Thank you so much for following along as I serialized my first time travel romance. I hope you have enjoyed the story. Your perseverance pays off today with the final chapter of “Our Love is Here to Stay.” The eBook is available on Amazon and other sites, if you want to own a copy. Or follow the OLIHTS blog tour and enter a contest to win great time-travel prizes.
Matthew felt the breath go out of him as if he had been punched by Muhammed Ali. Although his brain told him it was impossible, his heart raced with excitement.
“Patty? Is that really you?” he asked in a whisper, afraid of frightening off this apparition. She looked more beautiful than he remembered. He had longed to see her for two unbearable years, and now here she was, standing in front of him, impossibly young and stunningly gorgeous.
“Matthew Herrington?” she asked in a low voice, “You are Matthew? Somehow, I always pictured you older. How foolish of me.”
Matthew just stood staring, unsure his legs could carry him around his messy desk to hug her, desperate to hold her again. “Of course I am Matthew. How is this possible?”
“Perhaps you should sit,” the apparition said gently as she took a chair at the desk while he remained standing, stupefied. “You look like you might fall down at any moment.” She smiled at her own words and broke the spell. It was not Patty’s smile.
“Who are you?” His question was a mix of curiosity and accusation. The hurt and disappointment was crushing. “Who are you and why are you doing this to me?”
“My name is Lilah. Lilah Brockton. I am Patty Dennison’s great-niece. I am so sorry if I gave you a fright or false hope. I’ve been told that I resemble her. I should have considered that. I am so sorry.”
“You resemble her a great deal,” Matthew agreed, at last dropping into his chair. “You stopped my heart.”
“Shall I call an ambulance?” she teased. He could see that she was already comfortable around him and couldn’t help but smile. He appreciated her confidence. And her presence.
“I’ll survive, for the moment,” he responded drily. “Tell me why you are here. What can I do for you?” He had a million questions, but she had come to him and his good manners prevailed.
He watched her face as she took stock of her surroundings, impressed he suspected, and intrigued perhaps. The office was large, with expansive views of the bay through the large windows, with several vintage posters from the Big Band era covering the walls. The desk was strewn with papers and two computer monitors displayed columns of numbers. An assistant sat outside the glass wall, paying no attention to them, totally immersed in answering a phone that never seemed to stop ringing.
“If I had any doubts that you knew my Aunt Trish—Patty to you, “ Lilah began, “the posters would give you away.
“Yes, I know her. How is she? I researched her last year but there is nothing online after her retirement from Donnelley. She did well for herself.”
“She always credited you with that. Your stories about the women’s lib movement inspired her to go after her dreams before many other women did. She believed starting early gave her an advantage. She loved her work. She loved you. Sadly, I have to be the one to tell you that she died last month.”
A metallic taste filled Matthew’s mouth, as a darkness advanced over him. He feared he would faint in front of this attractive young woman. Inhaling a calming deep breath, and then another, he composed himself before opening his eyes to look into her sad ones, the same silver-blue as Patty’s. Seeing an image of the woman he loved staring back at him was unnerving but also reassuring. Patty lived on in this girl. That thought helped Matthew to regain his composure.
“I appreciate you coming in person to tell me the news. It was kind of you.”
“Not at all. It was a dying wish of my great-aunt’s that I come in person. She even stipulated it in her will,. She left me her diaries, her wealth and a few mandatory tasks. The first was that I come see you in person and the other was that I give you these.”
She handed Matthew the large manila envelop that she extracted from her oversized handbag. He slowly unwrapped the string closure, as if it held a bomb, and withdrew two tall stacks of letters, addressed “Matthew Herrington, San Francisco, CA”. None contained his street address, none held stamps, all were in the same feminine handwriting.
“They are from my aunt. She wrote to you for two years after you were last together just as you instructed her to do. After she stopped writing the letters, she began keeping a diary of her life instead.”
Matthew turned the letters over in his large hands, his heart beating erratically. He was torn between avoiding them, opening them there and then, and waiting to savor them after this lovely woman was gone.
“She wanted you to have the letters and the diaries,” Lilah continued after a minute.. Matthew recognized that she was being gentle with him,, speaking softly, n her low, melodic voice, taking breaks for him to absorb what she was saying. She sat still, eyes boring into him, watching and understanding his responses.
“I brought the letters but there are sixteen diaries, so I will send those separately, if that’s alright?” It was a statement, but she phrased it at the last minute as a question. Matthew found that little courtesy endearing as hell.
“How did you know about us?” he asked, fingering the letters, anxious and fearful to read them. After a moment, he placed them carefully on the desk in front of him and removed his hands, only to touch them reverently every few moments. “From the diaries?”
“Oh no, I have known about you since I was five or six. You were my favorite bedtime story.” The girl was cheeky, and sexy. Matthew was finally coming to see her as Lilah, separate from the woman she so resembled. For the first time in two years, he found himself responding to a woman. She made his palms sweat a little and his pulse race a lot.
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“Bedtime story? I was your bedtime story. You know this all happened recently for me. It’s hard to remember that it was a long time ago for Patty. I have to remind myself that you have known about me for a long time.”
“Almost twenty years. I begged Aunt Trish to tell me about you over and over again. She told my grandmother about you, but when grandma didn’t believe her, Aunt Trish stopped telling anyone. She just shared her memories with her diaries, and me. At first she thought I believed she was telling me a fairy tale, but somewhere around my sixteenth birthday I explained to her that I believed in you, in your story and your love.”
“Why? Why should you believe when no one else did? Me, I assumed no one would ever understand. I never told a soul. Not even my brother,” Matthew made a vague gesture toward the wall to indicate his brother was down the hall even now. “I wasn’t sure myself that it was real. I went back about a year ago, as promised. It was maybe eight weeks since I had last seen Patty and I was crazy with anticipation.”
Matthew looked into Patty’s eyes, reminding himself they were Lilah’s and saw empathy and interest. This young woman believed him, made real again what he had begun to doubt.
“You know what happened, of course. Her premonition was correct.
It was no longer 1950. She wasn’t there. I kept returning but The Green Mill no longer spiraled me back in time. You know they still have Swing Night on Thursdays? It was strangely both different and the same. After three months, I gave up and came back home to California.”
“I went to The Green Mill a few times several years ago, hoping to see you, but it was too early. You hadn’t come to Chicago yet. The time-travel thing had me messed up. I needed to wait for a few more years for you to get there in 2015. My bad.”
Lilah laughed at her own mistake and Matthew found himself laughing with her. It was confusing as hell when you thought about it. She had learned about his visit to Chicago more than a decade before he actually made the trip. They shared the humor.
Matthew felt himself drawn to Lilah, comfortable with her as he had been with Patty, at home in her presence right away. They had that same instant connection. He chided himself for his emotions, as if he could stop them and reminded himself that Lilah was another person, unique in her own right, and not his beloved Patty.
“Tell me about you, Lilah” he suggested as his assistant brought them the coffee Matthew had failed to request. How did he know that they would be a while? He pushed the stacks of letters aside and grasped the coffee mug with both hands to keep from fidgeting. “I can read Patty’s letters later. Right now I would love to hear about your life.”
“Me?” She seemed surprised and flattered that he asked. “ I am a vet at a cat rescue clinic in Chicago.. I love the work and I am delighted to be finished with school. Aunt Trish considered becoming a doctor, but it required too much school. Maybe I did it because she didn’t.” Lilah added wistfully, She looked past Matthew’s shoulder, out at the view, obviously lost in her own thoughts.
“You miss her very much, don’t you?” Matthew probed gently.
“So much. She was always part of my life. She taught me so much. My love of music, and my work ethic come from her. She was my babysitter when I was young, and my girlfriend when I grew older. She took me to concerts, ballets and lectures. She was my favorite companion.”
“”Lilah, that sounds wonderful.”
“She talked about you often. You made quite an impression in six short months. She never married, you know? No one could compare to you. I don’t think she cared about being married, although she might have wanted children.”
Matthew grabbed the bait, surprising himself with his newfound curiosity. “What about you? Are you married? Any children?”
“Oh no, not me. I have been much too busy with school, then work. You?”
Was she interested? Matthew couldn’t tell if she asked because she wanted to know, or if she was just being polite. “No, there is no one. It hasn’t been that long for me since I was in love with Patty. I still miss her.”
“Me too, “ Lilah said simply, tears shimmering, then falling from her eyes. Matthew instinctively reached in his pocket, handing her a handkerchief.
“A handkerchief?” she noted. “You don’t see those much anymore.”
“You can thank Patty. She scolded me for not carrying one. We met in winter and one of us always had a runny nose.”
“I can picture her reprimanding you,” Lilah responded with a watery smile, mopping her cheeks then returning the white square. She made to rise and Matthew felt his heart sink. “Well, I have taken up a great deal of your time, Matthew. I should be heading out. I enjoyed meeting you after all this time.”
“Don’t rush off,” Matthew’s brain scrambled for a way to keep her from leaving. Perhaps, since you came all this way, I could take you to dinner? Please say yes.”
“Tonight?” Her brows rose in surprise, or was that alarm?
“Sure” he needed to sooth her, not move so fast. “Now that I have a connection to Patty, I hate to lose it too quickly. How long are you in San Francisco and where are you staying?”
“I’m here all week, at the Mark Hopkins. I plan to do some site-seeing since I came all this way.”
“All week? Well then, let me take you up to wine country. We can pack a picnic and spend the day exploring Sonoma. You’ll love it. Or we could go sailing? I have a boat moored here in the bay. We could go over to Tiburon for the day.”
Matthew heard the excitement in his voice and knew he was getting carried away. She must be hearing desperation but now that he met Lilah, he didn’t want to let her get away. “I’m sorry. I’m not usually so pushy, but I feel comfortable with you, and connected. Let me slow back down. Will you join me for dinner.”
Laughing, Lilah rose from her chair picking up her large handbag and resting it heavily on her shoulder. She extended her hand to Matthew to say farewell.
“I am happy to answer questions any time, Matthew. I will leave you my email and number. Text if you have questions after you read the letters.” He was losing her. This was unacceptable although he had no time to examine why. He needed to keep this connection. He needed Lilah in his life.
“That was not why I was asking you to dinner. I want to get to know you, Lilah. I am thinking about my future, not reminiscing about the past. I find you lovely and funny, smart and interesting. I want to get to know you,” he emphasized the last word.
“Where are you going with this, Matthew? I live in Chicago. You live in California. We have known each other all of 30 minutes and you are inviting me all over town.” A blush stole into her cheeks and Matthew found her lovelier than he had before.
“Don’t you feel it, Lilah? The connection? The pull?” Matthew whispered the words, looking into her amazing pale eyes. “I think Patty had a plan when she insisted you deliver these letters in person.”
The blush grew more intense, bright pink infusing Lilah’s face, setting off her blue eyes, making the blond of her hair more honeyed. She was a stunning woman, taller than Patty, but with the same combination of sexy and sweet, the same athletic grace. Matthew felt a pull in his groin unlike any he had felt in two years.
“What do you say, Lilah? Give me a chance? What have you got to lose? We’ve already spent twenty years together,” he teased. “You’ve known me since you were a child.”
“In some strange way, that’s true, isn’t it? I know you completely, but I don’t know you at all,” she mused, looking out over the water before returning her to lock her gaze on his deep brown eyes. He could see the hesitancy there but didn’t know what else to say without sounding like a lunatic. She was his future. He knew it to his core. He sensed that he would love this woman until the day he died as he had loved only one woman before. He couldn’t fathom how he could know that in less than an hour, but he didn’t question it.
“Say yes. Please say yes. I’ll start slow, just dinner,” he offered, placing his hands open in front of him to show he had nothing up his sleeve. She smiled at the gesture, looking out over the bay again as if she would find an answer outside somewhere.
“Let’s start with dinner,” she finally responded. “And, I think sailing to Tiburon sounds too enticing to pass up.” Her eyes were twinkling and the blush was back in her cheeks. She was flirting with him, he was sure of it. Relieved and elated, he stepped around the desk, took her hand in his and began walking her to the elevator.
“I’ll pick you up around 7 tonight? Does that work? We can dine on some great seafood and maybe take a walk along the wharf?”
“That sounds perfect,” she agreed, standing shoulder to shoulder with him as they waited for the elevator to arrive. “I look forward to it,” she added after a moment of companionable silence.
“Me too,” Matthew responded. “It’s too trite to admit, but I’ll be counting the hours.”
“Then let’s be trite, because I was thinking the exact same thing,” Lilah admitted with a wide smile.
The doors opened to reveal the empty elevator car. Lilah entered then turned to face him. The doors began to close when she stepped out again.
“This isn’t about Aunt Trish, right? This is about you and me? Just you and me?”
Matthew hated the vulnerability in her voice. “Just us,” he set to reassure her. “I loved your aunt deeply, don’t get me wrong. But I am intrigued by you and you alone. I feel something with you that is new and exciting.”
“Okay. I just needed to be sure,” she nodded, pressing the call button for a second time. The doors opened immediately. Lilah stepped in again but this time Matthew followed her partway inside.
She took a step back, making room for him in the car and he took her in his arms gently, as if she might break, or bolt. When she wrapped her arms tentatively around his torso, he held her more firmly and bent his head to place his lips gently upon her mouth.
The kiss was over before it started, a butterfly kiss to seal the connection, nothing more. Matthew inhaled her the floral scent of her perfume, felt her hair tickle his face and let her go. Her lips had been soft, tasting of coffee and promising a dark sexiness that could swamp a man’s sensations. He felt his heart thump against his chest and hoped she felt it too.
The elevator bell chimed reminding them they were preventing the door from closing. Matthew exited the elevator as Lilah pressed the button for the lobby and the doors closed behind him.
Once Lilah was out of his view, Matthew felt as if a spell was broken. His heartbeat returned to normal and his body temperature cooled. He stood lost in thought for several moments, before returning to his office. If he was going soling tomorrow, he better get some work done today.
Patty’s letters rested on his desk like an accusation.. He stared at them, trying to understand his emotions. Patty had been his love but after two years he understood she was gone. They were never destined to be together. She was his past.
Lilah stirred memories of Patty, that was true, but she was a modern woman, different enough from Patty for him to keep them separate in his mind. He had been honest when he stated this was about her and not Patty. Although he barely knew her, Matthew hoped Lilah might be his future.
He warred with himself for ten full minutes, staring at the letters but reminding himself he had work to do. Finally, he pushed everything aside , shifting his attention to two piles. Turning the stack in his hands he noted a slightly shakier version of the feminine scrawl on the top note requesting that he ‘read me first’. He neatly ripped the seal on the envelop while still debating with himself over the wisdom of his actions.. He did not want memories of Patty clouding his time with Lilah, yet how could he not connect a little with his past?
“Dear Matthew,” the letter began. “It has been more than fifty years since I last rested my eyes on your handsome face. These letters and my diaries will chronicle the life I made without you after you returned to your time. No detail is too small, just as I promised that last night at The Green Mill.
“If you are reading this, death has won its inevitable battle. I lived a good life. I was lucky. I had you, I had a career, I had Lilah. These were the joys of my life, you especially. Our time together was brief, but your love warmed me for the rest of my life.
“Your insights into the future allowed me to embrace life and take advantage of opportunities that were ahead of my time. I thank you for that. I owe much to those conversations about computers, and women’s lib, and things to come. I reached into the future without fear, with a true joy in living each day.”
“I think you will find that my great-niece has the same love of life, sense of adventure and confidence that you nurtured in me. You have always been in her life and I feel certain that she should be in yours. It will benefit you both. Love her well. She is your perfect match in every way.”
“Be happy, my love, and remember to dance now and then.“
Matthew wiped a tear from his cheek and caught his breath. How she could have known when she penned this that Lilah would grow to be his partner? Perhaps Patty had recognized something in them both. Whatever the reason, she was giving her blessing and permission for him to let her go. He would be eternally grateful for her wisdom in sending Lilah in this way.