Nora Roberts - Times Change

“I’m all right.” Shaken, Libby walked inside to the fire and tried to warm her icy hands. No amount of heat could warm her trembling heart. She wouldn’t look at him again, not until she had herself under some kind of control. In the back of her mind, the little germ of fear had lived. Someday they would come for him. But she hadn’t believed it would be so soon. They’d had so little time.

Time, she thought bitterly. It was a word she could learn to hate.

Sunny stood between them, baffled. The tension was so thick in the small room that she could smell it as easily as the woodsmoke. “All right.” She looked from Libby’s rigid back to Jacob’s stony face without any idea who she should go to. “Would either of you like to tell me what’s going on?”

“Hey, Libby, if that was that sexy sister of yours, I want to tell her—”

Barefoot, his sweatshirt torn, Cal strode in from the kitchen. Everyone turned toward him. It was like a slow, deliberate ballet. His easy grin froze. All motion stopped.

“J.T.” His voice was hardly more than a whisper as joy and disbelief flooded through him. “J.T.,” he said again. Then, with a whoop, he was across the room, grabbing his brother in a hard hug. “Oh, God, Jacob! It’s really you!”

Libby watched them until tears blurred her vision and she turned away.

Sunny beamed. The two brothers held each other in a fierce embrace. She could see the emotions run over Jacob’s face and found them beautiful.

“I can’t believe it,” Cal murmured, pulling his brother back to study, to devour, his face. “You’re really here. How?”

He kept his hands on Cal’s arms, needing the simple and tangible contact. “The same way as you, but with more finesse. You look good.” Somehow he’d expected to find Cal pale and thin and tired from coping with the twentieth century. Instead, his brother was tanned, alert and obviously happy.

“You, too.” His smile faded a bit. “Mom? Dad?”

“They’re fine.”

Cal nodded. It was a hurt he had learned to live with. “You got my message. I couldn’t be sure.”

“We received it,” Jacob said dully.

“You’ve met Libby, then.” Regret vanished. Turning, he held a hand out for his wife. She didn’t move.

“We’ve met.” Jacob inclined his head and waited. She could take the first step.

“You’ll both have a lot to talk about.” Using every ounce of effort, she managed to keep her voice steady.

“Libby.” Her name was a murmur as Cal crossed to her. He laid a hand on her cheek until she lifted her eyes to his. He saw the love and the fear in them. “Don’t.”

“I’m fine.” Calling up more strength, she squeezed his hand. “I have some things to do upstairs. You two should catch up.” She shifted her glance to Jacob. “I know you’ve missed each other.”

Turning, she fled up the stairs.

Sunny shifted her gaze from her sister’s retreating back to Cal’s unsmiling face and then to Jacob’s angry eyes. “What the hell is going on here?”

“Go up with her, will you?” Cal laid a hand on her shoulder but continued to look after his wife. “I don’t want her to be alone.”

“All right.” She could already see, just by looking at the two of them, that she’d get no explanations here. She’d damn well get one from Libby.

Cal waited until Sunny had climbed the stairs. Facing his brother again, he recognized the fury, the passion, and the hurt in him, “We have to talk.”

“Yes.”

“Not here.” He thought of his wife.

“No.” Jacob thought of Sunny. “We’ll go to my ship.”

Sunny paused outside the bedroom door. Taking a deep breath, she pushed it open. Libby sat on the edge of the bed, hands folded. There were no tears. Tears would have been less heartbreaking than the despair on her face.

“Honey, what is it?”

Libby felt as though she were in a dream. Looking up, she focused on the reality of her sister. “How long has he been here?”

“About three weeks.” Sunny sat on the bed to take Libby’s hand in hers. “Talk to me. I thought you’d be happy to finally meet Cal’s brother.”

“I am—for him.” Hoping that much was true, she pressed a hand to her jittery stomach. “Did he explain to you why he’s here? Where he’s from?”

“Of course.” Puzzled, Sunny gave her a little shake. “Come on, Libby, snap out of it. J.T.’s a little rough around the edges, but he isn’t a monster. He’s just concerned about Cal, and maybe a little hurt that he chose you and settled here.”

“Oh, God.” Unable to sit, Libby rose to pace to the window. She heard the hum of an engine and saw the Land Rover disappear into the forest. “I would have let him go,” she said quietly, and closed her eyes. “Back then I was prepared to. I couldn’t have asked him to give up his family, his life. But now I can’t let him go. I won’t.”

“Where would he go?”

Libby rested her head on the cool glass of the window. “Back.” She laughed a little. “Forward. Jacob must have told you how impossibly complicated it all is.”

Rising, Sunny walked over to lay her hands on Libby’s shoulders. They were taut, like bundles of wire. Automatically she worked to relax them. “Cal’s a grown man, Libby, and staying here was his choice. J.T.’s just going to have to accept that.”

“But will he?”

“When he first got here, J.T. was angry and resentful. He just wasn’t able to understand Cal’s feelings. But things have changed. For both of us.”

Slowly Libby turned. What was in her sister’s heart was clearly written in her eyes. Libby felt a lurch of panic. “Oh, Sunny.”

“Hey, don’t look at me like that.” She grinned. “I’m in love, not terminally ill.”

“But what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to go back with him.”

With an inarticulate cry, Libby threw her arms around Sunny’s neck. She clung, rocking.

“For Lord’s sake, Libby, you’re as bad as Jacob. It’s only Philadelphia. You’re acting like I’m going to set up housekeeping on Pluto.”

“There aren’t any settled colonies on Pluto.”

With a strangled laugh, Sunny pulled away. “Well, I guess that leaves that out. We’ll have to make do with a condo in Philly.”

Libby studied Sunny’s face, and her expression gradually changed. The tears that had dampened her eyes dried. “You don’t understand, do you?”

“I understand that I love J.T. and he loves me. We haven’t talked about life commitments yet, but it’s only a matter of time.” She stopped, wary. “Libby, why are you looking at me as though you want to wring my neck?”

“Not yours.” Libby’s voice had firmed. She might be the quieter of the two, but when those she loved were threatened she could put an Amazon queen to shame. “The bastard.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I said he’s a bastard.”

Sisterly love notwithstanding, Sunny’s hackles were rising. “Now look, Libby—”

She shook her head. She wasn’t about to be stopped now. “Did he tell you he loved you?”

Nearly out of patience, Sunny snapped off an oath. Then: “Yes.”

“And you’ve gone to bed with him.”

Sunny’s eyes narrowed. “Have you been taking lessons from Dad?”

“Of course you’ve gone to bed with him,” Libby muttered, pacing the room. “He’s made you fall in love with him, taken you to bed, and hasn’t had the decency to tell you.”

Sunny’s foot was tapping a rapid tattoo. “Tell me what?”

“That he and Cal are from the twenty-third century.”

Sunny’s foot stopped. In the sudden silence, she gaped at Libby. All that sun, she thought. Her poor sister had had her brain fried in Bora Bora. Slowly she crossed the room.