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Abby smiled and shook her head a little in disbelief.

CHAPTER 47

“Are we wrong for doing that?” Abby asked as Quinn drove them to the address on her GPS.

“For what?”

“Scanning the book. It belonged to his parents, and he was clearly aware of it and wants it back.”

“Probably because he knows what’s in it. They might have told them about their past together, or maybe he just got ahold of it after their deaths and thinks it makes them sound crazy and doesn’t want anyone else to see it. It could also just be a keepsake that he didn’t mean to part with, and he just thinks it’s something they made up. I don’t think we’re wrong for wanting to know more about ourselves, though, Abs. They’re our past lives, too.”

“I know. I just don’t–” Abby paused abruptly, and Quinn realized why when she pulled up to the house.

“Wow! It’s the same, but totally different,” she noted.

The road to the house – orhouses, really, since this property had been broken up years ago – was paved now, but the driveway, which was only about half as long as Quinn remembered, was still gravel, and she could hear it under the car tires. It took her back, and she was suddenly Harriet, walking home to her wife and son after the war, hearing it crunch beneath her feet. The house was painted differently now and had been kept up for the most part, but it was still the same old farmhouse that Deb and Harriet had made their own after John David had died.

“Are you feeling them more strongly now?” Abby asked.

“Yes,” she admitted and stopped the car, putting it in park. “They lived here, Abby.”

“The cellar.” Abby pointed. “It’s still there.”

Quinn followed her finger and noticed the old cellar,where they’d tried to take shelter from the storm, saved their son, but they ended up losing their lives. Beyond the cellar was a field, and beyond the field, which was much smaller now than Quinn remembered, there were the woods and the river within it that she only knew of because of her memories.

“They put new doors on it,” Abby noted of the cellar. “And the barn looks new; not the same one from when they were here.”

“Might have been destroyed in the storm,” Quinn suggested, turning off the car.

“I’m not sure how the house itself is still standing.”

“Hey, did you ever seeTwister?”

“What? Yeah. Why?”

“It’s what Helen Hunt’s character says, isn’t it? It missed this house, that house, and took the one her family had. But in this case, it took others and maybe the barn, but missed this house.” Quinn nodded toward it.

“FirstJerry Maguireand nowTwister?” Abby chuckled. “Do you have a thing for 90s movies I need to know about, Quinn?”

“My parents and I watched both of those movies, including not one but two sex scenes inJerry Maguire, and let me tell you about the most awkward moments of my life.”

Abby laughed a little and said, “I’m just glad it’s still here.”

“Me too. But you realize what’s going to happen when we go inside, don’t you?”

“The memories could rush at us all at once, yeah.”

“And confuse the hell out of Simon if he’s in there with us.”

“Maybe he won’t be. Look.” Abby nodded, and Quinn followed her eyes.

Simon was walking out of the house with a man and a woman. They both shook his hand and spoke for a moment longer before they got into their car, and Simon looked over at them, noticing that they were there.

“Now or never,” Quinn said, taking a deep breath.

They got out of the car, with Abby holding on to thebook, and they walked together as the other couple drove away until they got to Simon.

“Hi,” Quinn greeted.