Lucius shrugged slightly. "I know which one was which last year, and the years before that. They've never changed. However, that is no guarantee they will not this year."
She would just have to be careful, Annabel told herself. She intended to slip into the San Francisco tent, taking advantage of the crowds and the confusion to do so, and outfit herself in a San Francisco Fire Department uniform. Engine companies from all over the city would be taking part in the contests; she would be sure and pick a helmet from some company other than Number Twenty-one. She also intended to avoid Cole as much as possible, since he was the only one of the firemen who might recognize her.
Cole Brady needed to be avoided for another reason, too. Annabel was afraid that the next time she saw him, her mind would be so distracted by delicious memories of his kiss that she wouldn't be able to concentrate on what she was doing.
She had certainly been unable to sleep that night. Instead, she had tossed and turned and carried on an endless debate with herself about whether or not she had done the right thing by pushing him away. Even lying in her bed hours later, she had seemed to taste him on her lips. He filled her senses. The fragrance that was uniquely Cole, a blend of leather and pipe tobacco and bay rum, still lingered, even though Annabel told herself it was just her imagination.
But she hadn't imagined the warm urgency of his mouth on hers, or the way his hands had held her with a mixture of strength and gentleness. Nor had she imagined the feel of his hard-muscled body pressed to hers, molding the two of them together perfectly. As she had tossed and turned and tried desperately to get to sleep, Annabel's body had responded to those memories almost against her will, her nipples hardening and heat pooling and flowing through her body like honey. She wanted Cole Brady, Lord, she wanted him!
But that was only her body talking, she told herself stubbornly. Until he was ready to accept her for who she really was, they could never come together the way she hoped they might. Cole might feel desire for her—Annabel didn't really doubt that for a second—but he didn't respect her.
He would after the fire department competition. She was sure of that.
And after that. . . Well, there was no telling what might happen then.
"Annabel? My dear, have you seen enough?"
Annabel blinked as she realized that Mellisande was talking to her. She nodded and said, "Yes, that's fine."
"The fire wagon race is some five miles long," Lucius commented as he turned the buggy away from the tents.
"That takes them almost all the way around the park. It's quite exciting. The other contests—the ax throw, the hook-and-ladder relay climb, the fire hose battle and the rest— will take place here in the center of the park. The children will be given rides on the wagons around the band shell, and they'll have games of their own. Plus the picnic tables will be filled to groaning. It will definitely be a festive occasion all the way around.".
It certainly sounded like it to Annabel. She vaguely remembered Earl Tabor telling her about these old-fashioned fire department competitions, but she couldn't recall any of the details. Wouldn't Earl love hearing an eyewitness account of one of them? she thought.
Thinking about Earl reminded her of the earthquake. For the most part, she had succeeded in putting the future and all the dangers it held out of her thoughts. She had become caught up with fitting in here—and, she had to admit to herself, distracted even more by her budding relationship with Cole Brady.
But the earthquake was still out there somewhere in the future, looming like a great beast that would come in and destroy half the city with one swipe of its deadly paw. There was nothing Annabel could do to stop it. She knew that.
She could flee, though. Mrs. Noone might think it odd, but she wouldn't refuse if Annabel asked to have Lucius take her over to the Diablos so she could search for that mysterious cave. She could still make an effort to return to her own time before the earthquake struck.
If only she could remember the date of the earthquake! Then she could warn her friends when it was closer to the right moment. They would think she had lost her mind, of course, but she might be able to persuade them to take some extra precautions.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't dredge that all-important date from her memory. In fact, to her dismay, she was beginning to realize that it was becoming harder and harder to recall what her friends Earl Tabor and Vickie Pasetta even looked like. The longer she stayed here in 1906, the more her memories of her own time faded.
Life here in 1906 wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. This time period had both advantages and problems that were uniquely its own. And Cole was here. Whether Annabel liked it or not, she had to admit that that made a difference.
Enough so that she would be content to stay here the rest of her life? Annabel found she couldn't answer that question, not yet. It would depend to a large extent on what happened during the competition between the fire departments.