“Hey!” I try to swat him away, but he bats my hands, like someone brushing off a child who keeps fidgeting.

“You didn’t take anything with you, did you? From before? When you jumped?”

I shake my head. “No, I didn’t. Get off of me!” I shove him, firmly enough that his sturdy body separates from me. “That would create some sort of paradox, right?”

“That only happens if you interact with yourself in the past, idiot.”

“Don’t call me an idiot,” I warn.

“Don’t say dumb things. And besides, that only happens if you touch yourself or your past self sees you. Not the other way around. And I highly doubt you saw yourself in… Where did you go, anyway?”

“Same place as before.”

“Which is?”

“Boston. Nineteen sixty-nine. My house, actually.”

“The one you live in now?”

“Gee, what brought you to that conclusion?”

“Don’t be a smart aleck.”

“Don’t say dumb things.”

Blake grins at me, and I smile back. The tit for tat is a different dance than the one with Isobel. Usually, she’ll get angry and defensive if I say something that offends her, even if she started it. And most of our arguments end with me conceding, because that’s just better for our relationship. But with Blake, the tango is fun.

“There’s a guy there, in my house back then. He lives there in sixty-nine. Both times I traveled, I went to him. The first time, I appeared on the lawn, and he was there five seconds later. The next time, I was inside of the house. It’s like, I dunno…”

“You’re either tethered to him or to the house.”

He doesn’t give me time to ask him what the hell he means before he starts to explain.

“Time travel is all about focus. If you don’t know how to control it, you’ll jump by accident. I’m guessing that when you jump, it’s because some part of you, consciously or subconsciously, doesn’t want to be where you are. Fight-or-flight reactions, anger, longing—all of these things trigger the automatic response to be somewhere else. Often the first jump is tied to some thought or memory.

“But sometimes, for whatever reason, people get bound to other people through time and space. No one knows why it happens; typically, there’s some genetic or spiritual or emotional connection. So it could just be the house. Or it could be that you and…”

“Michael.”

“This Michael guy and you are connected. It might be because you live in the same house. Or it could have something to do with the person you’re going to become or with something he will do that directly affects you.