Page 128 of Timeless

“Come here.” She pulled Abby into a hug that felt sogood. “You know what I think?”

“What?”

“That none of that stuff is going anywhere. We’ll scan everything in so that it’s all digital, and we’ll have it forever that way. We’ll protect the pictures and the book from being damaged, too, so everything will be there for us to look over whenever we want, but you and I will only be in this stage of our relationship once, Abs.” Quinn kissed the top of her head.

Abby nodded and replied, “You’re right. Want to go on that date now and worry about the rest later?”

“I do, yeah.”

“You’re not too tired?”

“I do this every weekend, so I’m used to it. Areyoutoo tired?”

“No,” she replied. “I want a date with you tonight.”

“What if we go to the store down the street and get some food for a picnic in the park? It should be quiet right about now. It’s getting dark. Kids will be heading inside. I have a blanket in my trunk. We can just relax and head to my place so I can pack a bag after.”

“That sounds really nice.”

Plan for the night made, they grabbed Abby’s stuff and walked down the street hand in hand, which felt so perfect to her. While Abby didn’t get a vision of Deb and Harriet doing the same because they had never been able to hold hands in public like this, she did think of them and hoped that they were watching her and Quinn now astheygot the chance to do it out in the open.

Inside the store, Quinn continued to hold Abby’s hand, likely remembering what she’d told her about shopping, and Abby held the basket over her free arm while they walked up and down the aisles, putting in item after item. This simple gesture on Quinn’s part warmed her all the way through in a way that she hadn’t felt before, but then again, Quinn seemed to do that a lot: make Abby feel things that she’d never felt before.

“We’ll never eat all of this,” she noted.

“Maybe not tonight, but we’ll have it for the next one.”

“Next picnic? Do you, like, love picnics or something? Is that something I should know about you?”

Quinn just smiled over at her until they landed at the aisle where Abby had found the popcorn previously.

“Popcorn?” Quinn asked.

“Sure.” Abby chuckled and put a box of the bagged stuff into her basket.

Tonight was about them, so she didn’t want to bring up the vision of Deb and Harriet making popcorn the old-fashioned way for one another. There was also the fact that Abby had since done some research on how long popcorn had been around, finding an article on the history of the stuff that told her it had been around practically forever, which she hadn’t known prior to that. In fact, between her writing multiple chapters in a day for the first time in her life, she’d gone on a whole learning path about various things from her visions, but that was for another day.

After paying, they held hands while walking all the way to the car, each of them holding a grocery bag as well, and Quinn drove them to the park, which was more of a playground with a grassy area and some trees surrounding it. Then, Quinn set up the blanket while Abby got their dinner ready, and they sat down and ate as they talked about the day and how the next day would probably be just as busy. Abby wanted to help again, and Quinn said that it would be nice to have someone there with her, but Abby knew that justanysomeone wouldn’t do. Quinn liked that it washer, which made Abby feel pretty amazing, being wanted like that.

After they finished eating and the sun had disappeared from the sky, Abby thought that they would head home, but Quinn had another idea.

“Come here,” Quinn requested after lying down on the blanket.

Abby moved to lie against her chest, resting her armover Quinn’s stomach, and said, “It’s going to be too cold to stay out here for long.”

“I know. Just a minute or two.”

“Quinn?” she asked after a moment.

“Hmm?”

“I’m just… I’m really happy right now, and I wanted you to know that.”

“Yeah?”

“I know some of it is still scary, but I feel good. I feel like, even if we weren’t also these other women throughout history, I’d still really, really like you, and we’d be here lying on a blanket after a picnic together. I wasn’t sure I’d feel that way in the beginning.”

“I’m really happy, too,” Quinn replied. “You know, in all our visions of the past, each woman was a little different. While Harriet and Diana had some similarities, they were different, too.”