Timeless Whisper (Timeless Hearts Series Book 1) Read online

  Surely more people than this felt his loss. She didn’t know her father’s family very well but she knew he had some. Where were they? Tears sprang to her eyes. She blinked them away, and swallowed. Torin took her hand and led her to the front of the pew, indicating for the pastor waiting in the pulpit to start.

  Raven sat quite still in front of the portrait of her father, her hand being squeezed by Torin as the few people who came up, said something nice about him. The funeral home had provided refreshments and snacks. And finally, when she deemed it seemly, she collected her father’s ashes to take back with her to Heartsbridge. She would bury his urn with her mother…per her father’s request.

  She’d changed into a pair of distressed jeans and a Deadhead T-shirt, a leather biker jacket, and her hair up in a pony with sunglasses that covered most of her face. The traffic at the airport was busy, travelers bumping into each other as they rushed around.

  All this frenetic energy was something Raven knew she wouldn’t miss. She often wondered if people in New York ever stopped to marvel at the beauty of this fair city. There was so much to see. But the natives seemed too busy to really just stop and appreciate what they had.

  There’d be no such problem back home. Everything was much slower, even their speech. She could fall asleep waiting for the next sentence. She smiled at the thought. It wasn’t that bad, but it amused her to think it when comparing them.

  She and Torin had sat in a coffee shop before she went through to the departure gate. Torin had her in a bearlike grip, her tears wetting Raven’s cheeks. She sniffed and gripped tighter.

  “If you don’t let me go, I’ll miss my flight.”

  “So miss it and stay here.”

  “You know I can’t stay here. Everyone knows my name, but for the wrong reason. I can’t bear it.”

  “I’m sure they get the news in Bridge to Nowhere Ville.”

  Raven chuckled. “It’s called Heartsbridge, and it’s a wonderful town. No one there cares what happens here. I’m sure they have more juicy gossip going on closer to home to whet their appetite. Besides, I’m sure I’ll see you down there when the weather changes.”

  “You can count on it. Don’t forget me.”

  “How can I? When you won’t let me go.”

  Torin let go. “Facetime when you land.”

  “I will.” Raven kissed Torin’s cheek and went through security to her gate.

  Chapter 4

  At last! So you’ll make it right, won’t you? You can fix things… You can fix him. Fix Lance for me Raven. Do the one thing I was too scared to do.

  Raven slapped her hand against the side of her head, then rubbed at her temple when her actions drew unwanted attention. The voice was getting stronger somehow. Her head ached. She’d wait and take her seat before asking the flight attendant for some water to take the painkillers.

  As far as she was concerned, the three hours and however many minutes it took to get her to Houston didn’t feel long enough. Soon she would be stepping on Texas soil, then whisked off to Heartsbridge, and a life of misery.

  Raven closed her eyes. The plane would be taking off any moment. Once the “fasten your seatbelt” sign was extinguished—she’d call for assistance to ease the suffering of this fast-approaching headache.

  Until then, she’d try and breathe through the pain in her head and in her heart. The scar along her left arm itched. She rubbed at it, closed her eyes again, and let her mind drift back to the time when she’d first realized she had feelings for Lance Thornton.

  Feelings which bordered on obsession.

  It had been Lance’s birthday. One of his older cousins had stolen a bottle of Jack Daniels from his parents. They’d gone to the drugstore for a soda chaser. Armed with disposable cups and alcohol, a group of them had broken into the old abandoned diner. What was it called? Oh, yes, how could she forget? The Heartsbridge Diner.

  Her mother had told her and her cousin to stay away from there, because it was rundown and dangerous. What was her mother thinking? Forbidding kids to go somewhere was like a red rag to a bull and an open challenge, begging to be accepted.

  Raven and her cousins were no exception. Also, if she didn’t want them to be curious about the old place, she shouldn’t have told them how awesome the old diner used to be when she was growing up. Her mom had put the derelict, dust bucket on the teens and preteens radar.

  It became the trendy, designated meeting place to explore, and arrange an unsupervised midweek birthday bash for the most popular sought after teenager in the entire district—Lance Thornton.

  His official birthday party was on the weekend, the Saturday when Raven would be thirteen. But his actual birthday was on the night which changed her life.

  They’d all been sitting outside a barn on Thornton land when Raven’s cousin Rory suggested they go to the diner for a change of venue. Jake Thornton suggested stealing the alcohol and bringing it along. Her cousin Emily wanted soda as she didn’t like the taste of neat spirits.

  Raven sat quietly, while the others decided her fate and went along for the adventure of it. She was still the outsider. Her mother might have been a Heartsbridge native, but Raven was born in New York. She’d come to Heartsbridge with her mother when she was five, having left her father behind. Eight years later, she still felt as if she was on the outside looking in. In order to fit in, she went along with whatever the others wanted to do.

  Jake broke a window and climbed in. “Go around front, I’ll let you in,” he’d said. They did as they were told and waited for him to open the front door.

  From what she could remember, sitting on a plane thousands of miles in the air, which wasn’t much—other than, a murky recollection of when they’d gone in. The front of the building had a fifties vibe to it, stools next to a counter, a jukebox, and booths.

  “Follow me.” Jake had led them to the back, through a kitchen, and into a small room off to the side. He’d switched on a lantern he had with him.

  “Where did you get that?” Rory asked.

  “I found it in here.” He’d put the lantern down and sat on the ground cross-legged. “Who’s got the cups and music…let’s get this party started,” he’d bellowed between his hands, cupped around his mouth.

  Raven remembered when she’d stepped into the room. It was as if she’d left her body behind in the doorway, floating outside herself, looking down on everyone from above. She could even see herself being dragged farther into the room by Emily. Jake shoved a drink in her hand, and she drank it. It burned her throat, and warmed her insides on the way down into her stomach, even though she coughed.

  The music was loud and so was the chatter around her, the room spun and everyone kept coming in and out of focus. She’d wanted to scream, but then everything went quiet. They all sat in a circle on the ground, and Jake had an empty beer bottle. She still didn’t know how that had happened.

  One minute everyone was up dancing and clowning around, and the next minute they weren’t.

  “Let's play spin the bottle,” Jake said.

  “Count me out, most of the girls here are related to me,” Rory said.

  “We can work around that. If the bottle stops on someone you’re related to, you kiss the person next to them. Here, we’ll throw a dice. The lowest number goes first.” Jake threw first, the dice went from hand to hand. Soon it was her turn to throw.

  She saw her hand reach for it, but it was her outer body that took the dice and threw it. The room roared to life again as everyone expelled a breath. She’d thrown a one, nobody could throw lower. She had to go first.

  “You know what to do, Raven. Just spin the bottle and whoever the narrow end points to, you have to kiss. Except if it’s Rory, then you move on one to the left. You got that?” Jake said.

  She must have nodded, although that part still remained vague, as did what happened next. The bottle spun in place. The movement made her seasick. Then it came to a stop at Rory—next to him was Lance.

  Her st
omach flipped as she stared at Lance whose cheeks darkened. A shy smile came to his lips as their eyes made contact across the narrow space between them. The blood rushed through her veins, leaving the sound of the ocean ringing in her ears. She licked her lips and leaned forward, aiming for his reddened cheek.

  He turned his head on her descent and their lips met, the touch a mere whisper. Yet her heart all but darted out of her chest. In an instant she was on her feet and racing out the door. The next thing she knew she awoke in her own bed with a bandage on her left arm.

  Wake up, Raven, it’s time to right my mistake.

  Raven opened her eyes to find the flight attendant hovering over her. “Are you all right, miss? We landed ten minutes ago.”

  Raven looked around her at the empty seats. She must have fallen asleep.

  Chapter 5

  A rooster crowing in the distance called to Raven to open her eyes and welcome in the new day. She squinted her eyes and peeked out. It was still dark outside. Curses, she didn’t know what was worse. A woodpecker had found the wooden frame around her bedroom window at the apartment irresistible. She’d sworn to wring its neck but never got around to it. And now there was another bird responsible for this cackling, squawking riot outside her window.

  Then again, she could always throttle the annoying Emily who was on the other side of that door wearing out her name.

  “For heaven’s sake, stop calling my name and come in. What do you want?” Raven asked as Emily’s head popped around the door. “Do you even know what time it is?”

  “Sure I do. Why? Don’t you?” Emily looked toward the clock on the bedside table in confusion.

  Raven sat upright and placed a hand across her forehead. “I wasn’t speaking literally. Oh, why bother? What do you want?”

  “Well I was just thinking, as everyone but you will be going to Lance’s wedding, do you want to open up the bakery with me? You can cover for the day, and help out the day staff in my place. It’s your business after all, and the delivery will be here soon.”

  Raven threw her head back against the headboard and closed her eyes.

  That’s right. She’d gotten off the plane to an excited Emily waiting at arrivals to greet her. On the ride back to the house where her mother grew up, Emily informed her she’d arrived home to a sizable fortune. Her mother had left the bakery to Raven in her will. As she’d never returned home, she didn’t know. Emily had been running it ever since, and putting money into Raven’s old savings account.

  Emily had handed her five years of bank statements. She’d almost fainted at the amount of money in them. She was rich.

  Raven opened her eyes to the sound of Emily clearing her throat and leaped out of bed. “Okay I’m coming. I might as well learn the ropes sooner rather than later.”

  “Awesome, I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

  Envy was maybe too strong a word for what Raven felt toward Emily’s upbeat, positive view of life. She saw the good in everything, and everyone. And somehow managed to pursue her love of horses as well as run the bakery. She didn’t actually bake anything in the industrial-size kitchen but ordered everything in. Raven was sure her mother was turning in her grave.

  She helped her cousin unload the pallets and lay out the delicacies in trays to place in the display cabinets. When they’d finished, washed, and cleared everything away, she had to ask the question burning a hole in the side of her head.

  “Why did you keep this place open, when you can’t cook, bake, and are basically useless in the kitchen?”

  “Aunt Lily loved this place. Shutting it down would be like saying good-bye to her forever.”

  A lump grew in Raven’s throat. Her mother did love this place. She had taken the divorce settlement and bought it almost as soon as they’d arrived in Heartsbridge. Her mother had been so happy that at a young age Raven showed signs of having the same amount of passion for baking as she did.

  “Yeah…this place was her life.”

  “No, this place was her passion, you were her life.” Emily stared at her with tears in her eyes. “Why did you stay away so long?”

  “You know why.”

  “Lance Thornton, yeah I know. But not wanting to see Lance again shouldn’t have stopped you from keeping in contact with us. We’re your family.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry. Hey, I’m here now.” Raven threw her hands in the air, a hopeless gesture.

  Emily gazed at her from under her lashes. “We’re not idiots. We know you only came back because you thought you didn’t have any money and the scandal with your pa. Will you be sticking around now you know you have money in the bank?”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Neither is Lance. Speaking of which. I’d better get going.” Emily left the shop, pausing long enough to turn the open sign.

  Raven busied herself in the store, checking through the cupboards, only to find not even a bag of flour. She’d wait for the staff to arrive and then go for her morning run. She hadn’t run yesterday, and felt restless and pent up. She’d jog in the opposite direction from the church and plug in headphones for her iPhone. That way she wouldn’t hear the church bells ringing.

  Moira looked around her diner. She was bringing in more business than she expected. Who’d have thought it? Six months ago, she was working in a town restaurant. Now she had her own flourishing business. The designer had been right, people around here liked the nostalgic feel of the fifties. She’d managed to get quite a few pieces of memorabilia from eBay and displayed them on the wall. Buddy Holly was booming out of the jukebox.

  Life was good.

  She fingered the timepiece around her neck. She knew Cissie had said what they were meant to do wasn’t an exact science, but she wished she knew more. When she had found this neglected building and the artifact snuggled to her bosom, she’d expected people would flock to her diner looking for their true love. Then she’d help them on their merry way to their happy ever after… Nothing.

  She’d built it and no one came.

  Sure, the place was bursting at the seams with customers but not the kind of customer she’d hoped for. The one that would get her heart racing and adrenaline pumping to see how this time travel thingy worked.

  She was beginning to think she’d imagined it all. Were it not for the watch and the ribbon, she’d have convinced herself that night never happened.

  The music stopped, and church bells could be heard chiming in the distance. Her chest began to vibrate like crazy. Moira reached into her cleavage and pulled out the timepiece. The hands were spinning like helicopter rotors.

  She stared toward the young women who had just stepped into the diner wearing calf-length Lyrca running shorts, with matching crop top that disappeared under her hoodie jacket as she drew the zipper upward.

  The young woman walked over to the jukebox, and punched in the code for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” Then she took out her headphones and smiled at Moira. The end of the ribbon jumped like crazy in Moira’s hand, the closer the woman got.

  She took a seat by the counter, and Moira stuck out her free hand. “I’m Moira, what would you like?”

  “Raven.” She shook Moira’s hand. “Can I get a caramel latte and some earplugs if you have any?”

  “I can provide the latte, but I’m all out of earplugs I’m afraid. You don’t like church bells?”

  “Not today I don’t.”

  “Is it nosy of me if I ask why?”

  Whether Raven found her nosy or not, she told her everything, barely pausing to breathe through her frustration. Here before her was her first real candidate for a crossover. Moira could hardly contain her excitement, she was nigh on ready to throw this woman over her shoulder in a fireman’s hold and toss her into the room to see if the crossover thing really worked. She turned to one of her servers.

  “Can you take over for me for a moment?” Then she smiled at Raven. “I think I have just the thing for you. You need more than
coffee. If you follow me. I think I can help.”

  Raven stood and followed Moira around the counter. They walked toward the room off the kitchen. Well, that was easier than expected. Should she ask the woman for her iPhone before leaving her in the room? She had no idea how this thing worked. Did she have to stay with her? Instincts said no. The only way to find out was to go for it.

  So, she led Raven into the room, and directed her to the couch she’d purchased, identical to the one she’d woken up on all those months ago. She’d tried her hardest to recreate the room from memory, exactly as she’d seen it. But wasn’t sure if she’d gotten all the details.

  “If you just sit here on the couch, I’ll be right back.” She waited until Raven sat down and left. Moira hoped she’d done the right thing. Closing the door, she felt a tremor, and saw a flash of light under the door. This woman was her first crossover, and she could only pray Cissie knew what to do with her.

  Chapter 6

  Well it's official, she was ready to voluntarily have herself committed, to the nearest asylum. When this Moira person asked her to follow her, it was on the tip of her tongue to say “No way, I’m not going anywhere with you, lady. I don’t even know you.”

  As for stepping foot again into this scary back room, no way José. Yet she found her body moving with an inner sense of excitement and anticipation. Why would she be excited about somewhere she didn’t want to go? But her feet had kept right on moving.

  She’d sat on the couch as instructed, wanting to leave. Her heart was racing, galloping so hard it hurt. Was she having a heart attack? Where was Moira going? Come back, woman, don’t leave me alone in here. Her childhood memory flashed before her eyes.

  The room danced in and out of focus, narrowing in on her, the corners bending out of shape and flexing back to how they were originally. This place had to be haunted. If she’d had a chance to have her latte, she would have suspected Moira of drugging here. She wanted out, and she wanted out now! Raven would have granted herself that wish, if she was able to move.