shook his head. “As far as we can tell, he doesn’t. Not until the card decides it’s done.”
“Decides?” she echoed. “You make it sound alive.”
Wyatt grunted. “Don’t know what else to call it. And there’s a thing you need to hear. I once tried to make the card take me by force. I picked up my card, told myself I didn’t belong here, and asked it to take me back.”
Eliza leaned over to Megan. “He thought I was going to sell the bakery. He went off half-cocked.”
Wyatt grinned at Eliza. “I paid a price for my foolishness. I landed at camp, only the time was off and things were different. Same wagon, same fire; my friends didn’t know me. Captain Murray checked his ledger and swore I wasn’t in it.”
“I don’t remember that,” Holden frowned.
“No?” Wyatt reached for Eliza’s hand and squeezed it. They exchanged a loving glance that tugged at Megan’s heartstrings. “You said you didn’t know me.”
“That must have been scary,” Megan said, sipping her now-tepid coffee.
“It got worse. When the moon hit, I could see through my own hands. I was fading away, trapped between places. I cried out to Eliza, and she pulled me back. The card burned to ash after that. Just caught fire all by itself.”
“Sealing you forever in 2025?” Megan put a hand to her chest.
“Yep.”
The room fell silent.
After a minute, Megan cleared her throat. “So what happens if Holden doesn’t force a return? Will the card take him back of its own accord?”
Eliza wadded up her paper napkin and dropped it on her empty plate. “That’s how it happened with Cade. When Tessa told him she didn’t need him anymore, the card returned to 1878.”
“Oh wow. How did he get back here?” Megan moved her hand to her throat, tension running through her body.
Eliza shifted in her seat. “Einstein was really sick, and Tessa was waiting on the vet, but she didn’t think Einstein could live long enough for him to get there, so she begged the card to bring him back.”
“And poof, there he was. His card burned up too.” Wyatt brushed his palms together in an it’s-a-done-deal gesture.
“So the card will only transport you twice?” Megan scratched her head.
“That’s how it’s worked so far.” Eliza settled back in her chair. “But you gotta remember we don’t know the rules; this is all conjecture based on our experiences.”
“What about Rhett?” Megan glanced from Eliza to Wyatt.
“I can answer that one.” Holden held up a finger.
Megan swung her gaze to him. “You know? How?”
“The boy showed up in the snow outside our line shack in the middle of the night. Startled us all. Then his ma showed up, then Rhett.”
“So the card took Jamie back? That’s horrifying.” Megan slapped her palm over her mouth.
“Fiona went after him. And Rhett went after her. Wyatt held Rhett’s card, and he was the one who pulled them back.” Eliza clicked her tongue.
“When was this?”
“Friday night.”
“And I’m just now finding out about it?” Megan scowled.
Eliza inclined her head toward Holden. “Well, you were kind of busy yourself.”
“But you didn’t know that.” Megan shot her a sharp stare.
“Okay, we were kind of busy.” Eliza gave a rueful laugh.
“So the card will just take Holden back when it’s good and ready?” Megan asked.
Wyatt lifted his hands and shoulders. “We can’t say for certain.”
“What if I don’t want to go?” Holden asked.
Wyatt looked at Eliza, and they shared a private glance. Then Eliza said, “I guess you could always burn the card, but that means you would never have the option of returning home.”
No one spoke. The card had its own will. Unknown rules. No guarantees.
Holden leaned back, eyes shadowed. “What happens now?”
Megan didn’t have an answer, but she needed to do something. She stood. “For starters, you’re not walking around town dressed like the History Channel. Come on.”
Holden got up too. “Where are we going?”
“Walmart.” She reached for her coat.
“What’s that?”
“A big box store.”
He scowled. “A what?”
“Too hard to explain; you’ll see when we get there.”
He settled his hands on his hips, gunslinger style. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing’?”
“Nothing…in 1878.”
He looked down at his clothes, then back at her, his expression skeptical.
“She’s right,” Wyatt said. “You can trust her.”
Holden’s mouth flattened, and for a second, she thought he might dig in harder. Instead, he said, “You sure about this place?”
“I am.”
He nodded. “All right, but I’m keepin’ the hat.”
She eyeballed the worn out old hat and pursed her lips. Compromise. “Fine.”
Terrific. She came here seeking answers, but what she got instead was unruly magic and a time-traveling cowboy she couldn’t control.