Never Too Late (Resetter Series Book 1) Page 4

  They had succumbed to their attraction when he had visited New York her second year at college. His first year of marriage to Kenya. He had stayed in her tiny off campus apartment for two whole weeks making love to her like there was no tomorrow. He hadn't gone to the conference he had been there to attend. He hadn't even pretended that he wanted to go.

  And now, with so many years below her belt and so many teachable moments in her life. Their eyes connected.

  Randy—a younger Randy.

  He was twenty! And looked it. Still crazily handsome with his dark eyes and his blinding white smile.

  He was smiling at her now. Dimples in his cheek, hand extended. No recognition in his eyes of her or anything that they had shared together.

  Addi backed away. Hell no, she wasn't going through another soul crushing wringer with this guy, where just one touch and one look had her forgetting all her principles. No! Not at all.

  "Addi!" Josh looked at her in horror as she headed toward the door. "What's wrong with you?"

  "Nothing." Addi panted, her heart was racing like she was hurtling toward the ground on a roller coater ride. "Not one thing."

  She opened the door and leaned on the wall outside of it. Everybody knew lightning did not strike twice in the same location.

  But that wasn't true was it? Lightning could strike any place more than once. And her helter-skelter rollicking heart rate was proof of that. An attraction to Randy Vassell was obviously not out of the question.

  It seemed as if she was wired to like him.

  She would spend the rest of the summer out of his way.

  She didn't care how rude she looked. This time around she was going to take better care of protecting herself from him. She wanted the dream. And Randy Vassell as magnetic as he was to her wasn't it.

  Chapter Five

  Addi spent the rest of the day cleaning up her room. Her mother stopped by with food and gave her an appreciative smile.

  "Who are you and what have you done with my daughter?" She asked when she came to the door and saw Addi deep into the closet with several odds and ends clustered in neat little piles behind her.

  She looked at her mother's smiling face again marveling at how young she was. Her mom would be her age now. Well, her age before she put her hand on that rock and thought about the year '92.

  She shook her head from her thoughts, accepted the lunch, gave her mom an impromptu hug and pulled the Kriss Kross poster from the door.

  Her mother raised an eyebrow. "Wow."

  "Can I get paint to redo my room?" Addi looked at the brash peach paint that was on the wall. "I am thinking yellow. Like duck yellow."

  "Sure." Her mother looked more than pleased. "Are you sure you want to do this by yourself?"

  "Yes I am." Addi nodded. "My summer project is to redo my room. Maybe Sky will help."

  "Okay. I will take home samples later."

  After her mother left Addi sat in the middle of the floor. She had decided on the spring-cleaning because for one she couldn't remember what she owned in 1992.

  Two, she needed to take her mind off her reaction to Randy.

  And three, she needed to plan how she was going to go about this resetting business. She didn't want to mess up the future that she knew. She had watched enough time travel stories to know that you had to be careful about what you did now or things could go horribly wrong.

  She wanted to make changes but she did not want to create rippling changes that would shake the very foundations of society.

  She had to give Sky her book and explain to her that it was from the future Sky. She figured that that would be an uphill battle. Sky could sit and listen to a story for a while but after that she would probably laugh her out of the room.

  And she didn't want to live the whole teenage experience again. And school! High school. Ugh!

  Maybe she could try to learn another language. She had always liked the idea of learning several languages or music. She had a passing fascination with playing the piano at one point in her life.

  She glanced at the radio, which was sitting on top of the bookcase overflowing with Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Bobsy Twins books. Under that was a pile of photo romance books that she had craftily hidden below several folders.

  She got up and pulled them out. Photo romances were the heights of the forbidden in her house, but she had acquired a vast collection of them. Most of them were from Sky who had gotten them from Aunt Ivy's hidden trove. She also had a stack of True Confessions in her closet.

  Addi dragged them out and sat leaning on the bed while she perused the titles of the stories. My Father Sold Me, Marked For Scandal, I Fell In Love With My Kidnapper.

  She would run through those again and the huge collection of old romances her mother had in the bookcase in the music room.

  Well, not music room, it had a piano which was buried under boxes and books and piles and piles of newspaper and old year books and even construction paraphernalia that could probably be sold at the hardware store.

  She remembered helping to clean out that room in 95 when they were leaving for America and how they had marveled at the several things they could have sold.

  She would clean it up this summer, maybe have a garage sale, donate some of the books to the retirement home down the road that had some old ladies that loved to read.

  Her previous summer of 92 had not been half as productive. She had spent the summer hanging around Randall, chatting him up in the day. Beseeching him to take her with him on the road. Having dreams and fantasies about him at night. In mid July, she had grudgingly gone to church camp for two weeks with Sky.

  Sky had gotten the flu and then chicken pox in August and had been practically bed ridden after camp. She hadn't seen her cousin for the first part of August because she was contagious. Then there had been the murder of Uncle Stan in mid-August on a construction site in Ingleside where both her father and uncle were working. Apparently Rusty had pushed her uncle from the second floor of the building.

  She searched in her pile of folder leaves to write down all the possible things that she needed to reset this summer.

  Uncle Stan's death. She scribbled that down, grimacing as she saw the chewed up pen top. She had been gross.

  Two, stop Josh from having anything to do with Ellie.

  Three, tell Monica Campbell that she should not marry Walter Sparks.

  Four, ask Monica for her grandmother's book and find out why my palm is normal again.

  Five, give Sky her book and tell her about her future. She put an asterisk beside that one and then wrote, break it to her gently.

  Six, avoid Randy. Find somebody else of interest to love. Now this one was going to be hard.

  Seven, find out more about people like me.

  She got up and turned on the radio. In 1992 there were only a few radio stations in Jamaica. She turned to Power 106, it was a brand new station in this year and it played mostly R and B. She sat and stared into space, her mind churning. What could she do with her wealth of knowledge about this era.

  How could she make an impact?

  She couldn't. She was just a fifteen-year-old girl whose breasts hadn't even exploded into fullness yet. She didn't know any movers or shakers and even if she did no one would listen to her. She was just a girl. She couldn't reset world events. She could only reset her immediate family.

  And she should stick to that.

  How she would accomplish this noble task. She had no idea. She closed her eyes as Boyz 11 Men, started playing—Although we go, to the end of the road, still I can't let go.

  She hummed to it.

  Only opening her eyes when her door was flung opened unceremoniously. Sky stood in the doorway.

  "When I said, I was going to study, I didn't mean all day without a break. You could have come and visited the incarcerated!"

  She flung herself across Addi's bed. "Why am I doing Principles of Business? It's not as if I am going to need it later in life. I am going to be a f
ashion designer."

  Addi looked at her, drinking her in. A few days ago they had found her dead in her apartment, cried over her, chastised themselves over what they could have done differently. She had left a gaping hole in the fabric of her family and yet here she was, young, and vibrant very much alive.

  Sky had more than a passing resemblance to Gabrielle Union. She had even given an autograph once pretending to be the actress.

  "What are you smiling about?" Sky muttered. Then she raised her head and looked around. "What happened in here?"

  "I am sorting out my stuff." Addi grinned. "And then when I am done here I am going to sort out the music room."

  "Boring." Sky muttered covering her eyes. "What do you think of Josh's friend, Randall?"

  "He's okay," Addi muttered.

  "Are you blind Addison Monique Porter?" Sky squealed the question and then sat up on her elbows and looked at Addi.

  "He is the best looking guy we have ever seen in real life. We should call him chocolate man."

  Addi rolled her eyes.

  "You like him and you are just pretending," Sky said putting on a long suffering tone. She spotted Addi's forgotten lunch resting on the dresser and jack knifed out of the bed.

  "Why didn't Aunt Vicky take lunch for me?"

  Addi shrugged. "You can have it, I am not hungry."

  "Cool." Sky started eating and then put the carton that the lunch was in on the dresser when, Would I Lie To You by Charles and Eddie came on.

  "I have to dance to this," She said her eyes lighting up. "Come on, Addi. This is our jam!"

  Addi shook her head. "No!"

  "Yes!" Sky swung her hips and sang to the music, "would I lie to you baby? would I lie to you? Oh yea!"

  Addi got up. She had forgotten this song. The 90s had good songs going for it, that was for sure.

  She danced with Sky. Stomping on her magazines and papers and clothes strewn across the floor. It was good to be fifteen again, at least for the time being.

  ****

  Addi finished sorting out her final pile of teenage debris. She had been a little hoarder. Some of the things she was packing up for the garbage the first time around she had thought she couldn't do without. To her shame she still had a dozen plush toys arranged all around the room. She bagged them and was just about to haul the garbage bag filled with toys when she entered the living room and saw Randall.

  He was sitting in the settee looking outside when she noisily entered the living room. She stopped when she saw him and gave him a full scowl.

  He had the audacity to smile.

  "Addison."

  "Randall." Addi smirked.

  "Need help?" He asked ignoring her hostility.

  "No." Addi almost hissed her response.

  Randy nodded. "Okay."

  She passed him and headed onto the veranda. Her mother had her boxes of stuff that she frequently gave away to charity in one of the corners. She put her bag on top of two boxes and the bag became untied. One of her teddy bears fell out.

  "Giving away your bears?" Randy asked. He had followed her and leaned on the wall watching her lazily.

  "None of your business," Addi muttered as she stuffed the offending thing back in the bag.

  "What did I do to you?" Randy asked puzzled. "You are so hostile, like a wild untamed cat."

  Addi swung around and looked at him fiercely. "In a previous time, you and I were lovers. You broke my heart. My hostility stems from the fact that in this time line you and I will mean nothing to each other. You are going to leave me alone. I will leave you alone. I will move on with my life the way I am supposed to this time around."

  Randy looked shocked. He shook his head a little. "Well, er...you have quite an imagination going on there don't you, Addison?"

  "Yes." Addi tied the bag more aggressively than she needed to and then stomped past him. "Stay away from me!"

  Randy nodded firmly as if she had no need to give him any warning. "I will. Definitely."

  "Good." She huffed and went back to her room. The place looked more to her liking now—minimal products on the dresser and her closet was better arranged. Most of her garish clothes were packed away in a charity box.

  Her study table was now clean of books and papers, her bookcase arranged according to the size of the books and posters removed from her wall. She had long outgrown the nineties. She hoped she could outgrow Randall as well.

  Chapter Six

  Addi had forgotten that family dinner was a major production in her family. Her mother had cooked steamed cabbage and salted fish with rice. She was expected to set the table with the proper utensils and mix the drinks, which was Kool Aid. She could choose any flavor she wanted from a large box of packets in the cupboard.

  She had quit all sugary drinks years ago. It was with fascination that she looked at the giant Kool Aid box and contemplated the flavors.

  "There is still apple left," her mother reminded her from the stove when she saw her dithering over the flavors. "Apple is still your favorite, right?"

  "Yes, it was. It is," Addi said quickly pulling out an apple-flavored packet.

  She was fishing lemon seeds from the drink when her father walked into the kitchen. He grabbed her mother from behind and kissed her soundly.

  Then he pulled Addi's hair. "Hey kid."

  "Hi Dad."

  Addi smiled. He aged pretty well. Twenty-five years in the future he wore his hair clean-shaven to hide the grays and a bald spot in the middle of his head. He was almost the same size now too—slim and wiry and tall. Not a slouch to his ramrod straight back now or in the future.

  Today his hair was big, bushy, and in an Afro. He wore a full beard. Her dad had loved his beard. She searched her mind trying to remember when he had stopped wearing it. When it got too gray. She remembered him complaining about that.

  He was a good-looking man, with a slight exotic slant to his eye from an Asian ancestor. He had dark rich mahogany skin and a straight nose that flared at the end from a maroon ancestor and a warm ready smile that was all him.

  Josh resembled her dad more closely than she had thought. Looking at him now, the resemblance was glaring.

  She got his nose, but the medium brown skin tone and the forehead and the shape of her lips from her mom.

  "How was your day?" He asked Addi as he pushed a glass under the tap and filled it with water.

  "Good. I cleaned up my room."

  "It's amazing our Addi is turning into an exemplary young woman." Her mother smiled. "She is even giving away some of her stuff to charity."

  "You are?" Her father smiled his eyes warm and playful.

  "And she wants to paint it." Her mother continued. "I brought home some samples for her to choose from."

  "It's the construction gene in her bones." Her father nodded. "If you want to come and help out on the site, I can arrange it..."

  "No," her mother protested before he could finish. "No girl of mine is going on any construction site to work. She is a girl!"

  Her father shrugged. "Girls can do anything. She can paint her room, it's only logical to expect that she can build a house."

  He winked at Addi. "You are not the weaker sex. You are strong. Don't forget that."

  "Thanks Dad." She smiled at her father. He was the same he has always been.

  Her mother made a sound of disgust. "I don't want a tomboy. And I hate that you put insane notions in her head."

  "Not insane notions, Vicky. I just want one of our kids to run the construction business when Stan and I can't manage anymore. Josh is already at the hardware store with you, Sky is a girly girl. Now Addi is my only hope."

  Her mother chuckled. "Nice try. Go wash up for dinner."

  ****

  Dinner was a lively affair, despite the fact that Randall was sitting across from her at the table and trying to avoid eye contact with her.

  Her father recounted a story about one of his workers, and Randy reported that he was just filing receipts and other bills
for the day. He was nowhere near starting to do the real accounting. Her mother asked her about some end of school term related program that parents were supposed to attend. Addi couldn't answer. She had no recollection of anything related to the school from 1992.

  The conversation turned to Josh after a brief pause. And he with a big smile and obvious naivety announced to the table. "Today I met the woman who is going to be my wife! I mean, I met her before, but today she finally responded to me."

  Vicky laughed and clapped her hands.

  Nate looked contemplatively on his son and shook his head. "Really, Josh? One conversation and you are declaring her to be wife."

  Randall smiled and patted his friend on the back.

  Addi sat up straighter in her chair. Things just got serious; Josh's biggest regret was about to start.

  "Yes Dad." Josh chuckled. "I am the age you were when you married Mom. You said you took one look at her and you could feel the forever vibes. Well, it is the same with me. I took one look at Ellie and I know. I think I have always known we would be something. Today she reciprocated."

  "One look." Addi snorted.

  "Yes, one look." Josh glared at her. "What's gotten into you today?"

  Addi subsided in her chair. Her parents would soon ask what he meant and then she would be in for a cussing. She didn't have long to wait.

  "What do you mean Josh?" Vicky looked from her to Josh.

  Randy was the one who rescued her. "She thinks I look like some character in a book she is reading and refused to shake my hand earlier today. We cleared that up this evening."

  "Oh." Vicky chuckled. "Addi, please don't mix up reality and fiction. I know I encourage you to read but you should always be polite."

  "Yes ma'am." She nodded trying to avoid looking at Randall. It was a good save. He probably thought his explanation was true too. Damn him for rescuing her. This did not change a thing.