Chapter 20
I will always carry you.
Filbur
Seeing my beautiful bride dancing with my nieces on the beach, her naked feet moving and digging into the sand with each step, the music soft in the background, filled my whole heart with joy.
We were celebrating with our people. Celebrating the end of the migration, and the last group’s arrival. We were now settled for the summer. I was returning to my work in the morning.
I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed to leave our bubble so soon. To not be able to spend all my time with Tamara by my side.
Maybe she would come visit me at work sometimes. Maybe I could get a glimpse of her while she worked her new job, swimming around and ensuring all sea creatures were healthy.
I knew she’d take every opportunity to collect seashells. She had started painting them and making some sort of sculptures out of the broken ones. Some were outright horrendous. Some were ridiculously funny. But all brought a huge smile to her lips.
I was hoarding them and placing each in different spots of our house, relishing in the joy illuminating her face every time she found one.
She was finally happy. Finally safe, and loved.
“So, when am I going to be an uncle?” Khegon asked as he sat on the sand next to me.
The whole beach was swarming with people dancing and playing music. Khegon had always taken pride in mingling and being accessible.
Our whole family was.
“We are working on it.”
He chuckled, sliding his hand in the sand between us. “Thanks for the uncomfortable talk you forced me to have with Juni, by the way.”
“You deserved it.”
A loud gasp escaped him. “How dare you?”
“Your girl is fifteen and a healer in training. She needs to know babies were never meant to be made in boxes.”
“Yes, I know,” he grumbled. “I was hoping I would get more time. Sunia was not too happy to go into details either.”
“I’m sure your wife did much better than you.”
“I have no doubt…” He paused, looking at the girls, all swarming around Tamara, laughing while she tried to follow their steps. “You are good for each other. I have never seen you this carefree and relaxed.”
“So much that I am dreading going back to work tomorrow.”
He gave me a side glance. “Do you want me to extend your vacation?”
I shook my head. “No, I will not take advantage of you being my brother to get some advantages.”
Khegon shrugged. “No one will care. Look at them.” He waved forward, to everyone happily dancing. People sometimes stopped next to Tamara to congratulate her on our partnering. “They all love her. They all love you.”
“She starts working tomorrow.”
“I heard,” he said. “The sealife protection team is really excited to have her with them.”
I could bet that Tamara was even more excited to join their team. If we got home tonight and I told her I wasn’t actually working in the morning to stay with her, there was a chance that she’d be disappointed. I would not be the one to keep her away from her new life.
“I will go back to work tomorrow,” I concluded. “But I will have my lunch on the beach in the hope I’ll get to catch a glimpse of her.”
My brother smiled at me. “Fine. But hurry up and give me some nieces and nephews.”
We are working on it, brother. But we’re not in a hurry.
***
“Are you enjoying yourself?” I asked Tamara when she finally took a break and came to sit between my legs.
Her back relaxed against my front. “Your nieces are trying to dehydrate me. I’ve never sweated as much in my whole life.”
Sweat…Another instance of water escaping the human body.
They required to drink a lot to survive.
I handed her a Satha juice—her favorite—and dropped a line of kisses on the top of her hair.
“It’s the middle of the night. How the hell do they still have all this energy?”
I looked at the dark sky. “They will fall like dead trees in less than one hour,” I told her. “Khegon and Sunia are lurking around, ready to carry them to their nets.”
“Will you be ready to carry me to ours?” she asked playfully. “Because my legs are killing me and I’m about to fall like a dead tree too.”
“I will always be ready to carry you,” I said, nuzzling the side of her face.
“Even when we migrate back to the winter lands, and I’ll maybe be the size of a whale?”
Okay, she lost me. “What is a whale?”
“To simplify, it’s a huge sea creature. The size of many many houses.”
I arched a brow and she lifted her head up to look at me. “Why would you be the size of…houses?”
She paused, studying my face. “Pregnancy?”
Oh. Oh.
A loud laugh escaped me. “You will not be the size of a…whale,” I said, repeating the foreign word.
“And no matter how much your belly grows—” I bent enough to drop a kiss on her parted lips, ignoring my instinct to hide our intimate moment from the world.
“I will always carry you. Carry our children too, if needed. And all the little sculptures you love to make. I will carry it all for you, because every day you are happier is a day I love you more than the one before.”