“Shit, I’m sorry, I forgot that. You wouldn’t know that word.” Stepping to his side where the computer was, she opened up what she called an Internet browser window and typed in a few words. “Here you go. All about karaoke.”
He sat, trailing a hand along the curve of her spine. “Thank you.”
She worked while he read, occasionally stopping to glance at her.
“You get up on stage and sing songs?”
“Yes. It’s a lot of fun. Not everyone can sing well, but it’s a very fun experience. Some nights they have contests for who does it the best.” She glanced at him. “Do you sing?”
“I don’t think so. There’s not much time for it.”
“Suppose not.” A quick frown was wiped away. “Again, it’s up to you if you wish to go. You may not want to sit in a smoky old tavern with all of us.”
“I would love to accompany you. You have very colorful friends.”
She laughed. “Jasmine is something else. Don’t worry, her flirting is harmless with you.”
He wasn’t so sure but he had no wish to bring more attention to the fact her friend looked at him as if he was her last meal. Closing the window on the computer, he got back to work. After they ate lunch, work resumed and he was in one of the aisles when he heard the doorbell announce yet another person.
“Hey!”
Levi peeked around the corner at her enthusiastic greeting. His eyes narrowed dangerously as the man there pressed a kiss to her cheek as he held Ta-Mara with blatant intimacy. Stopping the growl from escaping, he returned to the books in his hands.
“I didn’t think to see you today,” she was saying. “How are you doing?”
“Good. They let me out early and I wanted to come by and see you. Everything going okay?”
“Fine, fine.” She stepped back. “I have a friend in from…out of town who I brought in with me so he wouldn’t have to be bored at the house. He’s helping out. Levi,” she called out.
Shelving the final book, he walked up to the front. “Yes, Ta-Mara?” He so wanted to haul her into his arms and kiss her. Place his claim over her before this other man.
“This is Reggie. Reggie, my friend Levi.”
Reggie
. That was his name? This man stood as tall as he did, muscular build with dark skin, a tightly clipped beard, large eyes and a possessive look on his face when he put his gaze on Ta-Mara. Something Levi really didn’t like.
“Nice to meet you,” Reggie said, holding out his hand.
Levi shook it. “And you.”
“Where’d you meet Ta-Mara?”
Unsure how she wanted the question answered, he looked at her.
“We met on a rainy night, Reggie. Levi’s just passing through. He’s on his way back home.”
“Where’s home?”
There was no disguising the protectiveness in that question. Levi found himself bristling in return.
“Be nice, Reggie.” Ta-Mara rolled her eyes and smacked him in the shoulder. “This is not needed.
Levi didn’t have any plans to answer so he asked his own question instead after she went toward the back. “How do you know Ta-Mara?”
“We met in college.” A shrug. “You know how that is, right? Long nights in a room with one another.”
The implication had him fighting the desire to put his fist into Reggie’s face. Levi knew he had no right to be upset. He had a past with Calliope. Wait, when had that just become a past? He was to be reunited with her again. Right?
He merely nodded, not trusting his voice. Or the words that would come out of his mouth. All he knew was he didn’t want to make her work environment difficult. And he was extremely well versed in keeping his feelings for someone hidden.
“So I’ve known her for years. Funny, she’s never mentioned you.”
“She’s never mentioned you to me, either,” Levi replied.
“How long are you staying?”
“Not sure. I have to see how long I can.”
“And where are you staying?”
He smiled arrogantly. “With Ta-Mara.”
Reggie’s expression closed up. “I see.” The man walked toward the back and Levi sat back at the desk, picking up the next book and cleaning it.
Not too much later, Reggie left without so much as a good-bye and Ta-Mara came with yet another stack of books.
“What did you say to him?” she asked.
“About what? I just answered his questions. That was all.”
“Nothing about how I found you? Or how you got here?”
“Nothing. He wanted to know how long I was staying and
where.
”
“So you said?”
“With you.”
“That explains his attitude.” She shook her head and bent to pick something up off the floor.
“Attitude?”
“Yeah, attitude.” She leaned over the counter and threw the paper away. “You know, all the bristling and posturing y’all were doing.”
“He merely seemed a bit protective of you. I wouldn’t say he was bristling and posturing.”
She gave him a pointed look. “I was talking about
both
of you.”
“I was a gentleman.”
“Right, I saw that. Y’all both were so nice.”
“Who is he to you?”
Her eyebrows shot up at his question and he realized he may have overstepped his bounds. Still, he didn’t back down. He sat at the desk waiting for her answer.
“Reggie’s my boss and a great friend.”
“He said you went to college together.”
Times have changed if they let blacks go to school. And I sure do not recall women and men at the same one
.
“We did. We were in the same dorm and began hanging out.”
Not really anything he wanted to think about. That man shouldn’t be touching his woman’s body—at all. Swallowing back his rising jealousy, Levi cleared his throat.
“How did he come to own this shop?”
“It was his mother’s and he took it over when she died.”
“I’m sorry he lost his mother.”
She had a sad smile on her face. “Yes, it was hard. She died in Katrina.”
He shook his head.
“Sorry, Katrina was a huge hurricane that came ashore and…let’s just say it was pretty damn catastrophic.”
“You name hurricanes now?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
His mind wasn’t sure what to do about that bit of information. He knew about them but he’d never thought to give them names.
Someone else walked in and their conversation ceased again. Levi got back into the stack of books he had to finish cleaning before they could be recorded and shelved or put in the back.
* * * *
At the end of the workday, Levi was again glad when they pulled into the driveway of her house.
“We’ll clean up and eat before going to meet my friends, but first…” Ta-Mara parked the car but didn’t turn off the engine. “We give you your first driving lesson.”
“You’ll let me drive? What about the rules?”
“Well one of the rules is you need to know how to drive, so I’m going to teach you.”
“Okay.” He wiped his hand up and down his thighs. “What do I need to do first?”
“I’m going to show you by example and explain what I am doing. We’ll keep it to just around my house. It has more than enough space for you to drive around without doing any damage.”
“Damage?”
“Just in case.” She patted his thigh. “You’ll be fine.”
Levi nodded. Ta-Mara started to drive again and explained what she was doing. He listened intently and asked questions. When it was finally time for him to get behind the wheel, Levi was nervous but determined to master learning to drive. He gripped the wheel then did as she said. Levi pressed down on the pedal and the car jumped forward.
“Not so heavy on the gas. Gently,” Ta-Mara said from the passenger seat.
“Sorry.” Levi eased up then continued moving slowly. “This is interesting.”
“You’ll get used to it,” Ta-Mara replied.
Levi wasn’t sure of that but he’d give it a chance. He drove for almost an hour then they returned home to make dinner. The teasing, which had begun during prep, continued as they ate—after which they parted ways to get ready to meet up with her friends.
Once he’d cleaned up, Levi descended the stairs. He stopped abruptly, watching as Ta-Mara spoke with a man in the doorway. When he said something too low for Levi to hear, Ta-Mara laughed and hugged him. Levi clenched his fist and fought a growl. She was entirely too friendly and seemed to always be hugging men. Ta-Mara closed the door and turned.
“Oh, shit you scared me. I didn’t know you were there. You should have said something and I would have introduced you to my friend.”
“Another friend.” Levi was wondering how many men she was friends with as she hugged them so familiarly.
“Yes.” She came to him and held out a folded item. “He brought by your wallet.”
“I don’t have a wallet.” He knew what that was from the TV.
“You do now.”
“What is it for? I don’t have anything to put in it. No identification, money or those little cards you use to pay for stuff.” He accepted the item and opened it.
“You have identification now.” Ta-Mara was smug. “Also have a social security card, birth certificate and all sorts of other things you need so people won’t know you’re not from this time. You have a history so that if people look you up, they will be able to find out things about you, even a job history. I had him make it eclectic, since I wasn’t sure what you like to do. I have it all here in this packet. The wallet has the basics for you, even a few bucks so you can have money. I didn’t get any credit cards for you because that’s something you have to decide, if you want to have credit. You have spectacular credit by the way, just so you have a credit history. I’ll explain what taking credit cards means later.”
Levi was awed at his likeness on the driver’s license. It had his birthday but with the wrong year, which he figured was understandable since they couldn’t put that year without raising flags. It had his height, eye color and the address was Ta-Mara’s house. He took out some of the things from the wallet. There was a library card, medical card and other items.
“How did you do this?” He glanced at her. “This isn’t legal, Ta-Mara.” He’d seen enough on television to know that.
“Not exactly.” She shrugged. “But you needed to have proof of who you are. Maybe later in your time, you won’t need it. But we need something for the present or it’d cause problems if the need arose that you needed to give information or proof of who you are. So I had a buddy of mine set you up.”
“You know criminals.” He put back the items in the wallet.
“No, I don’t. I just know people who can get things that are needed to help someone. It might skirt the law, but if it is necessary, we do it.” Ta-Mara placed her hand on his. “Levi, you needed these things, at least on a temporary basis, so I got them for you.”
“I did.” He held up the wallet. “Thank you. Is this why you took my picture and asked that stuff about me?”
“Yes.” Ta-Mara went to the table by the door. “I’ll put the rest of the packet of information here. We’ll go through it later and I’ll explain what it is then.”
“You keep saying it is temporary that I need this.” Levi studied her. “I don’t have any identification, Ta-Mara. It didn’t time travel with me.” He smiled.
“There is no such thing as time travel.”
“Then how do you explain my being here?” Levi studied her.
“A blip, or maybe you just lost your memory and will regain it. Then, for all we know, you have a wife and a boat load of kids.”
“I don’t have any of those things.” Levi reached for her. “I thought you believed me when I told you what time I was from?”
“I’m still struggling with it.” She lifted her hands and rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t fit my rational mind to believe such a thing. But the way you are so sure is convincing, and I just don’t know, Levi.” She rubbed her fingers through her hair. “How does it sound to someone that you came from the eighteen hundreds and time jumped somehow to be here?”
“Like my current circumstance.” Levi slid the wallet into his pocket then his hands into them. “This isn’t easy for me, either. I thought I was dead.” He could still feel the ache from the noose on his neck.
Ta-Mara’s gaze softened and she moved closer to him. She touched his neck. “It’s fading but I’m sure the memories are still fresh.”
They are. I lost my Calliope and now I’m here—with a woman who makes me want her when I vowed to love one woman.
“It’ll be okay, Levi.” Ta-Mara lowered her hand and gripped his palm. “Let’s go meet my friends and relax a little. We won’t worry about what time you’re from or how you got here. It’ll work itself out. At this time, there is nothing we can do and no way we can know why you ended up in the bookstore, and I found you.”
“You’re right.” He decided to leave it for now. “Show me what this karaoke is.”
“You’re in for an adventure.” Ta-Mara led him toward the door.
Levi was sure he was, but it had nothing to do with where they were going and had everything to do with the woman he was with. Ta-Mara was quickly becoming important to him and he was powerless to stop it.
Hell, he didn’t want to.
Chapter Seven
Ta-Mara watched Levi surreptitiously as they sat at their booth in the back of Louis’. His gaze constantly moved around the joint as if he was unsure what he truly saw. She suspected for him it was a bit shocking. There were a few times during the day she’d had to remind herself he wasn’t from the here and now.
What she’d told him earlier was the truth. She didn’t know what to believe moment to moment. On the one hand, she thought he was indeed from the past, then on the other, she thought he was from this time but had lost his memory. To Ta-Mara it didn’t matter which year he was from in either scenario—if he time traveled back or regained his memory—he would go to whatever life he had, leaving her behind. She had to make sure to be aware that what they had was temporary and she couldn’t get attached. Ta-Mara glanced at him and wondered if it was already too late.
He sat beside her on the outside of the booth. Jasmine, Heather and Rachel had all pouted when he wouldn’t sit in the middle of them, however he’d been adamant on being where he was. She could feel his strong leg pressing against hers, feel the denim against her smooth skin.