Time and Again

future with a man, one man. She imagined passing through the years with him-not always content, but always satisfied. She thought of a home, and if white picket fences and car pools didn't enter the fantasy, children did. She could picture the arguments, the noise and the laughter.
    Before much longer, she thought, they would talk about it. They would plan.
    He allowed himself the week. A handful of days meant so little in the vastness of time. And meant so much to him. He recorded everything he could, and branded the rest on his memory. He didn't mean to forget, not an instant.
    Yet he worried about how he could tell her where he had to travel when he left her so that it would hurt the least. More, he worried because he was no longer sure he had the courage to live without her.
    When they left to go back to the cabin he told himself that it was the beginning of the end. If it had to end-and he saw no alternative-it would end honestly. He would tell her everything.
    "You're so quiet," she said as they turned up the long, bumpy road that led to the cabin.
    "I was thinking."
    "Well, that's fine, but you haven't picked one fight in five hours. I'm worried about you."
    "I don't want to fight with you."
    "Now I'm really worried." She'd known that something was on his mind, something that caused her palms to sweat. Deliberately she made her voice light and cheerful. "We'll be back in a few minutes.
    Once you're trapped inside the cabin, hauling wood and eating out of a can, you'll be your old cranky self."
    "Sunny, we have to talk."
    She moistened her lips. "All right." Her nerves began to hum as she stopped the car in front of the cabin.
    "Before or after we unload?"
    "Now." It had to be now. He took her hand and said the first words that came to mind. "I love you so much."
    The little fist of fear in her stomach unclenched. "We're never going to fight if you keep talking like that."
    She shifted closer to kiss his cheek. It was then that she noticed the smoke pumping out of the chimney.
    "Jacob, someone's here."
    "What?"
    "In the cabin." She saw the front door open. "Libby!" With a laugh, she shoved the car door open and bounded out. "Libby, you scared me to death." As Jacob watched, she threw her arms around a slim brunette. "Look at you! You're so tanned!"
    "There's a lot of sun in Bora Bora." Libby kissed her sister's cheeks. "When we got back last night we thought you'd skipped out on us."
    "Just a quick trip into the real world to recharge."
    Libby's laugh was smooth and easy. She knew her sister very well. "That's what I told Cal. All your books were still here." Suddenly she gripped both of Sunny's hands. "Oh, Sunny, I'm so glad you're back. I can't wait to tell you. I-" A movement caught her eye. Glancing over, she saw Jacob as he climbed out of the Land Rover. As their eyes met, her half smile of greeting faded and her fingers tightened on Sunny's.
    "What? What is it? Oh." Smiling, Sunny turned.
    "Guess who dropped in? This is Jacob, Cal's brother."
    "I know." Libby felt as though the ground had vanished from under her feet. She'd seen his face before, in the picture Cal had kept on his ship. But this was no picture. It was a flesh-and-blood man, a furious one. As they stared at each other in silence, the blood seeped slowly out of her face.
    He's come for Cal, she thought, and had to bite back the scream of protest that rose into her throat.
    She's terrified, he realized. Something moved inside him that he stubbornly ignored. He wouldn't feel for her. He wouldn't think of her as anything but the obstacle preventing his brother from returning home.
    "J.T.?" Instinctively Sunny put a protective arm around Libby's shoulders. There was something here, she realized. And she was the only one not in on the secret. "Libby, you're shivering. You shouldn't be standing out here without a coat. Let's go inside." She tossed a look back over her shoulder. "Let's all go inside."
    "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