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“All of it. I mean, it wouldn’t be impossible for me to steal a weekend here and there to come to you, so the onus of traveling doesn’t always fall on your shoulders, but your plan is solid. And…” Lydia licked her lips as she glanced toward where their friends were waiting for them, maybe ten yards away, and pulled Zann up short. They wouldn’t have long before Kit and company started back up with their loving brand of teasing, but she wanted what she said next to stay between them. “I like the idea of coming home to you. I know it’s still too early to think like that, but if we get to the point where we agree that this is what we want—”

“When,” Zann interrupted.

Lydia blinked at her. “I’m sorry?”

Zann smiled. “Not ‘if’.” She tipped forward to kiss her. “When.”

Lydia’s breath caught as she finally understood what Zann was saying—if implied a sense of uncertainty, while when didn’t. When said that the nebulous future they were discussion would eventually happen. “Oh.”

Zann’s smile widened. “Exactly,” she whispered as she pecked her lips.

“That’s—”

She was interrupted by their friends gleefully singing, “ZANN AND LYDIA SITTING IN A TREE, F-U-C-K-I-N-G!”

Zann barked out a laugh and then ducked her head sheepishly. “Sorry, they caught me by surprise with that one.”

Lydia glanced over at their friends, who were cackling and trading high-fives like a bunch of idiots, and couldn’t resist chuckling as well. She arched a brow as she looked back at Zann, and her heart skipped a beat at the open affection that shone in Zann’s eyes. She bit her tongue against the three little words that were poised to leap from it—no matter how certain she was, it was far, far too soon to voice them—and squeezed Zann’s hand as she instead said, “We should probably go.”

“Or we could just—” Zann broke off as Jack started twerking against Bonnie.

“Wow,” Lydia muttered as Kit, Shannon, and Michael joined in, turning Jack’s playful little dirty dance into a debauched conga line with Bonnie in the middle of it.

“Yeah,” Zann agreed as Aspen dragged a laughing Eve into the fray.

“Please get your asses over here so they stop!” Alder yelled, though the plea carried very little weight thanks to the way she was nearly doubled over with laughter.

Lydia smiled as Zann tugged her forward, but couldn’t resist shouting back at her, “Or you could join in!”

“Yeah! Let’s go, Alder!” Jack cheered.

“Alder! Alder! Alder!” Michael chanted in perfect time with the group’s rolling hips.

Lydia laughed at the questioning little smirk Zann threw her, and nodded. She laughed harder as Zann led her into a twirl and then released her hand to grab her by the hips as she walked her toward the back of the line, and leaned her head back on Zann’s shoulder as strong hips began to roll with devastating precision against her ass.

“Okay?” Zann checked, her eyes positively dancing with joy.

“Yeah.” Lydia smiled at her as she wrapped a hand around the back of Zann’s neck to hold her close. “It’s perfect.”

Never in a million years would she have imagined the aftermath of a conversation about their future ending in anything like this, but as Zann’s hands tugged her back against her and Jack, Michael, and Kit whooped it up as Alder surrendered and joined them, she found that she didn’t begrudge the insanity of the situation.

In fact, she welcomed all of it.

She welcomed the certainty that had reverberated in Zann’s voice when she spoke of when. Welcomed the feeling of strong hands holding her close. Welcomed the laughter that ebbed and flowed around them. Welcomed the silly, carefree joy that swirled in her gut, warmed her heart, and whispered in awestruck wonder in the back of her mind, This is real. This is real. This is real.

“Yeah, but how do you know?” Zann asked, smirking when Kit huffed and tossed the cards they’d long since given up playing onto the cabin table in a fit of pique. What started as a particularly nerdy discussion of Doctor Who to pass the time as they sailed back to the resort had morphed into an even nerdier analysis of the “science” behind the show’s premise. Shannon, Bonnie, Eve, and Alder had tapped out almost immediately, opting instead to enjoy the sun and views from the stern deck, but the conversation was one they’d had countless times over the years in some form or another, and it was always just so fucking fun to rile Kit up. “You can’t.”

“There’s a reason it’s called science fiction,” Kit scoffed. “Physics doesn’t allow time travel into the past.”

Zann took a long swig from her beer to finish it off before pointing the bottle at Kit. “Maybe in four dimensions, if you’re banking on Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Or Hawking’s chronology protection conjecture.” She set the bottle down and rolled her hands out in the universal just think about it gesture. “But what if you expand into seven, eight, or nine dimensions? The geometry of wormholes leaves open the debate that time travel is possible to an infinite number of universes with just as many timelines.”

“Shit, I always forget that your mom’s a fucking physicist,” Kit muttered.

“It’s annoying when she starts talking smart, isn’t it?” Aspen teased.

Zann blew Aspen a kiss before looking over at Lydia as a heavy hand on her thigh drew her attention. “Yes?”

Lydia’s expression was equal parts amused and impressed as she asked, “How do you know all that?”