The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance Katherine Logan (no david read aloud TXT) 📖

If this was a newbie’s initiation into the family’s rites and rituals, then she couldn’t wait for the next newbie to come along. Not so Ensley could help terrorize her, but to stand in solidarity against such awful treatment.

She was acting overly dramatic. After all, the men gave her an option. The choice was to do nothing or do something. So, after consulting with Austin, she decided to do something because her home was calling. It was time to end this adventure and get back to her life, in whatever form and fashion it would take. A new job? A new relationship? A new adventure?

She was game!

But back to Elliott and the task ahead. She hardly knew the guy. Their conversations over the years had been superficial and usually involved horses. This conversation wouldn’t be either one. It would be a gut-level, personal one.

And this would be a good time for the voice she’d carried in her head for most of her life to offer advice. She never realized how vital the mind-to-mind communication was until the brooch abandoned her in the Badlands. Since her dad’s death, she’d assumed the voice was her dad’s, but could it have been Erik? If so, she had to ask why. Why had he chosen her to haunt?

But he was gone now, and she’d never know the answer.

Since she had no head voice to advise her, she decided to channel her best Kenzie McBain impersonation. Man, that woman was one badass vet—totally fearless.

I want to be her when I grow up.

Ensley trudged down the hallway, composing a variety of mantras. She’d need plenty of oomph to confront the—indomitable, unconquerable, invincible—Dr. Elliott Blane Fraser.

How about I’m a badass warrior? And I have a battle-ax to prove it.

She tried it out to hear how it sounded. “I’m a badass warrior.”

“You sure are, ma’am.”

She whipped around, rattling the tray full of dishes, to see Austin behind her. He put his finger to his lips. “Shhh. I’ll be outside the door in case you need help.”

She gave him an evil-eye look. “You just agreed I’m a badass warrior, and you muck it up by telling me you’re here to help. Talk about siphoning off some of my confidence.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. Don’t be so sensitive.”

She flicked her hand. “Go away.”

His eyes widened. “Sorry.”

She tilted her head back. “Kiss me, then go away. I have to focus and get into my zone before I go in there. I know you understand that.”

His eyes lingered on her lips a moment, then he bent down and swiftly kissed the tip of her nose. “I understand completely.” Then he turned and walked away.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” she whispered.

A soft chuckle floated in his wake as he strutted toward the landing. When he hit the top step, he looked back and winked. Then he was gone. But Ensley knew he was only out of sight. Austin Klenna O’Grady was a keeper-man.

He’d lifted her spirits, and there was a spring in her step as she continued the long walk to Elliott’s bedroom. Although it seemed shorter now that she didn’t dread her assignment as much as she did before. She chuckled. Yeah, before the kiss on her nose.

Only Austin would do something so silly but so significant to help her ease into her zone. He got her. And she got him.

When Ensley reached Elliott’s bedroom, she’d shelved most of her anxiety, leaving only a slight unease that she could handle. It gave her an edge, which was a good thing. She set the tray down on a hall table before knocking on the door.

“Elliott, it’s Ensley. I have a dinner tray.”

“Leave me alone.”

“You need to eat.”

“Got all the nutrients I need right here.”

“In a bottle of whisky? That’s all sugar. Open the door, okay? If you don’t eat some protein and complex carbs right now, you’ll get sick.”

“The only thing I’m opening is another bottle of whisky. Now. Go. Away,” he said, slurring his words.

“I brought a bottle with me. You want it?”

“Leave it and go.”

“Well, that’s the thing. I can’t go away, so I’ll just sit here and wait. Sooner or later, you’ll have to open the door.”

“No reason to open it.”

“You’ll run out of whisky eventually, and then you’ll remember there’s a bottle out here.” She wasn’t going to give up, so she leaned against the door and slid down it until she was sitting on the floor in a pile of petticoats and silk. “I want to talk to you about Erik and my childhood memories of him. Memories I don’t understand, but I hope maybe you will.”

“What makes ye think I’ll understand?”

“You know Erik, and you’ve had long conversations with him. You know things about him that I want to know.”

“I can’t help ye.”

“I think you can.”

“Ye’re wrong, lass.”

There was one thing that might pique his interest enough to open the door. She didn’t have permission to share Austin and JC’s secret, but the guys told her to use her vast repertoire of skills to get inside the room.

“Hey, Elliott. Did you know there’s a cave behind the cabin?”

“No.”

“JC and Austin found it when they were teenagers.”

She paused to listen for a response or movement in the room. There was nothing. Now she had to go big or go home.

“There’s an Yggdrasil on the wall. It’s identical to JC’s birthmark and the sign Erik drew in blood on my forehead before he died.”

Nothing.

“Austin and I found footprints identical to the ones I followed in the Badlands. They were Erik’s. Some were going to the cabin, and some were going to the cave.”

There was still no movement on the other side of the door. She had to keep going. Some part of the story might entice him. She summoned her best storytelling voice and continued.

“Austin and I believe there’s an opening in the fabric of time inside the cave. We think it lets a person travel from one place to another along the same time continuum. That’s how Erik