The limo ride back to Florence’s house seemed to take forever.

Twisting my fingers in my lap, I thought through every option I could conceive—and some I never would have considered if my mind had been functioning even close to normal.

Glenn was well and truly done with me.

I didn’t need anybody to break down the way he’d looked at me, or to tell me who the beautiful redhead at his side had been. He’d moved on. But not peacefully. He still had a raging hate on for me, and that meant there wasn’t going to be any kind of peace between us.

That translated to there being no peace between Glenn and Florence, not while I was there.

If I couldn’t find a way back to my own time, I at least needed to leave Florence’s house so Florence didn’t get drawn into the mess. Staying with her and Astor would just put them in a bad place.

“You’re very quiet,” Florence said from her seat on the other side of the limo.

“I’m thinking,” I said, voice rough.

Thinking, regretting, wishing. There should be a word that described all three. Threwishing, maybe. Yes, I was threwishing. I laughed a little, but even that sound was broken.

“Your thinking sounds an awful lot like crying. But I guess seeing him was pretty hard on you.”

“Yeah.” I twisted the folds of the pretty green dress she’d loaned me between my fingers. “I’m just trying to figure out what I should do, what my next step should be. It’s not like I can hang out in one of your guest bedrooms forever, right?”

“You can stay with us as long as you need, Maya!” She leaned forward and took my hand, watching me earnestly.

My eyes watered, the tears creeping ever closer.

“Honey, what’s wrong?”

Shaking my head, I tugged my hand free and leaned back against the padded cushion, staring outside. I couldn’t possibly explain everything that was wrong, just as I couldn’t explain my urgency to figure out a plan.

A small, quiet voice in the back of my head said, You know what you need to do. Get back to your own time. You can’t do this on your own. Not here, not in this time.

I was tempted to agree. But the man I loved wouldn’t be there, and some part of me wanted to think that I could still make things work with Glenn.

The drive seemed endless as I turned it all over in my head but finally, we reached the house and I climbed out without waiting for the chauffeur. Kicking off my heels, I started for the house at a quick pace, desperate to be alone.

“Maya!”

I didn’t wait, though. I rushed for the front door and like magic, it opened.

It was Harrison, of course, not magic, and the concern in his voice only made it harder to hold everything inside. Stumbling into the salon, I sank into a chair and pulled my knees up to my chest, not caring about the delicate fabric of the skirt. I felt like I was going to break open with all the misery and confusion inside me.

“Maya.”

Florence touched my shoulder and the dam inside broke free. All the fear, doubt, and misery spilled out in heavy, hard sobs.

What was I going to do?

How was I going to handle this?

I was pregnant and alone in 1965. Glenn didn’t want to talk to me. Didn’t want to be seen with me.

“Sweetheart.” Florence sank down on the arm of the chair and tugged me close. “You’re going to make yourself sick.”

She stroked her hand up, then down my hair, rocking me and murmuring to me as I emptied out all the misery, all the fear, all the doubt.

There was so much of it. So very much, and I didn’t know if it would ever come to an end.

But it did.

“Here.” Florence pushed a handkerchief into my hand.

They were a thing of the past in my time. Now they were just a commonality, a courtesy that people carried in their pockets or purses. I wiped my eyes, blew my nose, then folded it up, staring at it as I held it in my lap.

“Why do I get the feeling there’s something bigger going on than what you’ve told me?” Florence asked.

I shot her a look. “What…isn’t the fight with Glenn enough?”

“Maya.” She laughed, a wry, honest sound. Then she rose and moved over to the window to stare outside. “You are one of the strongest, most steady people I know. Aside from these…fugues…and honestly, I’m not sure what to make of them. You show so much clear-headedness. You saved my life. You were there for me when nobody else was. Even when I knew you were in love with Glenn, you were there for me.”

Startled, I looked up at her.

She gave me a sad smile. “Did you think I wouldn’t figure it out? I did. And don’t worry…I’m not angry. He was right, you see. He wasn’t the man for me. I found the man who was meant to be mine. But it had to hurt, you seeing me push myself at him.”

“I don’t think he’s meant to be mine either,” I said softly.

“I’m not so sure about that.” She came back to me, her heels soundless on the plush carpet. She sank to her knees, the lush, silken skirt billowing out around her. “He wouldn’t have been so miserable without you if you two didn’t matter to each other. And you wouldn’t hurt so much now if you two didn’t matter to each other. There’s something there. You can’t tell me otherwise. Now…” She brushed my hair back. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“I…” I can’t. The words stuck in my throat. I was so tired of holding all of this inside. But nobody would believe me.

“I’m pregnant.”

The words hung between us. Florence blinked, looked confused. “You…I…what?”

“I’m pregnant. And…” Don’t, Maya. Don’t say it. Don’t… “The baby is Glenn’s, Florence. I lied about the kidnapping. That wasn’t what happened. I…you’re going to think I’m crazy for real, but I can’t do this anymore. I’m not…”

I stopped and pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes as I tried to gather my thoughts. I shouldn’t do this.

Finally, I took a deep breath and lowered my hands to meet Florence’s confused gaze.

“I don’t even belong here, Florence. Technically, I’m not even alive. I’ll be born in Philadelphia, decades from now.” I told her my date of birth, gave her the names of my parents. “My dad is just a baby. If you looked them up, you could call his parents. I can tell you his full name, their full names, his date of birth and what hospital he was born in. In just another week or so, President Johnson will sign the Voting Rights Act in law. In a couple of years, the Lovings will fight it out in the Supreme Court and they’ll win—interracial marriage will no longer be illegal in any state. In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr is going to be assassinated. The marches in Selma changed everything, Florence, and I know just how much those marches changed, because in my time, all of this—even the things that haven’t happened yet—they are history.”

She sank back onto her heels, gaping at me. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I’m from the future.” I had to swallow and clear my throat before I could continue. “That’s how I knew you were going to kill yourself that day. In my time, you actually succeeded. I thought the reason I came back was to stop you, so that’s what I did. I thought I’d do it and I’d just…poof. Go back. I didn’t know that Glenn and I would fall in love and…”

“You…” She reached up to touch her necklace. “That’s how you ended up in my room. You knew.”

“Yes.”

“And that’s how you’re so certain about things…why you’re always telling me and Astor that things will get better. This…this voting rights act. It’s going to become law?”

“Yes. It’s going to take time, but things do get better. Of course, nothing is ever perfect, not even fifty years from now. But things do start to change.” I bit my lip, wondered how much more I could say, then decided I might as well finish. “Florence…when I disappeared, I went back to my time. Where I belong…or at least where I came from. But in my time, I was just gone a few seconds and I was only there a few weeks. Years didn’t pass for me. Not like they did here.”

“I…” Florence got up and started to pace. “Give me a minute. I need to think.”

Well, at least she wasn’t automatically telling me I was crazy.

The taut moments passed in silence.

But finally, she looked back at me and nodded. “Logic is telling me that you are crazy, that I should bring Astor in here, have you talk to him so he can get you help.” She placed a hand over her heart. “But this…? I have to listen to my heart. You helped me. You gave me my life back, and that gave me Astor. So I’m going to believe you.”

Then she laughed weakly. “After all, in a week, we’ll see. If President Johnson signs that act into law, then I’ll know you to be telling the truth, right?”

I heaved out a sigh of relief.

“So…by all of your…” Florence gave me a bewildered look. “I don’t even know how to process what you’ve told me. How pregnant are you? And you’re positive it’s Glenn’s?”

“Yes.” I wasn’t going to lie and claim to be a virgin, but he was the only man who could have fathered the baby. It had been too long since my last lover, and even though I’d slept with Maverick, they’d done a pregnancy test at the hospital. They always do pregnancy tests.

“Well, then. I’m going to do what you did for me. I’ll be here for you. However you need me to be.”