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“It’s not that I don’t want to talk about them… I love thinking about how you and I are connected. But, at the same time, I still want to know whoyouare now. I mean, here I was, thinking I’d chosen to buy that shop of my own free will, but, apparently, I only bought it because Diana and Cheryl came here once and saw it.”

“Hey,” Abby said softly as she reached for Quinn’s hand on the table and placed her own on top of it, giving it a comforting squeeze. “That’s not true.”

“You just told me itwas, Abs.”

“It might be the reason you came to this town, and when you saw it was for sale, you had a previous connection to it, so you were interested… But do you honestly think that you would’ve bought a shop that they only saw in passing and made one comment about in their entire lives and still own it to this day? You were a pretty young business owner, babe; especially when it comes to owning an antique shop. You’ve had it for about five years now, and you just told me that you love it. You could’ve closed it down whenever you wanted. That building would’ve sold easily, given the town’s growth. Or, you could’ve leased it out by now, pocketed the money, and done something else with your life, but you haven’t done that. From what I can tell, no one in our past was an antique shop owner. You’re the first. Besides, you could’ve stayed in nursing school. Harriet was a nurse in the war. Diana was a nurse her whole life until she retired. I still haven’t looked them up yet, but that feels right to me; that she was a nurse until she retired. Anyway, you could’ve been a nurse. You went to school for it. But something told you that it wasn’t for you.”

“Yeah, probably that I had to be here to meet you,” Quinn suggested, stood, and picked up her plate as well as Abby’s to take to the sink.

“But you don’t get it, Quinn. You still could’ve met me. This town is growing, yes, but it’s not a thriving metropolis. We would’ve met. I was a bit of a recluse the first year after moving back, but you didn’t have to own that shop for us to meet. We almost ran into each other while getting coffee. We shop at the same grocery store; walk the same streets. We would’ve seen each other at some point. You don’t have to own that shop. Youchooseto own it as Quinn.”

Quinn put the plates in the sink and placed her hands on the edge of the counter, looking out the small window above it.

“This is what bothered you at first, isn’t it? That we can’t ever know if we’re meant to be as Quinn and Abby today or as them.”

“A little. I had the same thoughts about Cheryl being a reporter, a journalist. She’s a writer. I’m a writer.”

“Deb was a farmer,” Quinn countered.

“Because she had no other choice. Most of the women before her probably didn’t even know how to read, so there’s that.”

“Maria taught Isabella how to read. She knew because she was royalty. It was–”

“Something they did every night, whispering in their small room at the convent?”

“You saw it, too?” Quinn asked.

“No, but I felt it when you said it.” Abby stood and walked over to stand a few feet away from Quinn. “I know we weren’t supposed to talk about this tonight… I’m sorry for bringing it up. I just thought you’d want to know about Paul and the shop, but maybe it was the wrong time.”

“No, it’s fine. In a way, it’s nice. I can actually see it now.”

Quinn was in Diana’s mind, looking across the street at the old version of her shop.

“I can’t see Paul yet, but I can see the shop, at least. It looks nice with that paint on the window. Maybe I should do that. My windows don’t have anything on them.”

“I can help if you want,” Abby offered.

Quinn turned and asked, “You can paint windows?”

“I can buy paint and stencils so that we canbothpaint windows.”

Quinn smiled and said, “I might take you up on that.”

“Quinn, there’s another thing.”

“What?”

“They made a list. Cheryl and Diana. They had a list that they put into a book. It’s all the couples they think they’ve ever been.”

Quinn’s eyes widened.

“They made a list?”

“They couldn’t quite figure out when it all started, but they went back as far as the 1600s.”

“The princess,” Quinn said.

“But they also believed there were couples before them because Maria and Isabella spoke about it. It’s like the further we get from a previous couple, the foggier they get. That’s why Deb and Harriet are clearer to us than Antoinette and Dorothy.”