Hearts Out of Time Read Online Free PDF Page B

retreat. He didn’t contact them with any news for almost a year, and her mother worried for weeks on end. He had dared lie to his wife and daughter. God had never been in his life, only work.
    Since he obviously couldn’t keep in touch with his family from the nineteenth century, he didn’t have any choice but to cut himself off. And lie. Nevertheless, he’d distressed them for twelve long months without suffering from a guilty conscience. Damn, she could have wrung his neck.
    “I can’t believe he was showing off in nineteenth-century England while we thought him locked in a cell in some drab monastery.” She shook her head in disgust.
    Having folded his napkin in a neat square, Garrett inhaled sharply and fixed a stern gaze upon her. “I beg your pardon, Miss Richardson. A daughter has no authority to pass judgment on her father’s actions.”
    “Hey, Mister Stuck-up is back,” she couldn’t help but bite back. Disregarding his cold eyes riveted to her, she winked at Weedon. “I kinda missed him for a while there.”
    Weedon didn’t hide a smile while he signaled to Garrett to carry on with his story. Garrett scowled at him then continued.
    “William spent fifteen years of his life attempting to create a time-travel machine, but he had been unsuccessful thus far.”
    “Are you kidding me?” Although a little surprised at her own defensiveness, Tracy felt prompted to wave her hands at Garrett. “Hello! I’m living proof he made it, all right.”
    “Would you please stop interrupting and heed my words?” Garrett frowned and tapped his fingers on the tablecloth.
    Quick to the rescue, Weedon clapped his hands lightly. “All right, you two. If you want some privacy, just say the word and I’ll take White Fur for a walk.”
    “By all means,” Tracy said, shooting Weedon a dark look, “do go on, Mister Burnes.”
    Garrett gave her a brief nod, yet she knew her sudden formal manner didn’t deceive him in the least. “As I was saying before being interrupted, William worked to a standstill. Time traveling would mean breaking immutable laws of physics. However, prior to his arrival in England, he had learnt about a many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics he named ‘the Everett Theory.’”
    Tracy snapped her fingers, recalling how the name rang a bell when she initiated her father’s program on the computer. “Small wonder Dad used this name for his program.”
    Garrett slowly took a sip of water, set his glass down on the table, and continued as if she hadn’t butted in.
    “Based on this interpretation, William’s work took on a very different direction. He’d already created a telepod in the basement of his Sausalito residence, and finalized another one in Gold Run.”
    “Really?”
    Her father always acted like the busiest person on the planet, but now she understood why. Still, he abandoned his family for too long to expect forgiveness simply because he might be a genius. Pushing the upsetting thoughts away, she concentrated on Garrett’s voice.
    “As I was free and idle at that time, he offered me the opportunity to meet up with him in San Francisco, after he’d had a chance to see his family. I was to assist him in building a third telepod.”
    “So you two built the lab I found myself in this morning? The place where you were waiting for me?”
    She didn’t mean to sound awed, yet the hint of a proud smile danced on Garrett’s extremely kissable lips.
    “Precisely.”
    Her dad wouldn’t have let anyone else but himself manipulate the telepods at that early stage of his work. If she judged the situation right, Garrett had journeyed from England to America by boat.
    “So you crossed the Atlantic to pursue a dream?” she asked.
    “Not a dream at all, as you seem to imply so offhandedly, for William made a breakthrough and created the first dimensional travel device. You didn’t go back in time, Miss Richardson.” Garrett paused.
    Tracy felt her stomach spin with anticipation