Time and Again

manager of the lingerie department of a mid-level department store. "I'm considering going back to school for a law degree."
    "Law?" His eyes softened. There was something so appealing about the look that she nearly smiled at him and meant it. "My mother is in law."
    "Really? I don't think Cal mentioned it. What kind of law does she practice?"
    Because he thought it would be a bit difficult to explain his mother's position, he asked, "What kind did you have in mind?"
    "I'm leaning toward criminal law." She started to elaborate, then stopped herself. She didn't want to talk about herself but about him. "It's funny, isn't it, that my sister should be a scientist and Cal's brother should be one? Just what does an astrophysicist do?"
    "Theorizes. Experiments."
    "About stuff like interplanetary travel?" She tried not to smirk but didn't quite succeed. "You don't really believe all that stuff-like people flying off to Venus the way they fly to Cleveland?"
    It was fortunate he was a cool hand at poker. His face remained bland as he continued to eat. "Yes."
    She laughed indulgently. "I guess you have to, but isn't it frustrating to go into all that knowing that even if it becomes possible it won't happen in your lifetime?"
    "Time's relative. In the early part of this century a flight to the moon was considered implausible. But it has been done." Clumsily, he thought, but it had been done. "In the next century man goes to Mars and beyond."
    "Maybe." She got up to take two bottles of soda from the refrigerator. "But it would be hard for me to devote my life to something I'd never see happen." As Jacob watched in fascination, she took a small metal object out of a drawer, applied it like a lever to the top of each bottle and dislodged the caps. "I guess I like to see results, and see them now," she admitted as she set the first bottle in front of him.
    "Instant gratification. Which is why I'm twenty-three and between jobs."
    The bottle was glass, Jacob mused. The same kind she had tried to strike him with the afternoon before.
    Lifting it, he sipped. He was pleasantly surprised by the familiar taste. He enjoyed the same soft drink at home, though it wasn't his habit to drink it for breakfast.
    "Why did you decide to study space?"
    He glanced back at her. He recognized a grilling when he heard one, and he thought it would be entertaining to both humor and annoy her. "I like possibilities."
    "You must have studied a long time."
    "Long enough." He sipped again.
    "Where?"
    "Where what?"
    She managed to keep the pleasant smile intact. "Where did you study?"
    He thought of the Kroliac Institute on Mars, the Birmington University in Houston and his brief and intense year in the L'Espace Space Laboratory in the Fordon Quadrant. "Here and there. At the moment I'm attached to a small private facility outside of Philadelphia."
    She wondered if the staff of that private facility wore white coats. "I guess you find it fascinating."
    "Only more so recently. Are you nervous?"
    "Why?"
    "You keep tapping your foot."
    She placed a hand on her knee to stop the movement. "Restless. I get restless if I stay in one place too long." It was obvious, painfully so, that she wasn't going to get anywhere with him this way. "Listen, I really do have some things to-" Her words trailed off as she glanced out the window. She didn't know when the snow had begun, but it was coming down in sheets. "Terrific."
    Following her gaze, Jacob studied the thick white flakes. "Looks like it means business."
    "Yeah." She let out her breath in a sigh. Maybe he did make her nervous, but she wasn't a monster.
    "And it's not the kind of weather suitable for camping in the woods." Fighting with her conscience, she walked to the door, back to the table, then to the window. "Look, I know you don't have a place to stay.
    I saw you walk into the forest yesterday."
    "I have- all I need."
    "Sure, but I can't have you go trudging into the hills in a blizzard to sleep in a tent or something. Libby would never forgive me if you died of exposure." Thrusting her hands in her pockets, she scowled at him.
    "You can stay here."
    He considered the possibilities and smiled. "I'd love to."

CHAPTER 3
    He stayed out of her way. It seemed the best method of handling the situation for the moment. She'd stationed herself on the sofa by the fire, books heaped beside her, and was busily taking notes. A portable radio sat on the table, crackling with static and music and the occasional weather