Con’s voice broke into her thoughts.He emerged from the night shadows, the moonlight playing over a face that made her heart clutch at the sight of it.
Con.That was on thing that hadn’t changed.She loved him.But did he love her?And what would—or could—they do about it?
“Hi.”She tried to keep her voice normal, though casual wasn’t in her skill set at the moment.Not when her heart raced and her hands trembled.
“Ness all settled?”
“She was sleeping when I left.”
“Good.”
Con stopped next to her, his gaze also on the round, full moon.
“I was wondering if you’d like to meet my mom?”
Rita jerked, looking at him.“I thought…”
“Jack and I talked about it.”He shoved his hands into his pockets, his shoulders hunching.“I’ve felt guilty about leaving, even knowing I was going to die if I stayed.The thing is, if I’d died, she’d have had, well, I guess they call it closure, but I just vanished.”
“That is different,” she agreed, thinking about Stella and Alice, Ness and Alastor.If Alastor was out there somewhere, at least he’d gotten his closure.
She wasn’t sure if Alice felt closure or not.She’d found out where her mom went, but the why?And all the other baggage that went with knowing her mom had chosen to leave her?She probably didn’t have closure, but at least she had Ty.
And Jack?What he’d learned would take a while to sort out, she thought.But Mel would help him with that.
“Mel told Jack he should let me go, or take me to see her, that we’d already messed up the timeline so much it wouldn’t make that much of a difference.”He swung to face her.“So will you come with me?”
“To meet your mom?”It felt like more.She tried to remember what she knew about social norms, but her brain couldn’t think over the pounding of her heart.“Okay.”
Con stepped closer.“Here’s the thing.I’d like to introduce you to her as my girl.”
Her lips began to curve up.“Your girl?”
“My squeeze.”He cleared his throat.“Or we could make it official.It’s easy to get married in Nevada.You could meet her as my wife.”
Rita didn’t remember moving.Or Con moving.One minute they looked at each other, the next they were close enough to kiss.
One social norm she did remember, though a bit hazily at the moment, was the happy ending.
Epilogue
“Do you think he’ll remember me?”Ness asked.
“I don’t know,” Rita said.“We won’t leave until you’re safe.”
The area where the Kimora’s now lived wasn’t that much better than the relocation camp, Rita thought, annoyed by it.The government had provided emergency trailers for those they had forcibly removed, but Rita knew they had a long road ahead of them in reestablishing the lives and resources that had been stolen from them.
“You’re sure this is what you want?”This was so different from what Ness’s life had been like before she’d been thrust into the past.
“I can’t go back to what I was,” Ness said.“But I won’t forget it either.Knowing what is in the future for my people, my ethnicity?It does help.”
It was a long time in the future, Rita thought.And it wouldn’t be Ness’s future, but maybe if she had children…
She glanced at Con.This wasn’t his time either, but he’d been closer to it than either Ness or Rita, and had helped them navigate their way here.
Haru, Ness’s boy, had survived the war, though he had been injured.That boy would be changed, too, but would he remember Ness?
Ness grasped Rita’s arm.
