“She reminds me of you,” Jesse said.
“How flattering to be compared to a toddler. Do you expect me to throw a tantrum at any minute?”
“Her enthusiasm, not her meltdowns. She will keep Cam on his toes.”
“I was an only child, so I never had to worry about competition among siblings.” And after meeting Janet and Jack, she was glad of it, though she wouldn’t say so aloud. Finn had sold his property in New Madrid and taken the proceeds, along with Janet’s dowry, and bought a dairy farm in Minnesota. They kept in touch and Janet was expecting her second child.
Ian went home to Hickory Grove, which has suffered only minor damage while held by Union forces. She and Jesse spent a year after the war helping him get the farm up and running again, this time with paid labor instead of slaves. They persuaded him to sell off a portion and split the money in half, providing Janet with her dowry and Jesse with his own share of the estate. Ian eventually took Jack back as his heir. Unlike some guerrillas, like Frank and Jesse James who continued their outlaw ways even after the war, Jack had settled down. He and Amy, along with their three children, now lived at Hickory Grove and helped Ian with the farm.
Jesse and Diamond had finally been free to move out West. Diamond wanted to raise her children far from Ian’s critical eye. Emmie didn’t remember her grandfather, but she worried that Cam had picked up on some of her father-in-law’s negativity during his crucial formative years. She and Jesse had conceived Cam somewhere along the trek from St. Louis to Little Rock after Jesse’s escape from prison. When Diamond realized she was pregnant, she’d had little choice, but to continue to live with her father-in-law, first in Arkansas and later in Texas when the Missouri Confederate government relocated there after the fall of Arkansas.
“I wrote Ari a letter.”
“Did you? She will not change her mind after all this time. Besides, your place is here now with me and the children.”
Jesse always grew slightly defensive whenever she mentioned Bryce and Ari. “I would never leave you and the kids.” She’d take them with her if she ever got the chance, but no need to tell Jesse. “She and Victoria are the only ones who understand my situation.”
“I try my best.”
Diamond grabbed his arm, stopping him. The kids ran on ahead, their voices carrying over the wind. “I know you do.” Sebastien had talked to Jesse about dealing with a wife from the future. Knowing how much Victoria missed her soda, he’d hired a chemist to create a copycat version. Victoria said it would never compare to the real thing, but it gave her the sweet hit of caffeine she longed for.
Diamond missed soda, too, but always joked that nineteenth-century coffee was better than newsroom coffee. She enjoyed whiskey as well and matched Jesse drink for drink in private, although she kept to a glass of wine in public.
Jesse encouraged her writing and had been the first to suggest she branch into writing for magazines. She usually published under her married name, but wrote the occasional article under the name, Di Merrell, which she had used when she worked for the TV news station. It was her way of leaving clues for her mother. She hoped one day her mother would see one of those articles and have an inkling what had happened to her daughter. She probably wouldn’t be able to believe Diamond had gone back in time, but maybe the possibility would give her a measure of peace. They hadn’t been close, but now Diamond was a mother herself, she realized her mother had loved her in her own way.
Jesse stared down into her eyes. Both had experienced so much since the first day they met at the fall of Island #10.
“I guess I still can’t believe how lucky I am the crystal brought you to me. I thought you were an angel when I looked up and saw you standing over me, the sun glinting off your hair.”
“Really? The way I remember it is you thought me a pest who wouldn’t leave you alone.”
“A strangely dressed, very bossy angel,” Jesse agreed.
“Ari once told me she thinks the crystal takes a person where they need to be. I didn’t think it applied to me because they accidentally pulled me into their funnel, but now I’m not so sure. I can’t imagine being with anyone else. I love you and the life we have here together.” She had not thought herself capable of love on this scale, had thought Victoria a fool for choosing to stay in the past with Sebastien when she could have returned to her own time. “I think I’m the lucky one.” She’d found an honorable man, even if he was no longer as naïve as he had been when they married. He saw the drive and determination in her, all the things that usually put off the men she dated, and he loved her all the more for them.
“Maybe we both got lucky.” He brushed aside a curl that had slipped from her bun. Diamond closed her eyes as he leaned in for a kiss, his lips touching hers gently, then pressing harder as she opened to him and pressed her body against his. Heat ignited between them and had it not been for the children, Diamond thought Jesse might have laid her down in the sand and showed her just how lucky they were.
Jesse broke away first, growling into her neck. “Keep this thought until tonight.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” Diamond’s legs shook as they walked the rest of the way to the wagon. How could Jesse turn her to
