Page 102

“You’re exaggerating.” Abby laughed.

“Abs, the pull is strong. I know you’ve felt it. It’s why it felt so good to hug each other earlier.”

“Like we’re magnets. I know. I feel it, too. And I want us to do that, but–”

“No, it’s okay. You’re right.” She rubbed Abby’s arms up and down. “We know we want to, and that’s enough for tonight. Besides, we have a book to read, and that’s probablygoing to take some time.”

“We don’t have to read the whole thing tonight.”

“You’re telling me that once we start, you’ll be able to stop?”

“No,” Abby said with a smirk. “You know me so well already.” She kissed Quinn quickly before she turned around and moved the book more toward the middle of the table. “Are you ready?”

Quinn removed her blazer, tossed it over the stool, and moved to stand next to her.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“Did you do that on purpose?”

“What?”

“Take off your jacket?”

“It got hot in here.”

“Sure, it did,” Abby replied, looking down at Quinn, who was now just in a V-neck T-shirt.

“Hey, I’m not lying. And if you want to take off your sweater for the same reason, I really wouldn’t mind.”

Abby laughed and said, “Hold me while we do this?”

Quinn smiled before she stood behind her, wrapped her arms around Abby’s waist, rested her chin on Abby’s shoulder, and said, “Okay. Ready.”

Abby opened the old book to the first page, which was blank, so she turned it again.

“What we know so far,” she read the only text on that page out loud before turning the page again. “Oh, wow. It’s the list.”

“The one they made?”

“It’s all the names they knew or the timeline, at least, if they didn’t know the names. This one just says, ‘Women in maybe Germany or Switzerland.’” Abby pointed to a line item on the list that didn’t have any names. “There are no dates, so they must not have known for sure and just tried to slot them in.”

“There are forty-five lines there, Abs.”

“I know… Wow!” Abby leaned back against Quinn’s body. “We’ve lived at least forty-five times before now?”

“Some lives were shorter, too. Look at this one.” Quinn pointed at number thirteen on the list. “Looks like they had less than a year together.”

“Why would that happen?”

“I don’t know. But people did die young a long time ago. Maybe it was a war or disease.”

“This one, too, looks like they only had a few years, but the one below it, they had a few decades, at least.”

“What I wouldn’t give to have decades with you…” she whispered into Abby’s ear.

“Which one of them said that in a vision?” Abby asked.

“None. That’s me saying that to you.” Quinn pushed some of Abby’s hair away. “Does that scare you?”